Top Model's Yaya DaCosta Hits the Big Screen

Third season’s runner up, Yaya DaCosta will be co-starring in the upcoming film Take the Lead alongside Antonio Banderas. She told the Sun Sentinal that acting has always been her goal.

“When I was 11, I had taken classes and did some educational films. As far as my family was concerned, I’ve always been acting,” says the Brown University grad. “So I did that show kind of like taking a break from 30-page papers in school on midterm week. I was like, `Oh, that would be cute,’ but I didn’t really know what I was getting into. After that was over, it was over.”

She’s grateful for her experience, but was glad to learn from the Take the Lead filmmakers that she landed her role solely on her own merit, not the show. In the movie, she plays troubled high school student LaRhette, who raises her siblings while her mom works late and whose brother was killed by a fellow student. The bright spot in her life is afterschool detention, where ballroom dance instructor Pierre Dulaine introduces the students to the finer points of teamwork and terpsichore.

Although DaCosta’s upbringing isn’t like her character’s, she had no problem identifying with LaRhette’s circumstances.

“My parents are educators, I had both parents at home … so it was more secondhand information,” she says. “I’m from New York City, from Harlem, and my ‘hood isn’t one of the nicest in the city. My friends when I was younger had more in common with LaRhette than I did on that level, but it was right there. All I had to do was go to my block.”

Looking forward to seeing the film!

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