We talk to Alma Jodorowsky about Marcel Carné and karaoke to find out more about one of our favourite new starlets
Model and actress Alma Jodorowsky is someone that we've been keeping an eye on. After her role as Béatrice in Blue is the Warmest Colour, where she acted alongside Léa Seydoux, she has just finished filming Kids in Love with Cara Delevigne and been named as the face of Lancôme (beauty partner of the BAFTAs). Hailing from an impressively cinematic lineage – cult surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky is her grandfather and actor Brontis Jodorowsky is her father – we're expecting big things, so we thought it was the ideal time to get to know her.
On living as someone else…
"I'd love to be David Bowie for a day. My dad is a big fan so, growing up, I always heard his songs at home and – as a lot of people are – I’m fascinated by the characters that he plays. Sometimes you get people who have good shows and a great image but bad music, but he succeeds in everything that he does!"
On her handbag...
"I like to carry as little with me as possible; keys, my wallet, homeoplasmine lip balm from the pharmacy and, of course, my Lancôme lipstick; the L'Absolu Velours Lip Colour is great. I always like to have a book in my handbag, because when I have time between meetings, I don't like to just sit by myself in a café. So, I have a friend with me! At the moment, I'm reading Marlon Brando's autobiography because I was doing a drama workshop last month and the teacher was talking about it all the time. Before that, I read Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. I love it, I love him, everything I read from him is amazing."
On acting…
"If I could have acted in any film, it would be Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai. I love Rita Hayworth as a beautiful woman who embodies both dangerous and vicious characteristics; I find the combination and paradox of beauty and vice very interesting."
On her dream dinner party…
"My dream dinner party guest would be Elizabeth Taylor, because she's a very powerful woman with a strong physical aspect but also such an interesting character and selection of roles; I love her in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. And then, Gena Rowland for the same reasons. Me, Gena, Bowie and Elizabeth... It'd be a really mad table."
On old movies…
"Both of my parents are real cinephiles, so I was lucky enough to be introduced to good movies and ones from the 40s and 50s when I was really young. The saddest moment I’ve ever seen is in Marcel Carné’s film Les Enfants de Paradis. There is a scene where Arletty is coming back to see Baptiste, the man that she loves, after she hasn’t seen him for four years. She doesn’t want him to know that she’s watching him on stage, so she’s hiding, wearing a veil. But his new wife Nathalie sees her and tells her little boy to go and tell Arletty that she and Baptiste are very happy together and she should leave them alone. It’s so sad but so beautiful."
On karaoke…
"I love to do Destiny’s Child and Jennifer Lopez at karaoke. The first time I did it was only a few months ago, drunk with my girlfriend in Pigalle, and the song that I wanted to sing was System of a Down’s Toxicity. It was a real disaster, but I was so into it. Thankfully, there were only two other people in the bar…"
On the Velvet Underground…
"I love the Velvet Underground’s album cover with the banana. I know that’s not very original, but it’s always intrigued me; back when I was a kid, I remember seeing it in record shops and it’s what drew me to listen to them. They’re one of my favourites; I love that they have a really dark vibe but with mixed musical influences. When I was 18, I got ‘I’ll be your mirror’ tattooed onto my side with an ex boyfriend!"
