Why Sela From Voyagers Looks So Familiar
Yet another film that faced production delays due to COVID is due to premiere soon. The science fiction thriller Voyagers, written by Neil Burger (Diversion), is scheduled to be released on April 9, and its star-studded cast is generating plenty of buzz. Voyagers centers on a crew of astronauts who are bred and raised without parents or emotion. They're sent on a multi-generational mission in search of a new home planet, and they gradually descend into paranoia and madness, with no one being sure who can be trusted — or where the true danger lies. Featuring Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One), Colin Farrell (The Lobster), and Fionn Whitehead (Dunkirk), Voyagers is sure to be an action-packed thrill ride.
Another one of the leads in the film is Sela, who fans may recognize as Lily-Rose Depp, the daughter of Johnny Depp and French singer Vanessa Paradis. Lily-Rose has quite an impressive resume of her own — in fact, here's where else you may have seen the rising star.
Lily-Rose didn't originally want to be an actor
Growing up with two world-famous parents meant Lily-Rose was accustomed to the glamour (and realities) of Hollywood, though she didn't necessarily plan to start out as an actor. "I honestly never really thought about acting when I was a kid," she told W Magazine. "I mean I was always like a very performative kid and loved, like, playing dress up and being dramatic, I guess? [Laughs.] But I always thought I wanted to be a singer, actually — just because my mom's a singer, and so I thought I wanted to do that, too. Until I sang this French song in a school talent show when I was like 10 years old and it was probably the worst moment of my life. I remember just being up there and thinking 'God, I hate this so much! I'm having the worst time!'"
Lily-Rose started her career in the modeling world, taking after her mother and appearing on the cover of multiple magazines. In 2016 she became the face of Chanel's iconic fragrance Chanel No. 5 L'Eau, and she's continued to walk runways and model for major brands ever since. Her father expressed concern for his young daughter's catapult into the modeling world, but remained supportive. He told Gala magazine: "To be honest, I'm quite worried. I wasn't expecting all this to happen to Lily-Rose, especially not at this age. But it's her passion and she's having fun."
Lily-Rose's first projects were with a family friend
In her first acting gig, Lily-Rose got a small part in the indie horror flick, Tusk. Her friend Harley Quinn Smith, daughter of Kevin Smith (Clerks), appeared in the movie alongside her as her fictional best friend. While their parts were small, Smith liked the duo so much he created a spinoff with them as the leads, titled Yoga Hosers.
Lily-Rose's involvement in Smith's movies ultimately kicked off her love of acting. And in a conversation with The Face, she described the moment she discovered her love of acting, saying: "That's when I really realized 'wow, I love this.' You know when you just start doing something, you begin to feel like this is where you belong? I had never truly felt like I was in the right place before, career-wise. Now I know that this is what I want to do forever." As a result, she subsequently dropped out of high school, and at the age of 16, embarked on her acting career full-time.
Lily-Rose's films across the pond
Being fluent in French and English opened the doors for Lily-Rose to have a cross-cultural career. She starred in several French films at the start of her career, the first being 2016's historical drama The Dancer, based on the life of Loïe Fuller and her complicated relationship with her protégé Isadora Duncan (played by Depp). She earned her first award nominations for that role, both for Most Promising Actress. And in 2016, she was also in the French-Belgian drama Planetarium alongside Natalie Portman.
2018 saw Lily-Rose in two more French films: A Faithful Man as Ève and Savage as Laura. The former was a lot more critically successful, boasting an 81% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. In A Faithful Man, Lily-Rose channelled a young seductress who was also coming to terms with her sexuality. At one point in the film, she confronts her crush's current girlfriend, demanding that she give him over. Lily-Rose described how she got into character, telling The Face, "I was almost full Method that day. I was imagining the nerves that you'd be feeling in that situation, literally showing up at someone's work and telling them: 'Give me your man, or else I'll take him myself!'" The more mature role helped to show the range of Lily-Rose's talent.
A role fit for royalty in The King
In 2019, Lily-Rose starred in The King alongside Timothée Chalamet. She played Catherine of Valois, the wife of Chalamet's King Henry V of England. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight, Lily-Rose gushed about her time on set: "It was really, really incredible," she said. "I loved the research process and just delving into who Catherine is as a person. It can be intimidating to play a real-life person, but I think it just adds to the desire I had to do her justice and do as best a job I could. Everybody who worked on this project, whether it was in front of or behind the camera, was so impressive, and I was just so excited to be a small part of it."
Of her impressive performance, Owen Gleiberman of Variety wrote that "Lily Rose-Depp makes her presence felt, for perhaps the first time ever, as Catherine of Valois, whose delicate worldliness matches Henry's." That praise echoes Lily-Rose's real-life approach to acting — she wants to show that she's talented, and not simply getting jobs because of her family.
"I'm not going to say that it doesn't make it easier to get your name out there," she explained to W Magazine. "Obviously it does. But honestly, to me there's also something even a little bit harder about it, because the expectations are so insanely high. My parents are both incredible artists in their own right. So all I can do is try and be my own person and do my own work." And while the name Depp will forever be linked to her father's legacy, Lily-Rose is proving that she has impressive acting chops in her own right.