Jane Birkin
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English actress and singer based in France. She is perhaps best known for her relationship with Serge Gainsbourg in the 1970s and being the namesake of the popular Hermès Birkin bag. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Myanmar...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionMovie Actress
Date of Birth14 December 1946
feature stick wear
My distinguishing feature is the gap between my teeth. I had to wear a brace because my teeth used to stick out like guns from a fortress.
figure
At school, I used to hear, 'You're a half-caste.' They'd laugh at my figure and say, 'Are you a boy or a girl?'
brown colour cover face laura mouth run sponge tiny wear
I colour my hair mousy brown and I wear makeup only on stage. I use Laura Mercier - something called Biscuit, I think. I run one tiny sponge over my face and cover the red blotches. If I've got some rouge, I'll bung it on my mouth and cheeks.
appeared bearded great jacques knew looking man run splendid
Jacques Doillon wanted me to be in his film, 'La Fille Prodigue,' and there I was, expecting, for some reason, this great bearded man, when a splendid looking red-Indian style man appeared at my door. I said no to his film because I knew that if I said yes, I would run off with him.
french love
I love the French very much, and I think they know that. I've been adopted here. They treat me as one of their own.
banging came family people rather seeing
I don't know why people keep banging on about the '60s. I came from a conventional family and I didn't go off with different people - I rather wish I had now, seeing all the fun everyone else was having.
bag good plastic rain
A Birkin bag is a very good rain hat; just put everything else in a plastic bag.
cameras drawings encouraged gets good people trips
My father was a painter, so I was encouraged to take a sketchbook everywhere. Cameras are perishable, but I still have tonnes of sketchbooks from all the trips I've ever been on. It gets you by when you don't know what to give people as a gift; drawings are good souvenirs.
beautiful book depiction despite jealousy life lost offered sincere starts stepfather towards whose written
I have never written a book about my life, despite being offered purses of gold. I made 'Boxes' because I wanted to make a sincere depiction of a daughter who has lost her father, or the jealousy one can feel towards a daughter who has become more beautiful than you and whose stepfather starts to take her shopping.
english-actress painted
He painted me when I was young because he was in love with me, but now that he has loved me he doesn't paint me anymore.
hearing home
Big Ben... hearing the chimes makes me feel at home.
anecdotes crack dinners enjoying fabulous good jolly local museums pick rushing tour trick
It's usually a jolly good trick to pick up a local tour guide. They can tell you all the anecdotes that make a place interesting. I'm one for rushing off to museums at the crack of dawn, eating fabulous things on terraces for lunch, and enjoying long dinners on balmy evenings.
berry cheeks colour crushed joan lip mouth pencil stuff
I put some red stuff on my mouth and cheeks so I look healthy - any old red lip pencil and a lip colour from Dr. Hauschka in a crushed berry tone. I never put anything on my eyes, or I look like Joan Crawford.
charm childhood father fun funny holidays home movies stories summer touched
Nothing has ever touched on what fun childhood was. Summer holidays were bliss. We made home movies, with real stories in them. My father had such charm and charisma, and made everything so funny.