Ellie Bamber on befriending Kate Moss, iconic fashion moments and new biopic ‘Moss & Freud’ …
Actress Ellie Bamber brings to life high-priestess of fashion Kate Moss in new biopic Moss & Freud (no pressure, then). “Immediately, I was like, this is mental,” Bamber says via Zoom. She is fresh-faced with just-washed hair and shares Moss’ elfin features. “[My first thought was] I’m such a lucky girl to be asked to play this role. But then obviously, the panic sets in and you’re like, ‘Whoa, okay’, this is someone who is also alive. And there is a lot of responsibility that comes with that,” she says.
Directed by James Lucas, the film is a fictionalised take on the relationship between Kate Moss and iconic artist Lucian Freud who painted the supermodel’s portrait in 2002. At the height of her fame, Moss sat for Freud three nights a week, from 7pm to 2am over a nine month period, during which she became pregnant with her daughter Lila Grace, fathered by Jefferson Hack. The nude painting of Moss, titled Naked Portrait 2002, went on to fetch £3.9 million at a Christie’s auction in February 2005.
Bamber and Moss connected via friends before working together on the film (on which Moss is an executive producer). “It was a really nice, organic way of meeting her properly to begin with,” Bamber says. There is a pause. “Yeah, it was kind of witchy in a way.”
Ellie Bamber starring as Kate Moss in ‘Moss & Freud’ which is released in Irish cinemas on May 29.
As well as exploring intergenerational friendships and the complicated relationship between artist and muse, the film is, naturally, self-referential to Moss’ status as a bona fide style icon. There are many fashion moments, including the Union Jack jacket that Moss wore in Paris for John Galliano’s spring 1993 collection, faux fur coats and pussy-bow blouses aplenty, as well as a healthy presence of vintage kimonos – a lot of pieces are originals, from Moss’ archives.
Did Bamber get to comb Moss’ wardrobe? She wishes. “I’d still love the chance to do that. That would be insane,” she says. She did get hands-on experience on how to replicate Moss’ coveted bedhead hairstyle. “So, I always get told that there’s this pinch that has to be done,” Bamber says, pinching the top of her fringe. “And [I was] always doing this,” she says, making a patting gesture on the crown of her head to muss up her locks.
And, while she didn’t get to keep the sequinned birthday dress Moss famously wore to her The Beautiful And The Damned-themed thirtieth birthday party, she was in awe. “I think that was one of the few things that I was like, ‘I wish I could run off with this.’” If dresses could talk … Read Bamber’s interview below.
Your Kate Moss accent is perfect. How did you perfect it?
It was one of the things that I was most aware of, I would say. I think it was really important to me to get her right vocally. I explored a lot with Louise Jones, who’s a dialect coach that I’ve worked with for many years. We explored how voices change through someone’s life as well. Obviously, there aren’t a load of videos of Kate, but you can see throughout her life, from when she was a teen to now, how much her voice has changed and in terms of cadence or tone.
What source material did you study for the role?
I think I’ve watched most of the videos that are on YouTube of Kate, over and over again. I worked with this amazing movement coach, Polly Bennett and we just combed through whatever footage we could find. There’s not many of them, but I read her interviews and then also like trying to suss things out in pictures as well. Obviously, that was one of the things that was most readily available, because she’s one of the most photographed women in the world, I imagine. I had the privilege of becoming close with one of Kate’s really close friends [celebrity hair stylist] James Brown [the film’s costume designer], who’s been her friend since she was 15, I think. It was really amazing to be able to discuss those things with him and for him to give his insight into her and her life.
Had you met Kate before making the film? How much time did you spend with her?
Before we’d been set up formally, we bumped into each other at a mutual friend’s party. I remember whispering to one of my friends, “By the way, I’m going to be playing Kate Moss, but, you know, don’t breathe a word.” And he was like, “Well, you’ll never guess who’s going to walk through the door in about 20 minutes.” It was kind of serendipitous that she just walked through the door like that. And then we kind of sat down with each other a few times and hung out a bit.
The film charts the relationship between Kate Moss and iconic artist Lucian Freud who, over the course of an intense nine month period, paints the supermodel’s portrait. Freud is played by British actor Derek Jacobi.
Did Kate impart any advice on how to play her?
Not directly. Through spending time with her and having conversations with her, I just got an idea, more and more, of who she was. I was trying not to study her the whole time, even though I was. I think seeing her cheeky humour and naughtiness was one of the things that really gave me free reign to be like, “Okay, I can relax into this and just have a lot of fun.” Kate is so free. She is also wonderful at telling stories. One of the things that really captured me was that, you know, on the first day that she came to set, it was incredible how many people accumulated in my dressing room because she just had these amazing stories that we were all just enraptured by. I think at one point, one of the ADs came in and had to tell us that we needed to start shooting.
Was there anything that surprised you about Kate?
Just how much of a confident decision maker she’s been throughout her life, even from the get go. She was thrown into the world at such a young age … to be so savvy when it comes to those things, it’s amazing to see. It’s really empowering to be able to play that, as well.
Let’s talk about the fashion in the film. Are the clothes a mix of archive pieces from Kate’s wardrobe and replica pieces?
A lot of stuff we were able to pull from Kate’s archive, but it’s a mix. The birthday dress is her original birthday dress that she wore for her The Beautiful and The Damned-themed thirtieth birthday party. The Union Jack jacket is Kate’s original piece but the skirt was a remake of the Galliano skirt. We used a Maison Margiela dress from a couple of seasons ago and there was a vintage Versace dress from the ’90s. A lot of the costumes were James pulling from vintage shops and finding things that he thought Kate would wear. We had a Nensi Dojaka dress for a modern element; James liked the idea of this brand being something Kate would champion now.
The film references a traumatic experience for Kate on the set of a Calvin Klein campaign early in her career. How do you feel about the film as a love letter to fashion that’s simultaneously aware of the industry’s flaws?
As an actor, I think that that’s something that I’m always interested in, with my characters, you know what I mean? Understanding their flaws. So I think to speak about flaws within an industry … it’s important that we see it as a whole, you know.
The film comments on the artist-muse relationship. What’s your experience of that been like?
I feel like you can be both things at once. Do you know what I mean? You can be a part of something while also being like a muse for someone. As a muse, you still have agency in order to be an artist yourself in those moments as well. I feel like I maybe have been lucky enough to be a muse before, but I also, you know, really see Kate as an artist.
Kate, who is notoriously private, is an executive producer on the film, so it’s been given her blessing. If there was a message about Kate that we were all to take from ‘Moss & Freud’, what would it be?
The lens that I saw it through – and I think maybe it comes from a place of being able to relate (I started in the industry maybe around the same time as Kate; I was 15) – is a journey of a woman within an artistic industry who is actually learning how to make these decisions and be, you know, the leader of her own story. So I see it as, like, a coming of age story about a woman who is in a really critical moment in her life. It’s also about how learning from an elder can really stand you in good stead for the rest of your career. I feel like I’ve had that experience working with someone like Derek Jacobi [who plays Lucian Freud] who was telling me these amazing stories about Laurence Olivier and the world of theatre. It’s also a story about motherhood and how Kate is such a wonderful mother to Lila Grace. That’s a really important narrative that threads through the film.
Lastly, did you get to keep any of the clothes?
Sadly, I didn’t get to keep Kate’s birthday dress! But I got to keep quite a few of James’ vintage finds; I got a pair of really amazing boots. There was also a latex dress that I wear when I’m on a Greta Garbo-inspired photo shoot, it was made by a cool UK designer called Bang London that was made for me.
‘Moss & Freud’ is released in Irish cinemas on May 29.
