'Dirty Sexy Things' Perou interview: "I'm the guvnor"

Whether it's reality shows like the Next Top Model franchise or documentaries like The Model Agency, there is still a passion in TV land to get underneath the skin of the modelling industry. E4's Dirty Sexy Things is the latest show attempting to expose the reality behind the glitz and glamour of the industry, focusing on eight models being trained and mentored by photographer and industry expert Perou. The director, farmer and family man chatted to Digital Spy last week about his work on the show.

What was the response to the first episode like?
"Tremendously positive feedback actually. We're all really excited about it, because it's so real. It's not a nonsense. It's not a competition with wannabe models. This is real models on real shoots going about real business. This is for people who would genuinely like to see behind the scenes on a photoshoot."

So what we see on this show is an average day in your working life?
"Absolutely. I'm a successful working photographer and these are successful working models. Everyone asks me, 'what's it really like and what's really going on behind the scenes?'. People have an idea of what it's really like and they think it's really glamorous. But this show reveals the blood, sweat and tears and the less glamorous side of the industry. I'm really excited about it."

Why do you think people are so fascinated by the world of modelling?
"I think by it's nature it's a glamorous industry. It's the beautiful people. Models are rockstars that don't make music. And some of them even do make music, certainly one of the boys on our show does. It's one of those industries like movies and music, it's an aspirational place that people want to be. People want to make themselves more beautiful and some people already are beautiful. I guess people will be watching this show and thinking, 'I want to be this person and I want to see what their life is like'. Possibly by the end of it, they may change their mind and think, 'actually this industry looks pretty horrible and really hard work'."

How does your relationship with the models progress during the series?
"We clash. As a photographer, I'm the guvnor. Some people have said that I'm the daddy. All these models know what we are doing, but some of them have more issues than others. It is strange because it's not a model who should be telling a photographer what they should be doing. It should be the other way around. Ariella has very strong opinions about what she will and won't do, which is great, but it doesn't make her a very useful model."

How do you normally deal with the tantrums and diva-behaviour of models?
"In terms of musicians or artists, they are generators of content, so they are allowed to have an opinion more than a model, who is there as a tool to be used to achieve my ambition. So I don't really tolerate bad behaviour from models. If we weren't filming and trying to do something for television, a few of these models would have been fired off set and wouldn't have been allowed back at all. I don't normally have to do that with a model, because one of my assistants would normally say, 'we've had enough of you, goodbye'. In my 15-year career, I've never had to fire a model off a shoot. I've only ever worked with professional models. But there are moments in this show where this is less than perfect professionalism."

You made the model strip off in the first episode. What was the reasoning behind that?
"Firstly, they were not completely nude! I am not really particularly interested in what people look like in their underwear. It's irrelevant to me, people's fashions and people's clothes. They can get in the way of people. I'm not a fashion photographer and it's very interesting in the first episode, I asked all the models to wear pants and a vest. It wasn't skimpy, they are used to stripping to next to nothing on catwalk shows. I don't think it was a hard request. Yes, Ariella came out in a tracksuit bottom and dressing gown. I asked her why she'd done that and she lied and said, 'this is what they gave me'. It was the beginning of the end, Alex!"

Why do you think she lied to you like that?
"I think in retrospect, I know Ariella and I don't think it's weird that she did that. I know Ariella now and it becomes something of a theme throughout the series."

Dirty Sexy Things airs on Mondays at 10pm on E4.