A Rose By any Other Name

The girl you think you know is not who she seems. Presenting the enigmatic Lily-Rose Depp, the girl you want to know.

- Lina Esa

In the age of the It-girl, all you need to do is look at Lily-Rose Melody Depp. With her French-Hollywood heritage, you’ll know there’s no one more deserving of that status. Not a wild child or a rebel, she was also never pressured by mum, French singer Vanessa Paradis and Hollywood bad boy dad Johnny Depp to be in the limelight. In the news, she is also unfazed by the attention fame has brought her — and as you’ll also discover, she’s a homebody. “Very early on, I had to learn to live in the public eye ... People have the impression they know who I am. But no. I am someone very secretive, very discreet.”

Following in her mum’s footsteps (Vanessa fronted the campaign for Coco Chanel in the early ’90s), Lily-Rose is also now the face for the new Chanel N°5 L’Eau. You probably couldn’t write a more perfect story — how apt is it that a name as fragrant as Lily-Rose Melody Depp is now associated with an iconic perfume? In the campaign film, we saw her depicted as an enigma, with flashes of “duality”. The tagline? “You know me and you don’t.”

In her first movie, Tusk, she acted alongside real-life best friend, Harley Quinn Smith (who is the daughter of Kevin Smith, the movie’s director), and then again in its spin-off, Yoga Hosers. In a more recent release, La Danseuse (The Dancer) we saw the French-born star speaking the language flawlessly. When asked about her choice of acting roles, she was pragmatic. “I’m taking things slowly, step by step ... Nothing falls from heaven, no matter what people might think.” As a sign of things to come, she reveals her fearless ambition, how she calls out her social media persona, and whether she can sing like her famous mum ...

What did you dream about when you were a “littler girl”, if we can put it that way?