As she prepares for her latest cinematic outing, the long-awaited sci-fi epic Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, actress and model Cara Delevingne has spoken about her ambitions to be a director in the future.
The British actress, 24, was speaking at CinemaCon in Las Vegas alongside the movie’s director, Luc Besson, and admitted that her experience of playing Laureline, opposite main star Dane DeHaan’s titular character of Valerian, plus the experience of being on-set with Leon and Nikita director Besson, had inspired her to get behind the camera herself.
Luc Besson with Cara Delevingne at 2017 CinemaCon
“I would, one day, love to direct as well, so watching Luc do his stuff, I’ve learned so much, pretty much everything! Just watching him, and the way he looks at life, it’s been incredible.”
Delevingne added that it was a thrill to work with Besson, who has been an inspiration to her ever since she was little.
“I’ve grown up watching Luc’s films since I was a kid, The Fifth Element was one of my favourite films as a child, so it’s an honour to be here [with him] right now, even to be in the same room as him is amazing,” she said.
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Besson himself, who has directed more than 50 films in his impressive career, spoke about how Valerian has been a passion project of his that has been formulating in his head ever since he was a child.
“I started thinking [about it] when I was 10,” the 58 year old maestro said frankly, revealing that it’s taken virtually half a century to get his idea up and running. “I’m pretty stubborn.”
As for how they think audiences will react to Valerian, Delevingne is confident that it will get a great reception – if her circle of friends is anything to go by. “My friends came to see it last night, and they were freaking out, so it was really fun. Everyone seemed pretty happy about it.”
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is released in the United States on July 21st, and the United Kingdom on August 4th.
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