The girl in a gilded cage
BYLINE: Nui Te Koha
EDITION: 1
SECTION: Magazine

'If I suck, everybody is going to leave the theatre' VANESSA Paradis can attest to the pinnacles and troughs of celebrity.

For this latest visit to the United States -- to lay tracks for a new album -- she's called on the same paparazzi-dodging tricks she's used since fame was thrust on her 14 years ago.

These days, however, there's extra heat in the form of Paradis's partner, bad boy actor Johnny Depp, who last year fathered a baby girl, Lily-Rose Melody, with the actress-turned-model-turned-singer-turned-actress again. Paradis has recently revealed she is having a second child with Depp.

Paradis keeps it simple -- and secure. Holed up in a lavish hotel suite on the Sunset Strip, she's checked in as Madame Nelson, dresses down to avoid drawing attention to herself (a gutsy move in Los Angeles) and she keeps a publicist within hearing distance to swat away unwelcome subjects -- primarily her relationship with Depp.

Because of Depp's newfound dislike of LA and its celebrity culture,the family spends most of their time in Paris.

``We have a good life there,'' Paradis says. ``You make preparations to go out, or avoid being seen, but you have more freedom to live your life."

``And we are good for each other. I'm not sure we inspire each other for our work, but we help each other, and that's important. We are best friends, and you're never going to leave your best friend, are you? You're never going to let your best friend down.''

The birth of her daughter has changed the landscape considerably, especially in the way she and Depp prioritise.

``Life was born when she came into our lives,'' Paradis says. ``Real life. I can't come up with a poetic phrase like `ray of light', but it's the best thing in the world. It's amazing how much love it gives you -- and that you give."

``You have to be less selfish because this person needs you so much and counts on you. But it's not painful to put yourself on the side. This little angel shows up and a simple look can erase bad sensations, any bad moods or problems.''

WHILE she speaks fondly of family, Paradis says she and Depp ``leave each other a lot of space. And we are very respectful of each other''.

``I love my life,'' Paradis grins, picking jellybeans from a large lolly-filled bowl. ``I can't believe my life.''

Neither can an army of detractors who, during Paradis's teen pop phase -- which delivered an infectious but ultimately annoying European smash called Joe Le Taxi -- launched an all-out character assassination of a bubbly, wide-eyed, 13-year-old.

``Everybody hated my guts," Paradis says. ``People started to react in a really mean way, and it was really disproportionate to what I was, and what I was doing -- this teenage girl singing this cute little song."

``But I'm actually thankful for those horrible three years, although it was a nasty time.''

Paradis had the last laugh, however. And she continues to. Her profile,loved or loathed -- it didn't matter --landed Paradis a lucrative modeling contract with Chanel, as the face of its perfume, Coco, in 1991. For the campaign, Paradis appeared, famously, as a bird in a gilded cage.

Paradis also recorded an album with the late Serge Gainsbourg, and by 1992, Lenny Kravitz -- then still in 1960s flashback mode -- was moulding a retro rock record for the chanteuse.

``It's weird, sometimes, when I think about it,'' she says. ``Maybe I don't deserve everything that has happened to me, because such amazing people have had an interest in me, shared their work with me, and created things with me."

``I think: `Why?' There must be a reason for it. I must have talent somewhere, but I do think I'm one of the luckiest people in the world. There is something in me that people like. Some other people hate it."

``Whatever. It's luck, life and grabbing your destiny. I believe luck passes in front of you. If you don't catch it, it'll just go by. I think I've been able to push aside the crap and grab the good things.''

The Chanel period, Paradis says, was ``advertising, basically''. But it was also the pay-off for her hell ride in Joe Le Taxi.

``You are talking about selling things. That is a total image thing -- how I looked, what I represented, and how many records I sold. So what you're really saying is, `If you bought the record, maybe you'll buy the perfume'.

``The reason I did it was because they gave me a lot of money. It's as simple as that. The rest of it is much more complicated."

``Why did Serge Gainsbourg write an album for me? Why did Lenny Kravitz want to work with me? I don't know what it is. It has to do with what I do -- and what I don't do.''

These days, Paradis does movies. She's turned to film, with varying degrees of success, to escape the pressures of her music career, but only started hitting form with her second effort Elisa (1995) opposite Gerard Depardieu.

``I was constantly surprised by the force which she gave off,'' Depardieu said. ``She has all it takes to be a great actress.''

Depardieu's assessment may have been realised in Paradis's latest film, The Girl on a Bridge, in which she plays a luckless woman who is taken under the wing of a circus knife thrower (Daniel Auteil). Paradis carries the film with passion and nerve in a story of changing fortunes and soul mates.

THE Girl on a Bridge opens with a six-minute monologue in which Paradis runs a gamut of emotions -- all with understated cool, and a tear on cue. ``Eight pages of text,'' Paradis groans about the scene. ``I was terrified: If I suck, everybody is going to leave the theatre.''

She begged director Patrice LeConte to cut the scene. He told her no, and to learn her lines. ``It became my problem,'' Paradis says. ``I had to make it that nobody is bored, and I'm not overacting.''

Acting, Paradis says, presents enjoyable challenges. ``To be as natural as you can be, so you don't look like you're acting, but at the same time, trying to be somebody else while maintaining a hint of yourself . . . it's a difficult thing."

``This is what I want to do. I don't believe movies are made so you can watch yourself on the screen. That's not what it's for.''

Her latest venture is a return to music. ``I was tired of the music business when I quit eight years ago,'' Paradis says. ``I had gone from a 14-year-old mad girl to a mad woman.''

The Kravitz sessions, she remembers, were rough. ``It was hard, hard work. I was learning English, I was working with an American producer and an American engineer in New York, far from my roots.''

This time, Paradis is in charge. She's writing and producing in LA. ``My heart is in it, so it's time,'' she says. ``The general taste would be pop rock. That's a pretty basic description, I know. Pop rock could be everything and nothing."

``It's hard for me to speak about it yet because it's inside me, and I'm unsure of where it's going.'' She giggles: ``Just like me, really."

The Girl On A Bridge opens in Brisbane on Thursday.