They know 200 different ways to pick up a LEGO brick. They can method act with a Ferrero Rocher for hours. Their fingers are insured for seven-figure sums. Meet the unseen stars of the world’s biggest advertising campaigns.
Brooke Colman
Brooke’s grandfather Roy Wiffen worked as a props man for films and commercials, collaborating with the likes of director Ridley Scott. While everyone in her family said she had the perfect hands for playing the piano, he insisted she had the perfect hands for hand modelling.
“I’d been accepted into The Lee Strasberg institute in New York to train as an actor and needed to pay for my flight,” she says. “I found an agency online called Hired Hands and sent off some photos. I had a meeting with them on the Thursday, a casting on the Friday and was booked for my first job for the Monday. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t been doing this sooner.”
Brooke rarely mentions what she does but when people find out, their reactions are a mix of intrigue and amusement.
Once, six-metre-high replicas of her hands – moulded by the same people who made the Daleks in Doctor Who – were sent to seven countries around the world to promote the Nikon 1 camera. At its launch in London’s Covent Garden, a cherry picker elevated her so she could clean the lens of a camera held between giant replicas of her own hands.
But it’s not all absurd tasks for absurd amounts of money. People are constantly surprised at just how competitive this industry is, Brooke says, and building a reputation can play a huge role in securing a casting.
Although you hardly need a degree to do hand modelling, she adds, any photographer or director can tell the difference between a great hand model and a bad one.
“People assume it’s really glamorous being on shoots, but the reality is waiting around for days and spending long periods of time in positions that are incredibly painful… which often leads to many sessions with my osteopath.”
