For wondering fans, Lily-Rose Depp’s ultra-famous pop star Jocelyn in Max’s new series “The Idol” is “very different” from Depp’s own life.
Though Depp grew up the child of actor Johnny Depp and his former model partner Vanessa Paradis, she told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Friday that her parents tried to give her a “‘normal’ childhood.”
“The backstory that we thought about a lot for Jocelyn is that she’s somebody who’s been working basically since she could talk,” the 23-year-old model and actress said. “She was a child actress, she had a mother who was really pushy in that way and really kind of bred her to be this trained performer, and that was her upbringing. That was certainly not mine.”
“My parents definitely did their best to give my brother and I the most ‘normal’ childhood that we could have,” Depp continued. “Obviously, still not totally normal, but a sense of normalcy at least, and a sense of childhood and freedom and play and everything. So our childhoods are quite different.”
In “The Idol,” Depp plays a young singer engulfed in the pressures of fame and facing a public scandal shortly after the death of her mother. The show was created by real-life pop star Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye and “Euphoria” creator Sam Levinson.
“Of course, experiencing this industry from a young age, there’s obviously pieces of that that help me understand maybe Jocelyn’s perspective a little bit better, but still, definitely coming from different places,” she said.
Depp has worked as a model and actress for several years, serving as a brand ambassador for Chanel and starring in films including “The Dancer” (2016) and “Planetarium.”
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Depp also said she likes the fact that her character doesn’t see herself as “relatable.”
“There’s something that my character says in one of the trailers, and you haven’t seen this episode yet, but she says, ‘There’s nothing about me that’s relatable,'” Depp said, praising her character’s “self-awareness.”
“Her life does not resemble a lot of people’s lives, and she is in a very particular position. The fact that she doesn’t shy away from that says a lot about who she is as a person,” Depp said. “I do feel like we are in a lot of ways in a culture of relatability, where it’s like there’s always a real sense of trying to be relatable in celebrity culture, and I don’t think that Jocelyn plays into that.”
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The Idol’s first episode of “The Idol” was released on Max on June 4; future episodes will stream on Sundays at 9 p.m.
