Lily-Rose Depp Grew Up To Be Gorgeous

Growing up with celebrity parents may have its benefits, like having a fast track to fame that many other individuals could never dream of. But the children of famous stars must also live with the pressure of having a noteworthy last name. While it's undeniable they are presented with numerous opportunities, they must constantly live up to society's standards. They are expected to deliver because of their famous upbringing, and one fall from grace is the subject of tabloid fodder. The children of Hollywood's A-listers that have followed in their parent's footsteps have had to work hard to be recognized for their talent — and not just their connections. 

No one knows it better than Lily-Rose Depp, daughter of famous actor Johnny Depp and his former partner, model Vanessa Paradis. The French-American actor grew up with stardom in her blood. She admitted to WWD Magazine that her earliest memories were wearing Chanel diapers and prancing around her mother's heels. With an Oscar-nominated father and a mother who graced hundreds of magazine covers, it's no wonder Lily-Rose would end up making a name for herself. She knew from a young age she wanted to be an actor, and she landed her first major role at just 15 years old. Lily-Rose has since gone on to appear in the 2019 Netflix film "The King" and the 2023 HBO series "The Idol" alongside Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye. While Lily-Rose Depp grew up to be drop-dead gorgeous, she's more than just a pretty face. We're taking a look at her road to being a Hollywood star.

Lily-Rose Depp's last name is one that carries its own legacy. Her father, Johnny Depp, is a critically-acclaimed actor who has been nominated for three Oscars over his lengthy career. Her mother, Vanessa Paradis, is a famous French singer, actor, and model. Paradis has not only been the face of several high-fashion campaigns but has her own esteemed acting reputation. The French star earned a César (the French version of an Oscar) for her role in her first film, "Noce Blanche," in 1989. Though they never married, Depp and Paradis met in 1998 and were together for over a decade before splitting in 2012. In addition to welcoming their daughter Lily-Rose in 1999, they share a son, Jack, who was born in 2002.

Despite her incredibly famous parents, Lily-Rose admitted to The Face that she's "just a normal person." As normal as one can consider a childhood playing Barbie with Marilyn Manson and joining in on dinners with the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. She grew up inspired by French films, idolizing the legendary Catherine Deneuve in musicals and films throughout her career. 

"The Idol" actor admitted to The Face that her unlikely upbringing taught her to value her privacy. "I've always been taught that privacy is something you should value and keep as much for yourself as possible," she said. "I don't talk about anything, because nothing is anybody's business. I don't talk about my family, I don't talk about my friends, I don't talk about what nail polish I have on my toes."

While still in high school, Lily-Rose Depp had her sights on the big screen. "The King" actor told The Face that she didn't feel a normal high school and college education was necessary to achieve her goals, and she decided to forge her own path. When Director Kevin Smith gave her a small part in the horror film "Tusk" in 2014, she wasn't expecting the movie to be the launching pad for her acting career. She was 14 at the time she acted in the indie project, and two years later she dropped out of high school to pursue a career in acting. 

"I think that the American school system puts a lot of pressure on kids, so if you don't go to college, then you won't be successful or you won't have a good life or you won't realize your dreams," Depp told The Face. "That's a really dangerous pressure to put on kids. And also a false one; there's no truth to that. Everybody has their own path. And, for some people, it's college. What's been important to me, always, but especially since I've left school, is to never stop learning."

Lily-Rose Depp's role in the 2014 film "Tusk" proved to be her golden ticket. Depp stumbled into the role after visiting the set to see her father and her friend Harley Quinn Smith, who were both starring in the film. After she was offered a cameo role in the film, she went on to reprise her convenience store clerk character in the 2016 film "Yoga Hosers" alongside her friend Harley Quinn Smith. Only this time, the actors played the lead characters. 

Though it was her first taste of acting, it paid off. She went on to land a role in the 2016 French film "The Dancer," as well as star alongside Natalie Portman in the French-Belgian movie "Planetarium" the same year. In 2019, she landed another major role in the Netflix film "The King." In the movie, Depp played Catherine of Valois, the future wife of former King of England Henry V, played by Timothée Chalamet. The "Tusk" actor was the first actor to audition for the role, and she blew away director David Michôd. "I was knocked over by just how poised and still and powerful she was," Michôd told Entertainment Tonight. "That is not just a testament to her talent, but also to [how] she's been around the circus for a while."

Depp's most recent project as of this writing is playing the character Jocelyn in the 2023 HBO series "The Idol." She takes on the role of a troubled pop star led astray by her boyfriend Tedros, played by Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye.

Growing up with a French mother, Lily-Rose Depp was raised with a different set of beauty standards. The actor was taught at a young age to embrace her body instead of being ashamed of it, something she carries with her when she takes on more provocative roles. Depp told The Face that as a child she remembers the criticism her mother faced for her high-fashion campaigns. Vanessa Paradis was the face of what was considered to be a provocative Chanel ad campaign in 1991 that featured her swinging in a birdcage. "People were truly horrible to her. It was a different time," Depp told the magazine. ​"Women weren't as celebrated for being comfortable in their sexuality. My mum is a trailblazer, truly. She's taught me a lot about self-confidence."

The influence of French culture in her upbringing also helped her take on more intimate scenes with ease. When asked about her semi-nude scene in the 2018 French film "A Faithful Man," she admitted she wasn't phased. "I don't know, I'm French," she told The Face. ​"I'm not nervous about stuff like that. I grew up being, like, topless on the beach. I was raised by a French mother who taught me that there was nothing shameful about your body." 

Despite her self-confidence, she still deals with insecurities. ​"A lot of times, how I feel about myself is heavily related to what I look like as a person. And I think that's not a healthy thing to focus on. As I've gotten older, I'm trying to focus more on who I am."

Growing up accompanying her parents to dinners with the late Karl Lagerfeld meant it was only fate that Lily-Rose fell in love with Chanel. The actor's earliest memories involve tagging along with her supermodel mother to fittings for the fashion house. "The first time I ever met Karl [Lagerfeld] was when I went up to the studio with my mum," she told Vogue Australia. "I was really little and I had been with my mum to have all her fittings, which was so exciting and magical, and she was trying on all the amazing dresses."

Depp's little girl fantasies became a reality when she followed in her mother's footsteps and became the face of a Chanel ad campaign for the perfume Chanel No. 5 L'eau in 2016. She was also the first to don Chanel Spring/summer 2020 off the runway for the premiere of "The King" in 2019. The honor doesn't go unnoticed by the actor, who told Vogue Hong Kong, "Chanel feels like a family in a way that no other working relationship ever has. I've known the whole team since I was little and to be able to work with them now is a huge point of pride for me."

But her father was protective over her work with the brand. After she walked in the fashion house's couture show in 2015, he told Gala Magazine (per The Telegraph), "To be honest, I'm quite worried. I wasn't expecting all this to happen to Lily-Rose, especially not at this age. But it's her passion and she's having fun."

Lily-Rose Depp landed more than a starring role in the 2019 film "The King." The actor also found herself a new love interest off-screen, as she went on to date her co-star Timothée Chalamet. The two crossed paths in 2018 while filming the Shakespearean-inspired film, but rumors of a budding romance sparked when they shared a kiss in the rain in 2018. While they went on to be spotted out together in Paris and making out on a yacht in Italy, they never publicly confirmed their romance. 

Chalamat battled backlash about their relationship, especially the PDA-packed yacht photos of the two intensely making out. He told GQ in 2020 "I was on this boat all day with someone I really loved, and closing my eyes, I was like, indisputably, 'That was great.' And then waking up to all these pictures, and feeling embarrassed, and looking like a real nob? All pale? And then people are like: This is a P.R. stunt. A P.R. stunt?! Do you think I'd want to look like that in front of all of you?!"

After a year of seeing each other, the two actors broke up in 2020 (although the pair allegedly briefly rekindled their romance in 2021). The Daily Mail shared snapshots of the former exes enjoying a walk together through SoHo fueling rumors that the two were back on. "The Idol" star has since moved on to date musician 070 Shake.

After her split with Timothée Chalamet, Lily-Rose Depp had a few rumored romances. In photos published by the Daily Mail, she was spotted making out with her former "Yoga Hosers" co-star Austin Butler after the two went out for dinner in London in August 2021. Their pairing was fleeting, however, as more PDA-packed photos surfaced a few months later of Depp with French rapper Yassine Stein. While "The King" actor is known to keep a low profile, she is rumored to have dated Stein for about a year starting in November 2021.

After things fizzled out with Stein, Depp got the internet buzzing yet again. A DeuxMoi Twitter post shared photos of the actor with musician O70 Shake, whose real name is Danielle Balbuena but refers to herself as Dani Moon. After first being spotted together in February 2023, the two artists have since been seen together posing in Instagram snaps, and they also spent Paris Fashion Week together. 

In a move that's typically unlike Depp, the actor shared a since-removed Instagram Story in May dedicated to her partner. "4 MONTHS W MY CRUSH," she wrote. In true Depp fashion (she's known for her PDA snaps) she shared a photo of herself making out with Moon. 

Being half French, Lily-Rose Depp has had a great deal of French influence that impacted her upbringing. She grew up splitting her time between the United States and Europe, and she doesn't feel wholly a part of one culture or the other. "It's hard to say because I identify with both cultures equally ... I don't know if I feel like I have different personalities," she told Interview Magazine. "But I think that I'm able to tap into a more American sense of humor than a French sense of humor, depending on where I'm at."

Depp is bilingual, and she revealed that she speaks only French when with her mother's family and only English with her father's side. The actor, who went to school in the United States, says she hopes to raise her kids bilingual as well. "When I have kids one day, I will definitely want them to speak both French and English," she revealed to Interview Magazine.

In an interview with Natalie Portman for CR Fashion Book, Depp admitted that she still has to work on her speaking style in French films, especially when she speaks completely in French. "When I talk fast in French I tend to stumble on my words a lot, so I have to work on that," she said. Depp, who is dating a musician who doesn't identify with gender labels, told Portman that she finds it hard to "sit down and point out all the things that I love about America."

Despite Lily-Rose Depp being born into a famous family, she hopes her reputation as an actor stands alone despite her parent's influence. Her father Johnny Depp was embroiled in a highly-publicized media defamation trial (that he later won) with his ex-wife Amber Heard, but Lily-Rose never made public comments about the situation. Speaking to Elle, she admitted, "I also think that I'm not here to answer for anybody, and I feel like for a lot of my career, people have really wanted to define me by the men in my life, whether that's my family members or my boyfriends, whatever," she said, adding, "And I'm really ready to be defined for the things that I put out there."

She went on to admit that her parents did the best they could to shield her and her brother Jack from the negative effects of the limelight during her childhood. It has since led to the actor maintaining a low profile, rarely commenting on her romantic relationships and keeping her personal life private. She wants to blaze her own trail, telling Elle that she went into her acting career with the mantra of "I am here to do my job, and what I really want to put out into the world is my work." She's certainly accomplished a lot in her near-decade-long career. Lily-Rose has gone on to receive two César nominations for her roles in the French films "A Faithful Man" and "The Dancer."

Lily-Rose Depp's lead role in the 2023 HBO series "The Idol" has everyone talking — but not for all the right reasons. Depp plays the pop-star character Jocelyn, as she gets wrapped up in a messy relationship with a club owner. The show sees Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye playing Tedros, Depp's onscreen love interest. The controversial series has had mixed reviews, with USA Today dubbing it "a hopeless try-hard, and worse, it's painfully dull."

The controversial series is directed by Sam Levinson, the man behind the hit-show "Euphoria." He's been the subject of backlash, however, as production sources told Rolling Stone that Levinson played up raunchy scenes and nudity. This change in direction came after Tesfaye, who co-created the show, felt the series was leaning too far into a "female perspective." The show was originally directed by Amy Seimetz, who quit the show mid-production after nearly completing the six-episode series.

Twitter lit up with mixed reviews following the June premiere. "100% watching the Idol and excited about it. Idk what on earth got the Twitter-sphere all up in a huff about Sam Levinson and I do not care," one user wrote. "LOL. How did The Idol make it to the airwaves? It's comically bad. Ejaculatory and vapid. They clearly think it's subversive but it isn't! It's boring! Lily-Rose Depp is interesting and it's a shame she wasn't given better material," another user tweeted.