All eyes may have been on the actors and actresses flocking to the red carpet at the 2019 Golden Globe Awards, but it was Fiji Water Girl Kelleth Cuthbert who stole the show as she attempted to keep Hollywood A-listers hydrated.
Donning a blue dress and a tray stocked with bottles of Fiji water, Cuthbert not so slyly appeared in dozens of photos of celebrities as they walked the red carpet Sunday night, seamlessly stealing all of the attention and becoming dubbed the “Fiji Water Girl” on social media, a phrase that quickly began to trend. Cuthbert, however, was unaware of her social media fame until hours later, though.
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“I had absolutely no idea what was happening because I obviously didn’t have my phone on me,” Cuthbert told PEOPLE. “I felt very cut off from everything. I didn’t find out until the last stragglers of the red carpet were heading into the awards ceremony, and all these people walking by started shoving their phones in my face and showing me that I was trending on Twitter, but I didn’t understand the magnitude of it till later.”
Her employer Fiji Water even took note of her stardom, taking to social media to jokingly describe her presence on the red carpet and her photobombing skills as “ominous.”
We’re so glad everyone is talking about our water!
— FIJI Water (@FIJIWater) January 7, 2019
*senses ominous presence*
She’s right behind us, isn’t she? #FIJIwatergirl
Cuthbert, who has been working in the modeling industry for 12 years, went on to explain that although she was unaware of her sudden social media fame, her modeling instincts took over while on the red carpet and her big moment at the Golden Globes came from “looking at the camera at the right time.”
“There’s tons of photographers everywhere. It doesn’t matter where you stand, you’re in the crossfire of every shot,” she exolaied. “You’ve gotta have good face, at least, if you’re gonna be hovering in the background frequently.”
“The photographers have to take so many shots, so rapidly,” she continued. “Obviously, your face doesn’t look perfectly pleasant in all of them, so they captured lots of expressions [where I’m] naturally making weird faces.”
While Cuthbert photobombed dozens of photos, including the likes of Judy Greer, Idris Elba, Eric Lange, and Tony Shalhoub, she had one picture in particular that was her favorite.
“I loved the Jim Carrey one,” she revealed. “I love his work. I grew up watching his movies and thought it was a funny thing to find myself in the background of.”
