The Autumn Issue
How many adults does it take to make a phone call from Malibu to Paris? In my case one journalist (me), one French supermodel/actress (Laetitia Casta), one editorial assistant and a plethora of publicists — and it still took us nine tries over two days. You’d think we were trying to link the hinterland of Greenland to the Australian Outback. My first attempt was obviously the wrong number, though I couldn’t quite understand what the surly French gentleman on the other end was saying. After he hung up on me the second time, I figured he wasn’t saying, “Call back in a few minutes.” I knew I should have paid more attention in French class.
After finally connecting on day two with publicist intervention, a few minutes into our conversation the phone line went dead again. “D#$%!” I swore into the publicist’s ear. She wasn’t very happy with that. When Casta’s voice finally returned on the other end of the phone, the first thing she said was, “What? You didn’t like my answer, so you hung up on me?” I never knew what a sucker I was for accents until I spoke with Casta. She naturally exudes womanly charm, even over the phone, 5,661 miles apart. I was warned before we spoke that her English wasn’t very good. You already know my French is terrible. I am here to tell you she speaks English wonderfully, nuanced and all.
Casta, now 33 years old, was first discovered on the beach in Corsica by a photographer when she was 15 and vacationing with her family. Her official website at laetitia-casta.fr has a very funny animated cartoon that replays this discovery. She instantly catapulted to the top, while going to school during the week and working photo shoots on the weekend. French fashion icon Jean Paul Gaultier soon asked her to walk the runway, as did Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Vivienne Westwood and Lolita Lempicka. She became one of the most sought-after faces in the business and ever since has been able to sustain her reputation as a world-renowned beauty, gracing hundreds of covers and countless pages of top fashion magazines, with particularly heavy attention focused on her several Sports Illustrated swimsuit issues and Victoria’s Secret catalogs. We also can’t forget her more than 50 global advertising campaigns for the likes of Chanel, Givenchy, L’Oreal, Dior, Guess, Yves Saint Laurent and Bulgari. Currently, she is the face of the Ralph Lauren fragrance Notorious.
Modeling, she says, gave her an outlet to expand horizons she never knew existed, and her transition into the world of acting is less a leap than a progression. To her, it is like a continuation of the image on the page spilling over into a story on film. Her latest work, Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life, chronicles the life of Serge Gainsbourg, a legendary French musician, actor, poet and provocateur whose influence crossed the global music sphere. He also attracted his share of glorious women, including Brigitte Bardot, whom Casta plays in the film. (Bardot and Casta were also both chosen during different decades to be the model for a bust of Marianne, the national symbol of the French Republic that is displayed in French city halls.) “Serge was a visionary man,” Casta said. “For French people, Serge Gainsbourg is part of our culture. And now he is more accessible for everyone to understand.”
When you were first discovered, was it frightening or exciting to you? Did you understand how your life would change?
I didn’t think my life was going to change, because I didn’t know what was to come. I was not considering it like a job. I thought it was fun! It was a diversion. I was going to school, and on the weekend I was doing pictures, and it was like a kid who is going to the cinema — something fun!
When did it move from weekends to full time?
Little by little, people in the business started to know that I was in school and that they could not get me easily, so I became more exciting, I guess. More and more requests came until it became a full-time job. I did have a lot of fun, because for me it was a way to express myself more than anything. In that way, it changed my life and became a full-time job in a natural way.
Before you began modeling did you want to be in this business? Had you given it any thought?
I think I did have a sort of sensibility in this direction, but I didn’t know what it was exactly. Some kids already know they want to be a pianist or a writer or something else so that they can express their sensibility. I did have all that emotion inside me, but I didn’t know what it was. When I started to be in front of the camera as a model, I realized that I felt much better. I could express something different, and I was somebody else, and my imagination started to get nourished. It is like when you give food to a wild animal that is hungry, you know, they become nourished.
It is interesting that with all of these programs uncovering the world of modeling, exposing the dark secrets of the business, that your perspective is much different and that you enjoy it very much. This is not expressed very often.
Yes. For me that is what it was. The first person who asked me to walk in a fashion show was Jean Paul Gaultier. Can you imagine that in your life and place? He is an artist with imagination and ideas, and he asked me to walk for him, and we spoke about so many things. It was such an interesting meeting. I have met incredible photographers; I met Yves Saint Laurent — my life when I started working was much more interesting than my life before! Suddenly, I was surrounded by cinema, books, wonderful clothes and interesting people. It wasn’t superficial at all.
How old were you when you first walked for Jean Paul Gaultier?
I was 15 years old!
Did you understand the scope and importance of what that meant at that time?
No, I did not. It was much better like that. I appreciated everything about it much more.
Looking back today, if you were to do it all over again, would you make that same decision?
Well, I didn’t make the decision to do it. It was my destiny. I hear sometimes now from people, “Ahh! I want a normal life. I just want to walk on the street and be like everyone else.” Well, I don’t think I ever wanted to be like everyone anyway (she laughs). But it is true! Every kid is trying to do his best to be different anyway. I don’t think I would change anything. It is my life now, and it is who I am now, so it will be too much work to redo everything again.
What have you learned from this business with regard to “beauty,” and do you think modeling is only about beauty or about something more?
Beauty is something you don’t control. It is not something you see yourself. The beauty is inside the person looking at you. You can’t control how people look at you. I don’t think my life is limited to only being a model. My life is about how to be a woman, because this is the beauty of it to me. If I define myself only as a model that is like suddenly only using one part of my head.
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