Lily Cole

Lily Cole is busy. Like, crazy busy. In addition to her day job modeling for some of the world’s most renowned fashion photographers (Steven Meisel, the late Irving Penn, Arthur Elgort, and Terry Richardson among them), the 21-year-old Brit studies art history at Cambridge; is several films into a promising acting career; and recently learned how to drive, American-style. In her latest film, THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, directed by the legendary Terry Gilliam (BRAZIL, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, THE FISHER KING, TWELVE MONKEYS), Cole stars opposite a handful of Hollywood’s biggest actors: Johnny Depp, Jude Law, Colin Farrell, Christopher Plummer, and Heath Ledger (in his final movie role). We spoke with Cole on a wide range of topics, including her wild costumes in PARNASSUS.

FULL FRONTAL FASHION: You were discovered as a model just walking through the streets of London’s Soho. Do you happen to remember what you were wearing on that fateful day?

Lily Cole: Oh, my gosh! I have no idea. I can’t remember for the life of me. Knowing me, probably it was something pretty casual. I was 14.

FFF: In your opinion, what is the most striking parallel between modeling and acting?

L.C.: They have their differences, which is why I’ve made that divergence. I’m really interested in acting, and I find it a lot more challenging, but there are also a lot of similarities. If you look at the world, and all the million kinds of jobs there are, modeling and acting are two that are quite similar and very different than, say, the automobile industry. [laughs] Or the pharmaceutical industry. They’re very high-profile; they both demand you to be confident.

FFF: People tend to think of modeling as a very static thing, because the final result is frozen, but the process of modeling well is actually very kinetic, because you’re basically acting at every shoot, playing the character the photographer wants.

L.C.: Yeah. There is an element of role-playing, of course. And good models are good at translating the photographer’s idea for the page through their body language and their facial expressions.

FFF: Over your entire modeling career so far, is there one outfit that just really stands out in your mind as being the most incredible?

L.C.: It’s tricky. I’ve worn so many things and so many beautiful outfits, it’s hard to remember. I did a[n Alexander] McQueen show once, and I wore this diamanté catsuit. From the tip of the toe to the heel to the tip of the fingers, it was all covered in diamantés.

FFF: Was it heavy?

L.C.: It wasn’t too heavy. It wasn’t too comfortable, but it wasn’t too heavy. But that was beautiful and special and weird and interesting and stands out for me. Some of the shoots I’ve done with [photographer] Tim Walker in India, where I wore these big crazy dresses in such obscure environments, kind of stand out for me, too.

FFF: Beyond the obvious—like working with Terry Gilliam, Heath Ledger, and Christopher Plummer—what drew you most to the role in THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS? What was it that made you want to put everything else aside and say, “I’m going to do this”?

L.C.: Predominantly the people, as you just named, the opportunity to work with such brilliant filmmakers. Terry’s such an interesting, visionary man. Just to work with him, I was ready to go on the ride. On top of that, the script and character were so interesting. The whole package was just sublime to me. I didn’t have any hesitation — I was just like, “All right, I’ll sell you my soul, I’ll give you what I can.”

(L) Lily Cole with (R) director Terry Gilliam

FFF: You have to pluck a chicken in one scene. Was it real?

L.C.: It was, unfortunately, and I’m a vegetarian. [laughs] I had to practice, so they gave me a rehearsal chicken where I had to learn how to defeather it and rip all the feathers out. [But] it was already pre-dead. It wasn’t killed for the movie, but yeah, it was a poor [real] dead chicken.

FFF: You’re currently still a student at Cambridge. What is your major, and how do you balance work and school?

L.C.: I’m studying history of art. I’m pretty much halfway through the [degree]. I juggle, and I reduce my workload down a ton when I’m at school in term time. I get four months off in the summer, where hopefully I can make a film or do something else interesting. And then I have one more year and I’m done.

FFF: You changed majors, right? Why the switch?

L.C.: A variety of reasons. I applied for social political science when I was maybe 16 or 17, before I’d finished my A-levels. It was an interesting thing to learn, and I wanted some awareness of it, but it was too heavy-going for me to want to commit three years to [laughs]. I just thought, “Why don’t I just change course and do something that I love that’s lighter?” So I decided to switch to history of art.

FFF: I also read that you are an artist yourself. What kind of stuff do you do?

L.C.: [laughs] Nothing amazing. I just like painting and drawing. I really don’t do enough of it, but I find it cathartic. It’s a great hobby.

FFF: What do you hope people will take from this film?

L.C.: That people allow themselves to let down their judgments and just be like children for two hours and go on this ride. And maybe even think about some of the ideas proposed in the film about dreaming, about imagination, about the plausibility of creating your own reality. These ideas are laced in extreme fantasy, but really are actually quite realistic concepts at the same time. Hopefully, [this movie] will get more people into the cinema than usually go to see Terry’s films, and hopefully they’ll see the light of his way [laughs].

FFF: Do you spend a lot of time in America?

L.C.: Half and half. Half in England for the degree, and half here. My boyfriend is an actor [Enrique Murciano of TV's Without a Trace], and I have a lot of work here. He lives in L.A., so I spend a lot of time there now, but I have a place in New York. I used to live here, pretty much.

FFF: What do you like best about New York?

L.C.: Just the energy. It’s constantly alive, and it’s constantly changing. It’s got such a diverse mixture of cultures and people, all jammed together in a condensed space. It’s quite an intense place.

FFF: And what do you like best about Los Angeles?

L.C.: I love L.A. I love the weather, the nature, hiking. It’s quite the opposite of New York in that you have so much privacy and space and solitude and silence. I passed my [driving] test this year. I’d never learned before. I learned in L.A., and I passed my test after two weeks [of learning how to drive]. I was terrified. I don’t know if I want to learn how to drive in England. Now when I’m on the left, I think I’m on the wrong side of the road. I like driving in L.A. — I just avoid the freeways.

FFF: Let’s go through some of the costumes from the film. Tell us about these looks:

L.C.: I love all these outfits. Maybe I’d describe this as being an Eve look. I think I had a G-string on under there. [laughs] But otherwise, it’s just a very long hair extension. I got sitting on nice, heated blankets, so I was gloriously warm.

After years of modeling and wearing fantastical, amazing, but clean-cut outfits, this look was my favorite. It was so much fun and so freeing, being in these dirty, raggedy clothes, all piled up on one another. To have all this makeup and dirt smeared across my face, and my hair unkempt. I really enjoyed that naughty freedom of playing the Gypsy character, the vagabond.

The red dress at the end of the film was very symbolic for Terry. It worked well for those dramatic scenes, where I was being thrown around and around. It was quite an interesting contrast between the images you’d seen of Valentina in the real world, this transition she’s made from a young Gypsy girl to an apparently elegant woman.

Here we’re doing the stage performances. We had very comical, self-made stage makeup and ridiculous costumes on. It’s just a funny contrast with the Gypsy girl [look], that she gets so ridiculously dressed up. It’s so old-fashioned.

Terry didn’t give me any specific directions [for the scene where she plays her own mother]. I just tried to embody a different woman. I tried to walk different, feel different, have a different mood. It wasn’t particular — I didn’t investigate who the mom was — but I was just trying to distinguish that character from Valentina.

This is the first scene. I’m wearing this bad, cottony white wig. I really like the outfit. It was cool. It’s a funny jumpsuit, and then I get to go and punch a guy. That was really fun.