Talks about Dazed and Confused, Resident Evil, and the coolest six-year-old she knows
At the eye of the style storm was Milla Jovovich, a face of Marant’s capsule collection, who sat calmly with a glass of champagne as a shopping mob formed outside. We spoke with her about Dazed and Confused, Resident Evil, and the coolest six-year-old she knows.
Why are you carrying a pile of clothes? Doesn’t H&M send you the whole collection?
They do, but I feel like I want it now, and I feel like if I don’t grab things here, everything’s gonna be gone. When I saw everyone lining up outside, I said, “My husband [director Paul W. Anderson] should come shoot this for the next Resident Evil movie, because this really is like a zombie attack! [She sticks her hands straight in front of her and adopts a glazed look.] “Uuuuuh! Must. Buy. Isabel. Marant. Me. Want. Isabel. Marant.” It’s gonna be crazy out here, like a football game.
But you have some dangerous shoes on. You can kick some ass in those.
I could kick anybody’s ass in these! They’re Isabel Marant for H&M too. They’re made of metal.
How did you and Isabel Marant first meet?
I actually starred in her first campaign about six years ago, and—[The crowd begins to raid the Isabel Marant section of H&M, nearly knocking us over.] — Oh. My. God.
We should move before someone tries to rip the Isabel Marant dress off your body…
Let’s just follow the security guys. [Yelling at the crowd] Hurry! Get it now! Okay… let’s walk over here. You can always count on me to find the one place in a room that’s chill.
Perfect. So how was shooting the campaign for this collection?
It was super fun. My daughter [Ever] was able to come with me because we were in Europe for the summer. And when we were there for the fitting, it was all super hush-hush. They were like, “You can’t take anything out of this room! You can’t take any pictures!” And then my daughter just walks in, and walks straight past all the kids’ clothes. She takes one look at them and she’s like, “No, I want the women’s stuff.” And she styled herself with the Isabel Marant fringe ankle boots, tights, one of the sweater dresses, the cardigan on top, and the giant scarf. She looked so amazing! And Isabel was like, “You know Milla, it’s really funny, your daughter does not want the kids’ clothes at all—she went straight to the women’s clothes!” And I was like, “Well, yeah, she knows what’s cool, Isabel.”
There are Internet rumblings that you’re coming out with a new album. Any chance you’ll have new music coming out this year?
Yes, I will! I’ve been talking to the producer of my record, and we’re trying to do some recording in December. I have a bunch of demos I’ve been working on that I haven’t released online. I’m used to releasing everything online, but this time, there’s some money invested in it and so I can’t give it out for free, I’ve gotta do it right. But for me, it’s been a problem because every time I say I’m gonna make music, that pretty much guarantees that I’ll get a big [modeling] job or a movie. So I’m like, “Yes, I’m doing music in November!” and then… too bad. So it’s great, but I’d like to release another record.
‘Dazed and Confused’ is still one of the best movies ever. Please tell me you kept some of the clothes you got to wear…
Oh my goodness! Well I have to say, I think when I had my line for Jovovich-Hawk, I think we stole some of those clothes, like the high-waisted jeans.
Your Target line was really cool, too.
Oh, when we launched that collection, that was kind of like the Isabel Marant football game, too! Girls were pulling stuff out of each other’s hands. And I still see a lot of girls wearing my Target dresses. I want to do our line again, it was so fun.
A lot of people would be excited…
I just think I wasn’t ready for success in that sense. I was really happy making dresses for my friends and actresses. When it was small, it was great, but as soon as we got big, I was like, “Ah! I don’t know what to do! We’re outsourcing! There’s taxes! There’s all this weird stuff!” And then I got pregnant and my patience level was zero at that point. So we got the last batch of samples back and there were no buttons because we didn’t do something right, and I was like, “It’s done, I’m over, I can’t do it!” But I’ll never say never, because I loved it, and I would love it again.