Laetitia Casta's Center - Interviews: Elle Top Model n� 16

Interviews

Elle Top Model n� 16 - 2

LAETITIA CASTA: Meet the best French export since Brigitte Bardot

Like Bardot, Laetitia Casta has an insolent beauty with just a hint of childishness, and a feline charm that involuntarily draws the eye. Her persona conveys no sense of a prefabricated image, or of a dressed-up doll. On the contrary, much of her appeal lies in the very real, individual personality that she is able to project on the page. Meeting Laetitia for an interview requires focus: It would be easy to do nothing but look at her. We wanted, however, to find out more about this young model, who compelled British designer Vivienne Westwood to comment: "I don't believe in God, but when I see Laetitia, I might change my mind." And the renowned French photographer Dominique Issermann--another woman who is used to looking at models, and who doesn't frequently express undue enthusiasm--has called her "the most beautiful girls in the world." In the U.S., Laetitia is beginning to be spoken of as if she were a recent manifestation of the innovative French spirit that produced the high-speed TGV trains. Ever since she was featured in the now-famous Guess campaign, "the new Brigitte Bardot" has been racking up covers and contracts on both sides of the Atlantic. In the ballroom-size booking room of the Madison agency in Paris, V�ronique Tuil, the booking director, and Val�rie Sarfati, a booking agent, revealed some additional insights about their prot�g�e's evident assets: "Her freshness, her sensuality, and her figure are in sharp contrast to current standards," remarks Val�rie. "To find a successor to Stephanie Seymour for the Els�ve campaign, L'Or�al saw hundreds of girls. It took two years to find Laetitia!" The two women describe Laetitia as "a pearl"; a variety of which had all but vanished from fashion magazines when she began to model. Perhaps a reflection of economically gloomy times, magazine pages at that time were peopled with the pale, doleful-eyed waifs who had replaced the sexy stars of the '80s. That state of affairs, however, couldn't--and didn't--last forever. Women tend to want to see models that they can identify with as well as admire--a factor that the androgynous, asexual look of the grunge era took into little account. While Laetitia certainly fills these requirements, one of her strengths is that she doesn't fit fashion's standard physical categories. It's not customary in this profession to see five-foot-seven-inch top models, but, paradoxically, it's precisely the lack of a couple of inches that has helped Laetitia get ahead of her beautiful colleagues. This may seem strange, but it's not entirely surprising in a world where criteria for beauty are notoriously unstable. With her relatively small stature and feminine curves, Laetitia sometimes looks like a creature from another planet next to other tall, rake-thin models--but it's a look with enormous appeal. When Laetitia suddenly appears in the booking room, sliding on the parquet, bestowing kisses upon the small team of Madison agents, the smile on her face is like an intimation of happiness for those about to cross her path: She radiates cheerfulness. Before anything else, she first picks up her fan mail. Some overly insistant fans, she reports, propose immediate matrimony; others are more romantic and will suggest a glass of champagne; most often, the letters are purely curious, asking questions like "Do you make a lot of money?" or "Where do you live?" This kind of public attention has been a factor for almost four years now, so Laetitia knows how to insulate herself from the pressure. Her agency, Madison, also helps by acting as a second family who will take care of her and provide advice. Madison knows how important Laetitia's fame is for them, but they also know that the young model needs to be protected from the stress, fighting, and dangers of sudden limelight that have often destroyed promising talents. ( The film industry, for example, has been beckoning, but will have to wait a while. )

Laetitia has another guardian angel--her father--who watches over her, and his two other children with the tenderness and concern typical of a Corsican parent. He is proud of her success but always on guard on her behalf. "My father came with me to my first meeting at Madison," Laetitia explains, looking delicious in her black 501 jeans, a white Prada ribbon in her hair. "He trusted me, but, as he often tells me, he doesn't want anyone to hurt me. I always remember a beautiful thing that he once said to me: 'There isn't a minute in the day that I don't think of you, that I don't fear for you. I want you to be strong, because I won't always be there.'" After her discovery as a model at fifteen, Laetitia embarked on a new life, leaving behind everything that was familiar to her--bedroom, favorite teddy bears, her family, and classmates. "It's dangerous to start so early," she says. "I went away with people who I really did not know. I had to grow up fast. I had a credit card at fifteen." As a result, she says, she holds on tightly to her most precious possession--that part of childhood that lives deep in her heart and in her eyes. When she is bored and far from Paris--her favorite city in the world, where she would like, someday, to have "an all-white, minimal" studio--Laetitia calls her mother on the telephone to tell her how much she misses her. Or she leaves her hotel room, where she tends to feel confined, to talk to the night staff ( once falling asleep in the early hours of the morning alongside the switchboard operators ). Unpredictability is apparently a significant part of Laetitia's temperament. Her agency still tells the tale of how she showed up one day holding a duckling in her arms. Madison is a welcoming place, but the agency drew the line at playing farmer, and the bird was shipped off to Laetitia's grandmother. ( Laetitia also likes tarantulas and pigs, but hasn't, as yet, brought any along to work with her. ) For the TopModel interview, she insists on going to the nearby Parc Monceau, explaining that she's an outdoor girl who only feels truly comfortable in natural surroundings--the kind in which she plans to settle down one day with "a husband for life," a flock of children, and lots of animals. What about boys right now? "To me, the way someone talks, walks, or moves is what makes him handsome. I'd like to fall in love, but I'm in no hurry. It's better to wait than to waste time on relationships that have no future." Declaring herself definitively opposed to short-term relationships, she says that she takes things as they come, and states with quiet certainty, "In any case, I'll have my first baby before I'm twenty-five." There's something touching about Laetitia's pronouncement under the flowering chestnut trees in the park: It's the resolution of a young woman who has grown up too fast, but who nonetheless understands the value of things. It's revealing to hear what book this young globe-trotter carries with her as she moves between casting sessions, photo shoots, and fashion shows. Enfantines ( meaning "childlike" ) was written by Valery Larbaud, a great French writer who died in 1957--many years before Laetitia was born. Talking to the young model, however, it is clear that the Laetitia who has so enraptured the world of fashion and beauty could easily substitute for one of the author's fragile, delicate, and dangerously sensual heroines--for whom "the door to dreams is open day and night."