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Paradis on earth

Her looks are divine, she has the voice of an angel and she also shares her life with the love of her life, actor Johnny Depp. Despite all this domestic happiness, after seven years it started itching again for model, actress and singer Vanessa Paradis. Sheâ€™s back in the spotlights.

Lolitaâ€™s grow up too. In the case of Vanessa Paradis (34) itâ€™s a good thing. The child star that had a world hit at the age of 14 with Joe le Taxi, is nowadays a mother, muze and grown-up singer. With her new album Divinidylle the slim FranÃ§aise shows that she can do more than just being a pretty face next to her charismatic husband Johnny Depp. The disc is not only a beautiful dedication of love to her dream man Johnny, but itâ€™s also a huge comeback. In the chique Parisian hotel Pavillon de la Reine the slim beauty told Gala in an interview why she doesnâ€™t care about Hollywood or wedding bells.

What did you do the past seven years?
I gave myself a long time-out to do nothing else but being a mother. It was a beautiful experience, one of the most beautiful experiences in my life.

So your career was unimportant for a while?
Totally, and itâ€™s a huge luxury to be able to say that. So many people have to work hard to get everything come together. Johnny and I are in a luxe position when it comes to that. But I also needed time for myself. I wanted to fully enjoy my man and children, but also life.

That seems to be working. Your new album is called Divinidylle. And idyllic description of your own happy, fulfilled life?
Haha, no with the title Divinidylle I had a whole other idea. In French â€œidylleâ€ means the start of a relationship, when you have just met each other and everything is still unknown. It can become fantastic, but it can fail too. Everyone can hear something different in this album. Itâ€™s an idyllic, unknown country.

A song like â€œLes Pilesâ€ sounds totally Ã la Vanessa, very sweet & sexy.
It is a pleasure indeed to sing that song. I gave everything in it. But I made the whole album with a lot of pleasure. If felt very free on one hand, but on the other hand I also fought against my fears. I never found it easy to hear my own voice, how strange that might sound coming from a singer. But this time I tried not to think about it too much, and I mostly felt great during the production. And you can hear that!

All the songs on the album have this typical atmosphere of the French pop from the sixties and seventies. Are you a fan yourself of that period?
Very much so, and thatâ€™s probably why the songs are recorded like back then. We used lots of authentic instruments and we clapped a lot with our hands. You could say that it has become a very natural album, without all that mechanical that is usual nowadays. I prefer this, to me the album has class and style. I do love overproduced albums too. Nicely kitsch.

The album also has a personal touch. Is the song â€œJackadiâ€ about your son Jack?
Yes, thatâ€™s for my son. Just like â€œLa Ballade de Lily Roseâ€ on my last album for my daughter. Theyâ€™re private documents for my children. When they hear â€œtheirâ€ song somewhere in the upcoming 30 years again, they might think of a beautiful moment with me.

How come your man Johnny Depp canâ€™t be heard as songwriter or on the guitar this time?
It just didnâ€™t happen this time. Johnny has been incredibly busy working on movies. Nevertheless he had a huge influence on this album. Because he inspired me of course, and thereâ€™s also his influence and his help with good ideas. And he painted the cover, very important! Johnny made the painting for us, and not for an audience. But I immediately thought of my cover when I saw it. To me, itâ€™s the most beautiful cover I can imagine. It looks beautiful and mysterious, if feel like a second Mona Lisa.

Youâ€™re really working on a come back, because you also play one of the main characters in a new movie, â€œLa Clefâ€ (The Key, red.).
Thatâ€™s right. This movie will first only be released in France. Itâ€™s an amazing thriller, the final one in a trilogy of thrilling police movies, and Iâ€™m very proud I was part of that.

Why did you never play in Hollywood movies, like Johnny?
Because that doesnâ€™t mean anything to me. I mean, of course they make beautiful movies there, but thereâ€™s also a lot of crap. In my music and in my movies too, I want integrity: I only want to make things that I like, that I believe in. With good characters and a good director.

Your carefulness when you pick your movies, and your seven-year-time-out, does it have something to do with your stamp of being that French Lolita with that high voice?
People only knew me as that little doll with all that make-up and that mini skirt, that sang Joe le Taxi. After that I played in my first movie, Noce Blanche (White Wedding, red.) as a revolve teenager that starts an affair with her philosophy teacher. Yes, that set the tone.

But you also had benefit from that image, didnâ€™t you?
In the commercial for Coco by Chanel, I played a little bird of paradise in a huge iron cage. That was indeed a very well paid joke.

Final question, and an important one: are you and Johnny Depp getting married?
I donâ€™t know. At this point itâ€™s not an issue. We are as close as a couple can be and we have a very happy family. Weâ€™ve been together for almost 10 years now. When you have all the happiness in the world, then why all the wedding hoopla?