Welcome to Vanessa Paradis in Translation

1987

THE NEW QUEEN - Paris Match, FR

For a few weeks, there have been many serious people who see you as a phenomenon, and explain it away by saying that you are a new Lolita. What do you think about that?

Lolita? I don't understand. That's a girl who dresses like a woman, right? I'm not like that. I dress like girls my age.

Actually, a Lolita is a very young girl who fascinates men with her youth. A child-woman, if you will. You're a little like that, aren't you? You sing with a baby voice, and onstage, you move like a young woman...

When I am onstage, I sing for a public from 7 to 77 years of age. For the grandmothers, for the kids. I don't happen to think about the 40-year-old men who have a sick, twisted idea of me. That doesn't interest me.

Nevertheless, you play, or someone makes you play, the role of a very young teenager a little on the disturbing side. In your clothing, in your way of singing. In real life, you have a much less childish voice than when you sing.

I do only what I want to do. I wear clothing that I want to wear. No one can force me. Stop the presses, today you have a scoop -- it's the first time I wear a miniskirt!

You cannot say that your baby body is separate from your success.

But I'm not Sheila with ponytails. Poor Sheila. What a bad way to be remembered, ponytails and the rest. Me, I have jeans, lace dresses, sweat shirts. People can't lock me inside an image.

But you will grow, you will change, and a few years from now won't you resemble more the child-woman that's in fashion--

No!

I would really like you to explain this miracle.

I look young, that's for sure, but I don't have a gimmick, like pigtails. I haven't changed my personality since I started to sing. I am natural, not manufactured. I will remain like this. When one's manufactured, one's time is short.

But you won't be fourteen years old all your life!

I don't want to be an adult. I'd like to remain like this. As for my appearance, I can't do anything about that, I will change, sure, but I'd like to remain like this in my head.

Like this, how?

Having the desire to amuse myself, to push myself, to do as many things as possible.

You don't like adults?

On TV, I'm always surrounded by adults. Since I'm No. 1 on the Top 50, they don't know what to say, they treat me delicately. I could be schooled by a tutor, but I prefer to go back to school when it starts again. I prefer my life in two worlds at once. I need my buddies. I don't want to be just with adults.

To sum all it up, you don't want to grow up.

I don't know. I'd like all things to happen as they will, I don't wish anything, really. I can't do anything about what will happen. I live from day to day. I have projects but I prefer to live life as an adventure.

You don't think, all the same, that you're a little young at fourteen to face the world of showbiz?

It's true. Showbiz is full of shrewd, corrupt people who think anything is allowed. For the moment I'm protected, I never deal with that. Obviously. When I'm 20 or 22 years old, it'll be necessary to explain to them that I'm not uptight.

You don't have a very normal life for a girl your age.

That's false. Moreover, it's my problem. The other day someone attacked me, a DJ, I believe, who said that if she were my mother, she wouldn't let me go onstage and show my legs. I wanted to tell her: "You sad woman, look in the mirror, and mind your own business!" I make myself happy however I want. I hate people who want to rub salt in my wounds.

What wound?

I'm fragile, at my age. Happily, I am surrounded by people who let things unfold normally. In any event, I've always wanted to sing. That was known ahead of time.

Who knew it ahead of time?

I don't know, for me that's too long ago! When I was little, three or four years old, I was in front of the television, for example. As soon as I saw a singer, I started to sing, to dance. Everyone knew it, in my family. I've always lived in a slightly artistic environment. My uncle is an actor. One day he had me meet a songwriter. Franck Langolff. He didn't have the idea to make me sing, at that moment, but it came to pass.

And your parents let you do it?

They knew it was what I wanted to do. They didn't oppose me. I have a very good relationship with them, they are pals rather than parents.

So it all fell in your lap, to sum it all up...

No. I'm not a spoiled brat. The money I make is blocked in an account that I'll be able to use when I'm 18. Moreover, my parents never gave me useless things. When they gave me things, I'd deserved them.

But at the moment, perhaps this is not very good for a girl of your age, all the people you deal with, the easy money?

What are you thinking, showbiz is not easy! You work when you record, it doesn't do it by itself. You spend the whole night, every night! During all of August, instead of going on vacation, I worked like crazy!

So you feel a little exploited, perhaps?

That's impossible. There are always people around me. I live in the showbiz world surrounded by a bubble that no one will be able to burst.

There, you have high hopes. It will surely end up bursting.

No, I will always have it.

You sure?

Yes. At first, I continued to go to public school. Public, you hear me? That way I see all kinds of people, of all categories. At the beginning, obviously, it was hard, people looked at me weird.

And now?

Now it's finished, and I have tons of friends. But I never hated returning to school as much as I do now. I will at least get my degree, but it's a little irritating to start again, after everything I've lived during the summer.

And the teachers? They are not a little aggravated, a little aggressive concerning you?

You know, the teachers, they don't listen to the Top 50. They only listen to classical music, they were not well-informed. It's the headmaster who told

them beforehand. He explained everything. They were pretty calm, I must say. They stayed natural.

Do you have the impression of representing your generation?

It's impossible to define my generation. There are tons of groups, tons of tastes. Even between my friends.

Apparently, people your age have something in common: they like what you sing, since they buy your CD.

Perhaps girls identify with me. But they can also identify with Elsa, Zaki, Charlotte Gainsbourg. Young people identify with whom they can.

And if you don't go any further?

It'll be said that Vanessa Paradis left her mark! The 2nd CD, maybe, will do less great, but it's with the 3rd, the 4th that one will see what I want. I'm crossing my fingers!

It surprises me that the film industry is not tempted by your pretty little face... to make you a kind of French Lolita, for example.

You won't find out anything.

What prevents you from speaking about it? The role? Who wants you to do what?

Since you all want to know, I will tell you that in any event, I won't make a point of being nude in front of the cameras! As for the rest, the plot's a secret. And really, it's the plot that counts. You don't seem to believe me, but it's me who decides!

All things considered, you're a child when it's in your favor, and you're a woman when you like?

Yes, it's a little like that. Well then?

Vanessa Paradis in Translation's original content is copyrighted 2003-2007 to Maria, Donna, Becka and Becca. HTML and graphic design is copyright 2003-2007 by Maria, Laura and Becca. This fansite has no official affiliation with Vanessa Paradis, her family or management. No copyright infringement is intended: images, articles and all other medias are used without permission and are copyright of their respective owners.
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