BLESSED VIRGINIE

Vanities

FOR DETAILS, SEE CREDITS PAGE

Name and occupation: Virginie Ledoyen, actress. Age: 22. Provenance:(Paris, France.

Made her countrymen swoon in: Olivier Assayas's Cold Water and Benoit Jacquot's A Single Girl.Soon to be making teenage girls envious on a global scale in: Danny Boyle's The Bench, playing the object of Leonardo DiCaprio's affection. InThe Beach, you play a French backpacker searching for Utopia on an idyllic shore in Thailand. How was it showing up for work in Shangri-la every day? Well. it was my first time in Thailand, but we were working six days a week for four months and it was quite hot. So it wasn't a holiday." Why, even though Thailand was foreign to Ledoyen, the Himalayas are familiar ground:

She spends time working for an organization which brings aid to Tibetans in northern India. You've been praised by your legendary compatriots Catherine Deneuve and Marcel Carné, and compared to everyone from Brigitte Bardot to Isabelle Adjani. Is there anyone you emulate? "I've always Toved the cinema, and whenever I see Jennifer Jason Leigh I'm moved. But it's not like I want to be her. because if I try to be someone else, it's not going to be my life."

JOHN GILLIES