Lily-Rose Depp
Although she didn’t dance as a child, it didn’t take long for 16-year-old Lily-Rose Depp to learn the moves for her role as the renowned modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan in "La Danseuse," which premiered on Friday night in the Un Certain Regard category at the Cannes Film Festival. As part of her audition, director Stephanie Di Giusto left Depp with a choreographer for an hour to learn a dance routine. By the time Di Giusto came back, Depp nailed the routine and landed the part. “It was important to Stephanie that I could move my body in a kind of abandonment,” begins Depp, “we showed her what we’d done, and I guess she liked it!” La Danseuse is based on the story of Loie Fuller (Soko), one of the pioneers of the modern dance movement, and her heated, manipulative, relationship with Duncan, which eventually led to Fuller’s downfall. The film also stars Gaspard Ulliel as one of Fuller’s financial supporters, and Melanie Thierry as her producer. Depp first got wind of the role through Soko, who was a friend prior to shooting, and says one of their most memorable bonding experiences was when they were shooting in a castle and they had to cling to hot water bottles to keep warm. For the film’s premiere, Depp wore Chanel, a deep-rooted relationship which began when she met Lagerfeld when she was eight years old with her mother Vanessa Paradis, and father Johnny Depp. “I looked through all the Chanel shows,” explains Depp as to what led to the final sartorial decision of the night. “I picked a dress that Karl had paired with a little white t-shirt. I loved the armlets, I felt it was Cleopatra-esque.”
Photo by Victoria Stevens. Photo Editor: Biel Parklee. Text: Gillian Sagansky.