This autumn, Aymeline Valade will make her acting debut in Bertrand Bonello’s YSL biopic, Saint Laurent.
After she had walked one of the Pre-Fall women’s looks as part of the Prada men’s show, i-D found her backstage and quizzed her about her new model/actress career and how you prepare for playing Betty Catroux, the legendary platinum-haired party girl and muse to Yves Saint Laurent.
How’s it going?
Good. We finished filming almost a month ago. 
Did you always act?
No, it’s my first role. They didn’t even prepare me in terms of training. They wanted to keep me very raw and the way I am, so they said, “If you want to do something to be ready for it, go out and have fun. Try to get the life of Betty.”
How did you go about it?
I would go out all the time and see my friends and party, and just try to be free in my mind and my body. I didn’t really know Betty as a person, I knew her as a character and as the muse of Yves Saint Laurent.
So they found you because you look like her?
Alors, if I remember the story correctly I was at a Chanel party and Amira Casar, who’s actually playing in it, saw me there and came up to me and we spoke for about fifteen minutes. I could see in her eyes that she had an idea in her head, but it was nice talking and I left the party.
What happened then?
A week later I got a call from my agency that this director would like to see me, but I didn’t think about the link. When I met him he said, “Amira told me a lot about you,” and then I knew what it was about.
Would you like to do more acting?
It would be a pleasure if somebody offered another role, but it’s not something I wish for in terms of running to every casting and trying to be the best.
What would your ideal role be?
If I could have another role? I think I would like to play a girl with two faces: someone who’s a kind of schizophrenic. That would be interesting. Somebody who’s very ****ed up in her head and especially someone who’s not beautiful. Someone where everything that’s interesting about her is inside of her. If the character can be ugly also that would be even funnier.
Could it be a reaction to your everyday job, by any chance?
Maybe!