Lily-Rose Depp’s Road to Nosferatu: “People Have Been Ready to See Me Fail”

You mentioned that you didn’t expect to get the Nosferatu part. Have you struggled with insecurity in this business?

Absolutely. Somebody asked me the other day what was the hardest part of the role, and I said, “Getting over the imposter syndrome of, like, ‘Why am I here and why do these people think that I can do this?’” Getting to a place where I felt confident enough within myself to be like, “I can do this and I am here for a reason,” I definitely have struggled with that. Humility is incredibly important, especially in this business. In a way, I always want to feel like I’m just starting out and like I still have so much to learn—which is how I do feel.

I feel like people have been ready to see me fail, in a way, since I was a kid. That has made me only want to work harder and prove people wrong. Not in a vindictive way at all, but just in a sense of, like, fuel to my fire. I do want to prove that I’m a hard worker and I’m not here for anything else but to work hard. But Rob was one of my bucket list directors. I didn’t think I would get to work with him so soon, so early in my career.

Sensing some people wanting to see you fail, though—that’s quite a thing to have in the back of your head, as someone trying to just make their own career.

Yeah, but it just is what it is. It’s been my life. I come from a family of artists. Both of my parents are these incredible artists and I have grown up with that. Respecting them both so much and what they do, and trying to find my own identity in this world, has been interesting when everybody’s thinking that you’re here for the wrong reasons or that you don’t deserve to be here. You either can sit there and cry about it and be like, “This isn’t fair!” or you can be like, “Okay, I’m just going to work really, really hard and do the best that I can.” That’s all I can do at the end of the day, is do my absolute best, and do this job for the right reasons, which is that I love what I do. I love acting. If people still want to talk shit or see me in a certain way, then that’s not my problem. I’ve had to grow into that feeling as well.