Camilla Belle - Alyssa Giacobbe

Belle
esprit
by alyssa giacobbe
photographs by jan welters
Talented young actress Camilla Belle is starring in a
megabudget movie that involves animal-skin skivvies. But she has even bigger plans.
A
At 21, Camilla Belle looks like a grown-up, dressed in a sleeveless
gray sweater, jeans, black patent-leather boots, and the many rings
and bracelets of a fledgling bohemian. You can tell she’s too mature to
get wasted on tequila shots and flip off paparazzi, or to spout provocations to a journalist just to get a reaction. But adult as she may seem,
right now all the girl in her wants to do is talk about puppies.
“Her name is Evolet,” she says. She’s referring to the miniature
pinscher she and her parents, with whom she lives, got just after
Christmas. The name was taken from her character in 10,000 B.C., the
Roland Emmerich epic out this month. Belle is self-aware enough to
know there’s something slightly embarrassing about this—the fact
that just as her Evolet hits the screen, a furry little Evolet will be running around her house, peeing on newspaper. She quickly blames
Mom. “My mother was obsessed with the name all through filming,
and swore the next time we got a puppy . . . ” She trails off. Her mother,
Cristina, who passed down to Belle the strong features and olive skin
of her native Brazil, accompanies her daughter nearly everywhere,
including to faraway film shoots; she spends most of this interview,
which takes place at a trendy diner on Sunset Boulevard, circling the
block in Belle’s Mini Cooper. “I’d forgotten how hard training a dog
is,” Belle says. “Now I’m the mommy. I haven’t left the house in a
week. My friends are all like, ‘What are you doing?’”
Belle’s been busy since infancy. She was scouted at a playgroup
and went on to star in Subaru ads and play small parts in movies like
Poison Ivy II. Three years ago, critics lauded her performance opposite
Daniel Day-Lewis in The Ballad of Jack and Rose. Roles in the suburban
satire The Chumscrubber, opposite Jamie Bell, and the teen thriller When
a Stranger Calls, opposite a prop phone, followed. During that time,
Belle also became something of a fashion-industry darling, appearing
in Miu Miu ads and sitting in the front row at a Chanel show.
While her earlier roles garnered her notice and industry respect,
10,000 B.C. should give Belle a much higher profile—or at least some
box-office bragging rights. She portrays the love interest of a young
tribal leader, played by newcomer Steven Strait. “I loved her because
she’s tough,” Belle says of the character. “She’s not just a damsel in
distress. She’s constantly fighting back.” Most of 10,000 B.C. was shot
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on location; the filming stretched out over six months and took place
in New Zealand, South Africa, and Namibia. There were blizzards,
downpours, and sandstorms. “There were times when we were on
a mountaintop in New Zealand and we’re hardly wearing anything
when I thought, What am I doing here?” she says. Hair and makeup—
which for Belle involved a relationship with a spray-tan wand she
wasn’t sad to see end—commanded at least two hours a day.
“Evolet was a difficult part to cast,” says Emmerich, who also
directed The Day After Tomorrow and Godzilla. “We searched America,
France, and England for half a year.” The role is very physical, and
the dialogue is spare. In one scene, a rape-minded warlord kidnaps
Evolet, who must free herself without the use of language. “The
part depended on great subtlety, a lot of acting between the lines,”
Emmerich says. “Camilla is very beautiful, but she starts to act and
you forget how beautiful she is.”
In between playing Evolet the ice queen and training Evolet the
puppy, Belle (accompanied by her mother) spent three months in
Hong Kong, filming the sci-fi thriller Push, costarring Chris Evans,
Dakota Fanning, and Djimon Hounsou, and shopping. “Hong Kong
girls have a genius sense of style,” she says. “I came back to the
States thinking no one here has any individuality. Or cute enough
socks.” The constant traveling hasn’t left her much time for a social
life, but Belle doesn’t aspire to be a Hollywood workaholic. Three
years ago she was accepted into Columbia, and she plans to attend
one day. “I’m still in the system!” she says. “You know, if you don’t
have a life, there’s really not much to pull from. Then you can’t tell
what’s real or not. . . . That’s my philosophy.” g
Opposite: Dress by Vera Wang.
Previous page: Dress by Roberto Cavalli. Bracelet
by Tom Binns.
Styling by Tina Chai.
Hair by Adir Abergel for Frédéric Fekkai
at magnetla.com. Makeup by Sammy Mourabit
for Chanel/celestineagency.com.
Shot at Chateau Marmont.
For store information, see page 81.
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