Class Act

Fresh from filming with Mick Jagger, screen star and style pin-up ELIZABETH DEBICKI has bagged the Women In Film Max Mara Face of the Future Award for 2019. She talks scaring herself and red-carpet epiphanies with Grace O’Neill

- Grace O'Neill

NO!” EXCLAIMS ELIZABETH DEBICKI, offering a refreshing (and concise) response to my question of whether she grew up lusting after a high fashion. “My mother always had beautiful, refined style. She was a fan of a good silk scarf and had those key pieces — and my dad too — they both idolized quality. But I wore my fair share of Gap, Target and Kmart.”

Nevertheless, it’s hard to imagine Debicki ever went through a ‘bad taste’ phase. The daughter of two ballet dancers, the 28-year-old has a modelesque bearing — over six feet tall and born to wear beautiful clothing. When we speak, she has just left Bocconi University in Milan, where she sat front row at Max Mara’s A/W 2019 show wearing a printed silk shirt and high-waisted trousers. A few days later, she will appear in Armani Privé on the red carpet of the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. (Before you ask, yes, Debicki is used to Cate Blanchett comparisons.)

She makes it look natural now, but Debicki says embracing the red-carpet rigmarole was one of the challenges of her early career. From her breakthrough role as Jordan Baker in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 Great Gatsby remake to her roles in the Emmy-winning TV sensation The Night Manager, the superhero blockbuster Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and the Steve McQueen-directed thriller Widows, ironically it was coming to terms with playing herself on promotional tours that proved most difficult. “It all feels very removed from what we do as actors,” she laments. “Part of the job is to sell [the film] as yourself, which can feel exposing — but at the same time, it’s necessary. There was a conscious turning point when I realized, There’s no point in fighting this; it would be more useful and enjoyable to embrace it — and embrace my height. It was a really healthy moment for me to come to that epiphany.”