@Carl Morgan #Tokyo 1986 with Carl âď¸ CBS Special: American Models in Japan (1986) I remember standing at a payphone in Tokyo when my agent told me the news. âAn American film crew is coming today,â she said casually, like this happened every day. âTheyâre filming a special â American Models in Japan. They want to film you and do an interview.â âOh, okay,â I said. No problem. That was my standard response back then. I was young, fearless, and half pretending I understood what I was doing anyway. What I didnât know â what no one warned me about â was that I was walking straight into one of the most embarrassing fashion shows of my life. I was never a runway model. Not even close. I was a print girl, a personality, someone who connected through the camera â not someone bouncing down a catwalk in theatrical outfits. In twenty years, I only got accidentally thrown into fashion shows three times. Honestly, thatâs not bad odds. But this one? This one was unforgettable. The outfit was the silliest thing I had ever seen â loud, awkward, completely not me â and somehow there I was, bouncing around on stage in Tokyo with a beach ball while an American camera crew captured everything. I remember thinking, Of all days for them to show up⌠And Iâm pretty sure my Japanese boyfriend at the time â the one connected to the Yakuza world â was sitting somewhere in the audience watching the whole thing unfold. That thought alone makes me laugh now. After the show, I escaped backstage and threw on my leather jacket â my armor, my real self. Suddenly I felt like me again. They sat me down in a directorâs chair, cameras rolling. âWhat do you love about Japan?â they asked. Without thinking, I blurted out, âI rich, I rich. Tokyo make me rich.â I cringe just writing that now. They asked another question. I looked around and said, âEveryone has brown hair and brown eyes.â I was young. I was trying to explain how different I felt there â how visible I was â but the words came out wrong, innocent and awkward and completely unfiltered.