Charlotte Gainsbourg has said that her mother Jane Birkin’s approach to ageing is ‘inspiring’ – adding that she hopes she also has the ‘courage’ to age naturally.
The British-French actress and singer, who is the daughter of Jane and her late ex-husband Serge Gainsbourg, admitted she ‘didn’t like’ turning 50 this July, but was reassured by her 74-year-old mother that ‘turning fifty is fine’.
In an interview with the Sunday Times, Charlotte said that while she won’t rule out getting injectables in the future, she hopes to abstain like her film icon mother – who has accepted that her ‘age is beautiful’.
‘I’m happy to have my mother to look up to’, said Charlotte. ‘She has done nothing and she’s just true to her age. It’s just the attitude of accepting your age that is beautiful and that means something.’
Charlotte Gainsbourg, 50, pictured during Paris Fashion Week this year, says her mother Jane Birkin’s approach to ageing is ‘inspiring’ and she hopes she has the ‘courage’ to age naturally
Charlotte said that while she won’t rule out getting injectables in the future, she hopes to abstain like her film icon mother. The mother and daughter are pictured after stepping out together for Angouleme French-Speaking Film Festival on August 27, 2021
Charlotte took centre stage at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year in a thigh-skimming scalloped mini dress when she attended the premiere of her movie, Sundown.
Despite looking sensational at the event, the actress admitted she’s started wondering whether she’ll have to stop wearing shorter skirts as she ages.
‘I’m slowly moving into that age of thinking, “Is it still appropriate?” Or, “Am I looking like an old lady with a short skirt?” I know that one day I’ll have to stop’, she explained.
Charlotte and her mother recently stepped out together at Cannes Film Festival while attending the opening of her new film about Jane called Jane by Charlotte, which takes a look at the family history and explores her mother’s eventful life.
Jane was a 60s it-girl in Britain and France and starred in a number of films including La Piscine and Blow Up. She is pictured in her younger years
Charlotte took centre stage at the Venice International Film Festival earlier this year in a thigh-skimming scalloped mini dress as she attended the premiere of her movie Sundown
The documentary will also discuss the theme of ageing, with Jane saying in the trailer: ‘At one point, you no longer recognise yourself. […] I think I’m reaching the point of not caring.’
Jane was a 60s it-girl in Britain and France and starred in a number of films including La Piscine and Blow Up.
Birkin was in a relationship with French singer-songwriter Gainsbourg from 1968 to 1980 and provided the orgasmic moans heard on his controversial track Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus.
The song was deemed sexually explicit and inappropriate on its release, banned in many countries and slammed by the Vatican for the intense breathing and groaning that features.
Birkin was in a relationship with French singer-songwriter Gainsbourg (pictured) from 1968 to 1980 and provided the orgasmic moans heard on his controversial track Je T’aime… Moi Non Plus
Jane is one of the UK’s best-known Sixties sensations, known for her romantic flings, striking looks and fashion sense (pictured in 1968)
The couple met on the set of the movie Slogan and began dating. They welcomed Charlotte, now 50, in 1971. Jane and Serge split after 12 years together.
Their daughter followed in her musical parents’ footsteps as she pursued a singing career and made the popular song, Deadly Valentine.
Last year, Jane revealed she was so insecure about her looks during her first marriage she slept with an eyeliner under her pillow so she could apply it if her husband woke up.
The model, who married composer John Barry while still a teenager, revealed she never believed she was attractive and hid behind ‘a mask of make up’ for years.
Last year, Jane revealed she was so insecure about her looks during her first marriage she slept with an eyeliner under her pillow so she could apply it if her husband woke up (pictured aged 18 at her wedding to John Barry)
The icon said it wasn’t until her second marriage to Serge that anyone told her she was beautiful, admitting she didn’t ‘look like herself’ until he stripped her of make-up while directing her in the film for his song ‘Je t’aime moi non plus’ when she was 28.
Writing in Elle magazine, Birkin says as a teenager she always felt ‘dowdy’ next to her glamorous mother and older sister until she started buying make-up from Woolworths on London’s King’s Road.
As well as her acting and singing, Jane’s legacy features being the name behind the iconic Hermés Birkin handbag, which came to be in 1983, when she sat next to Hermès chief executive Jean-Louis Dumas on a flight from Paris to London.
When the contents fell out of her straw handbag and she begrudged not being able to find a good weekend bag, so was born the iconic design – which markets from $10,000 up to $500,000.