"I'd rather sing a good lyric written by someone else than one of my own that is terrible."
Vanessa Chantal Paradis (born December 22, 1972 in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés) is a French singer, actress and model.
She became a child star at the age of 14 with the smash hit success of her single "Joe le Taxi". Her acting career started in 1987, she won the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 1990, and she has been a prominent model for Chanel since 1991. About her singing career, she's made several successful collaborations with famous names of modern Chanson, from Serge Gainsbourg all the way to Benjamin Biolay.
On the gossip side, she's been in a five year relationship with Lenny Kravitz and in a famous fourteen year one with Johnny Depp, among others. She's the mother of Depp's two children, Lily-Rose and Jack John Christopher III.
Selected filmography:
- Noce Blanche (1989) as Mathilde Tessier
- Witch Way Love (1997) as Morgane Edramareck
- Girl on the Bridge (1999) as Adèle
- Lost in La Mancha (2002) as herself
- Atomik Circus: The Return of James Bataille (2004) as Concia
- Heartbreaker (2010) as Juliette Van Der Becq
- A Monster in Paris (2011) as Lucille (French and English versions)
- Fading Gigolo (2014) as Avigal
- Yoga Hosers (2016) as Ms. Maurice
- Knife and Heart (2018) as Anne
Tropes applying to her works:
- The Cast Showoff: Whenever she plays a character who has to sing, she sings the part, due to her primary career.
- Childish Tooth Gap: She famously has a gap between her upper front teeth. Several of her early roles thus qualify for the trope. Lucille (the character she voiced in A Monster in Paris) even has a small one.
- Cute Kitten: The music video for her song Maxou has a little kitten sneaking in her cabin and Vanessa ends up adopting it.
- What Could Have Been: She had a role alongside Johnny Depp in the original version of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote as Dulcinea del Toboso when it was filmed back in 1999, she can be seen in Lost in La Mancha. The Production Curse kicked in and doomed this version of the film, and the role was scrapped from the final script that resulted in the 2018 film.
