TASTE TEST
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As one of the most celebrated European actresses in independent cinema today, Vicky Krieps is no stranger to the Cannes Film Festival where she has premiered numerous films, won an acting award for her performance in Corsage in 2022, and served on one of its juries in 2024. This year, the Luxembourgian actress returned to the festival to premiere her latest film, Love Me Tender, directed by Anna Cazenave Cambet, about a mother who loses custody of her son after coming out as a lesbian. (It’s one of three films featuring Krieps coming out this year, including Jim Jarmusch’s Father, Mother, Sister, Brother and Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s Hot Milk.)
Krieps, who had her breakout American role in Paul Thomas Anderson’s great fashion film Phantom Thread, also made headlines at Cannes for her red-carpet looks. The actress was one of the first people to wear pieces from Bottega Veneta’s new creative director, the British designer Louise Trotter. As it turns out, Krieps’s relationship with Bottega goes beyond the red carpet. The actress is one of the stars of the ultraluxury label’s latest campaign celebrating 50 years of intrecciato, the woven-leather technique that has become Bottega’s signature.
Below, Krieps spoke to the Cut from her home in Berlin about sharing clothing with her teen daughter, falling in love with TV, and her best tip to make dinner-party guests feel at ease — and forget about their phones.
It’s rare to see you participate in an advertising campaign. Why did you decide to work with Bottega? What’s the experience been like so far?
So far, it’s really wonderful. And I wasn’t expecting it, because I’m very skeptical of the fashion world. A lot of it is quite superficial and mainly has to do with money and not so much with art. Since I’ve worked with Bottega, it’s been just artists collaborating together. And that’s also the campaign. It’s very much about the craftsmanship behind it, and the art, and less about product placement or stuff like that.
[Krieps’s daughter comes into the room to say good-bye and asks her about a vest she wants to borrow.]
Do you often share clothes with your daughter?
All the time. It’s so funny. It goes back and forth, and any kind of clothes. Lately, she’s been obsessed with a jean jacket from Bottega, and she keeps wearing it. She’s like, “It’s mine now, I want to have it.” And then she was like, “Can I go buy the same?” and she looked up the price. [Laughs.] They actually make things that even 14-year-olds like to wear — stuff that you can use, not just things that show status. The two dresses I had in Cannes were basically made on me, and they were working on them until the last minute before I went out. You could see the stitching is something else. It’s real craftsmanship and excellence. I’m really surprised, because I honestly didn’t know that fashion could be like that.
From left: Some of the Bottega Veneta looks Vicky Krieps wore during the Cannes Film Festival. From left: Some of the Bottega Veneta looks Vicky Krieps wore during the Cannes Film Festival. more From left: Some of the Bottega Veneta looks Vicky Krieps wore during the Cannes Film Festival.
I loved the backless look from Cannes.
It made me feel a little bit like Joan of Arc, because it’s almost like armor. All the looks were so perfect for the movie, because the movie I presented is a very low-budget, independent art film for women, made by women, for women. It’s very strong in what it says about motherhood.
You’ve spoken about how shooting Love Me Tender was unusually intense for you. Do you have any rituals or things that you do after you finish shooting to relax or recover?
Over the years, I started playing the guitar. I will write a song per movie or character. That’s what I found as my main ritual, and almost medicine. It’s really helped me. Funnily enough, on this one, I couldn’t. So my theory is that this one was so painful and exhausting, I still haven’t fully released it yet.
Sometimes, the character, you really find it in the work. And doing the song also helps to really get it or make it deeper. And at the same time, have something to release. Whenever I play the song, it feels like saying, “Farewell, be well, you can go now.”
Do you share these songs with anyone?
Not yet. I have recorded all of them, which is now a full album, which I did myself, because I wanted it to be as pure as possible, including mistakes, and not work with someone who’s going to try and make it better. I’m searching for the right way to release it.
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Are there certain albums or music you turn to when you need comfort or confidence?
When I need female power, I listen to Janis Joplin. When I’m angry and I’m fighting and I need to feel my independence, I will listen to that. Then, definitely, a lot of Leonard Cohen. Aretha Franklin, too. That’s more when I’m working. It gives me a feeling of being protected. She has something holy in a way, spiritual.
What’s the last book you read that you couldn’t put down?
Orbital, by Samantha Harvey — this small book in which the astronauts are floating. Also the book that Love Me Tender is based on, by Constance Debré. I think that one I read in a day.
What about films? What’s the last film you saw that you would recommend to someone else?
I really liked The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
This year I couldn’t see anything at Cannes because I was working. The one I really loved last year was the one that won a prize — All We Imagine As Light.
Is there a film that you remember watching earlier in your life that made you fall in love with cinema?
When I was 8 years old, or something, I saw Beauty and the Beast from Jean Cocteau. It was like magnetism. I felt drawn to it. I loved the mystery. It felt like a big secret that I’ve been allowed to have a look into and I could feel behind this, there’s a whole world. I could just imagine the costumes being made. If you would have asked me then, I would have said, “I want to just be part of this,” but never as an actress. I wanted to be part of that project and maybe build some of the props, or be the beast.
Is there any sort of “low” culture that you love? Like pop culture or mass culture?
For years and years, I couldn’t watch series, but now I do. I watch Modern Family — that’s one for me and my kids. Recently, I watched every episode of Mad Men. I didn’t think I would like it, and then I loved everything — the characters. I was laughing to myself, like, “Now, I get it.” Because you’re watching something and it’s with you, so you’re not alone. I watched One Day, I couldn’t stop it; I was fixated on the characters. And maybe the lowest, I would say, is probably Love Is Blind. The Swedish are the cutest.
I also did watch — not all of it, I have to admit — but I watched The Kardashians. I wanted to know about it. I hate when people talk about things and they want your opinion, and you hear so much about them. I needed to know.
What did you discover on The Kardashians?
How to switch off my brain. I can’t even remember what I saw. It’s almost like being hypnotized. Also, the faces are kind of like from a dream, like you’re dreaming comics. I think that’s how it works on people, too. It’s hypnotizing.
Would you rather be the host or the guest of a dinner party? Where do you feel more comfortable?
I prefer to be the host, but I would make it so that I’m the host, but I also get to be my own guest.
Do you have any tips on how to strike that balance?
You invite people, but you don’t really tell them the time. You say, a few days before, “It’s going to be around eight.” And then when they get itchy and they want to know what time exactly, say, “Come between seven and eight.” But someone else, you say, “Oh, anytime between six and eight.” And then they have to arrive in their own time, and they’re already in a different mind-set and more open. They will stumble into the party and they’ll be like, “Oh, you invited my cousin, but you didn’t tell me.” If you don’t tell them, then they are so open that there is no host or guest, or guest “No. 1.” You destroy the hierarchy. I love inviting famous people with just my neighbor or someone, because both of them, for ten minutes, are very uncomfortable. Because no one told them how to do this: “How do I behave around the famous person?” “Why is this person here who’s not even part of our world?” And after those 15 uncomfortable minutes, it’s the best. Everybody forgets the phone and stays until 2 a.m.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
