What's it all about, Sophie?

Everybody knows that supermodel Sophie Dahl is the granddaughter of the legendary children’s writer Roald Dahl, but in truth her eminence goes way beyond that. Indeed her family lineage is brimming with celebrities from literature and the arts: her mother is the writer Tessa Dahl; her father is the actor Julian Halloway, who is himself the son of the actor Stanley Halloway; and her grandmother is the actress Patricia Neal.

Sophie herself first came to prominence back in the year 2000 after appearing completely naked in a now infamous advertising campaign for the Opium perfume by Yves Saint Laurent. In the poster, Sophie is provocatively posed on a fur rug, cupping a breast in one hand and wearing nothing but gold stiletto-heeled shoes. The shot, you might say, left little to the imagination.
The controversial advert was subsequently banned in several countries, including both the normally permissive France and the more prudish UK, because it was deemed to be “too sexually suggestive and degrading to women”.
You might think, with all of that water under the bridge, that Sophie herself would have nothing to hide. Apparently not so. Hot Press was warned in advance that the 30-year-old model and writer didn’t want to discuss “any personal items”. Despite this injunction, I was reassured that Sophie would be happy to discuss most issues typically covered by the Hot Press interview. However, under no circumstances would she talk about her past relationship with Rolling Stones singer Mick Jagger, or her reported current lover, the jazz musician Jamie Cullum.
There was one other contentious issue that was not to be broached: somewhat bizarrely, anti-fur protestors decided to target the model at a book signing in Dublin last year, despite the fact that she never made any pro-fur comments. She didn’t want to talk about this either.
In fairness to Sophie, she did speak candidly to me about some of these aforementioned issues – but, unfortunately, she’d only do it having gone off the record, resulting in some brilliant but unusable quotes.
Dahl was in Dublin to be unveiled as the new face of Newbridge Silverware. It’s a role she will hold for the next two years, following in the footsteps of Newbridge’s previous ‘face’ Yasmin Le Bon. And Sophie appears to be genuinely excited about it.
“It’s really nice because I have a big affinity with Dublin. My brother’s studying at Trinity and I've spent a lot of time over here over the years. So, the nice thing is: it’s not something I need to make up and try to puff piece for them because, actually, I’m really happy to come and do it. They are incredibly nice and the jewellery by Newbridge is nice, so it’s an easy gig.”
Some guys have all the luck...

JASON O’TOOLE: Your recently published novel, Playing With The Grown Ups, appears to be semi-autobiographical. Was that a conscious decision?
SOPHIE DAHL: It wasn’t meant to be. It certainly wasn’t written with that conscious thought, but I suppose, for a first novel, some of what you know is the thing that comes to the surface. So, whilst there is a huge, healthy amount of fiction – yes, there are certainly themes that can relate back to my own life.

In the novel, you write about an absent father. This was obviously taken directly from your own upbringing, right?
But my dad wasn’t remotely absent. He was very much around. He and my mum split up when I was quite young, but I spent every weekend with him and holidays with him and my granny. That was the big hurdle with doing publicity for the book. Everybody was like, “So, your father – absentee and dead?” And I was like, “No, he’s very well, happy, alive and living in California. I speak to him every day.” (Laughs)

The protagonist’s mother has been described in reviews as funny, flighty but depressive. Again, this appears to paint a reasonably accurate picture of your mum.
My real mother isn’t flighty at all. She’s spoken publicly about her battle with depression. She is a manic depressive. And in the book, the mother is a much more whimsical woman – my mother’s actually quite solid and straightforward.

Were you not apprehensive about what people, particularly family members, might think about the autobiographical aspects of the novel?
I had to let go of that because – it’s a bit like the grandfather thing – I would never have finished it if I thought about it too deeply. I just thought, ‘Ok, this is my book. It is the story I wanted to write and people will do with it what they will’.

Did you find writing the book therapeutic?
(Pauses) I don’t know. It was interesting because it just sort of – because it’s written from a teenager’s point of view – put me back there and what was funny was referencing back to music that I listened to then. I did a lot of ringing my friends and saying, ‘When we used to go clubbing, what were we listening to?’

When the publisher signed you up, did it ever cross your mind that they might’ve been tempted to market your book as chick-lit?
There's a lot that can be done to counteract that. So, that’s an early discussion. Hopefully you have a say in the cover and how it’s promoted. God, you know, everyone’s down on chick-lit, but look at Cecilia Ahern – she must be smiling!

I understand you're planning to do a book about food?
A recipe book. Anecdotal. I’ve been cooking a lot, feeding everyone I know. It’s coming out in September.

You've done a few films, but seem to be focusing more on writing these days. Is there a reason for this?
I’ve always loved writing: that was what I always wanted to do throughout my childhood. The film thing happened slightly accidentally because often, as a model, people think, ‘Oh, she looks right for that’. I’m actually a bit of a wretched actress! I don’t think I’m particularly good. Also, I’m too much of a control freak. As an actress, you have to totally surrender yourself.

Were you very close to your parents?
Yeah, very. I think even more so now that I’m older because I’m not battling with them about anything (laughs) – you know, wanting to have a later curfew. I’d much rather be brought up with two (separated) parents who were loving and happy than two married parents who were fighting and in a state of conflict.

I read that you had problems with depression and anorexia.
I don’t know where that came from. It's one of those sort of weird incorrect ‘facts’ that pops up. If it was true I would be perfectly straightforward about it. Neither is something to be ashamed of. That was the Daily Mail version of my childhood (laughs)!

So, did you have a happy childhood?
Yeah. It was certainly complex and a bit chaotic, but it was, above all, quite happy because the nice thing about my family is – as mad as they all are – they have a massive sense of humour. Everything was talked about. Everything was laughed about. The other thing, which is something I get asked, ‘What was it like moving house a lot? It must have been so unsettling?’ If you don’t know any different, then that’s your life. And as a kid, you don’t really question that – that’s just what you know.

Did having such famous parents and grandparents put you under increased pressure to be successful?
Again you don’t question it. They are my family. It just happens that I have a kind of quirky, talented mongrel mix. But it’s not something I’ve ever sat down and really analysed – it’s boom, there we are.

Did growing up in that type of environment encourage artistic development?
Because I was brought up around people who did creative things for a living, it made it all seem very possible and within reach. So, if for nothing else, that was a brilliant background to come from.

Was it difficult to become a writer, considering that your grandfather is such a legend?
It was harder for my mum, but I’m a generation removed. Yes, of course, there are going to be moments were people can be caustic – but people can be caustic about anything, you know, and if I spend too much time sitting around being crippled by that fact I wouldn’t do anything. He was such a genius and such a legend, but he’s a law unto himself.

Like everybody else, I grew up reading your grandfather’s books.
Me too. We did his books in English, in school, so I’m as much as a fan of his as anyone else. I spent a lot of time with him when I was a kid. He died when I was 13. I don’t know whether in some ways it would have been harder if I was 20 when he died. I was still essentially a child. Obviously, I miss him a huge amount because we were close and he was a big presence in all of our lives.

Apparently, he wrote The BFG with you in mind for the character of Sophie.
Yes. It's really lovely. He wrote it when I was four or five. Obviously, I’m not an orphan living in an orphanage (laughs), who is kidnapped by a large giant, but the model for how Sophie looked was based on me. I have a lazy eye and when I was little I had to wear a patch. I was quite a queer-looking child and had great, big, thick glasses and thick fringe and that's how Sophie in the book looked. I've got one of Quentin Blake's original illustrations, which is Sophie sitting on the table and looking up at the BFG and it is just a really sweet thing to have.

The actor David Kelly recently told me that your grandfather absolutely hated the movie Willie Wonka And The Chocolate Factory.
I didn’t know. I was too small to know. I hear he didn’t like it – but he could be quite cantankerous (laughs) about what he liked and didn’t like. I love it. It’s a classic.

You went to boarding school. How did you find the experience?
I liked it. I actually went to two – the first when I was quite young and then I went again when I did my GCSE’s. My second school, in particular, I really liked because it was in the country, a very beautiful school – it was quite a bohemian school. I certainly wouldn’t be averse, if my kids were into the idea, of sending them to boarding school. I think it’s a good structure. It teaches you to be very self-sufficient, which is no bad thing.

As a teenager, would you describe yourself as being a bit of a rebel?
Yeah, probably. I was a teenager who grew up in London, so it would have been quite odd if I hadn’t been. I wasn’t spectacularly naughty, but averagely so (laughs).

Is it true that at the age of 18 Isabella Blow, who is an internationally renowned style icon, discovered you on the street?
Yes. I was absolutely thrilled because I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do. She actually came at a deeply serendipitous moment, because I’d just had a fight with my mum about what I was going to do. And suddenly, in the blink of an eye, along came Izzy in this Philip Tracy gallon hat and said, ‘Do you want to be a model?’ I never stepped back and thought, ‘I don’t particularly look like a model. Maybe this is a bit odd’. I just thought, ‘Oh, brilliant! Now I’ve got a job’. It really sort of was a comic, filmic type of moment.

At the time, the tabloid press described you as a plus-size model and there was a lot of negative articles written about this. How did you react to that back then?
It's an awful lot of pressure to be placed on any young person, that level of scrutiny. I probably didn’t start to think about it until much later, because I was so young. And at the time I found it all vaguely embarrassing. I just wanted to be responded to like everyone else. As a teenager, there is nothing worse than being singled out. So, it’s only with the sort of retrospective edge that I look back and think, ‘That was quite a strange time’.

But it must have hurt you?
Yes, there was an element of that and it baffled me. I really didn’t fully understand what it was all about, and also why people had such a violent reaction. But again, looking back I was a complete anomaly. At the same time, it went a bit overboard.

There was also a big deal made in the press about your weight loss. Did you have to go on a very strict diet to slim down?
No. I was 18 when I started and, you know, had a bit of puppy fat and it became this issue. There was no issue – I got taller and I got thinner.

Do you exercise?
I loathe going to the gym. I do a bit of yoga and I walk a lot. I’m not unhealthy, but I’m not really very interested in… I like food.

Are you not afraid of putting on weight?
No. Modelling is not my day job.

But it was at one stage?
I never really had the kind of career where, you know, I was working every day. It was all very specific stuff. I’m 30 now and it’s something that I do every once in a while. When I’m not doing that, I’m at home on my computer writing.

So, modelling was just a means to an end for you?
No, because I think to say that would be putting it down and I’ve got no reason to put it down. It served me very well. It's quite difficult writing to make a living. They are quite extreme – the two things I do. It’s quite nice being able to dip in and out. The writing is something that is obviously very self-contained and solitary and, so, to have the occasional infusion of glamour and lots of people is fun.

It seems that young women are under an ever-increasing pressure to look as skinny as models.
The thing now is – it’s not to just look like a model because actresses look like models. Young women face more pressure now than at any other time in history in terms of academic success, how they look surface-wise, how thin they are. Sadly that does play into the whole Big Brother kind of reality culture which is (pauses)… people don’t really have proper, solid things to aspire to. I think it’s time for a turnaround.

It appears that the Big Brother phenomenon is creating rent-a-celebrities without any genuine reason for such a status.
It’s one that I find depressing because, culturally, now it's possible to be famous for being on television – but not actually having a purpose for being on television. You know, when I was growing up, you actually wanted to have a particular career – there were people around who ignited in you a desire to do something, whether it was to be an incredible writer or musician or artist – or a doctor or a nurse. But if you were to do a poll in a classroom now and ask 25 kids what you want to do, the response would, I think, be quite disheartening. Culturally, we are all just dumbing down a bit too much.

How difficult is the media intrusion into your personal life?
It’s not. There are moments of it, but I’m not new to all of this – it’s something that has been going on for over a decade – and I do think that people forget that you do have some choice, in terms of where you go and how you conduct yourself – you know, someone going home to cook supper (laughs) is a lot less interesting than going to a nightclub with no knickers.

What about the paparazzi?
It’s par for the course. Again, it’s going back to the same theme: if you let your life be ruled by the fear of what’s going to come next and who’s going to be watching and what they're going to say, you’d be fucked. You’d be crippled. I get on with my life. I’m quite happy that that’s a slightly unfortunate part of something I do and there we go.
But you must get annoyed seeing so much personal information being made public?
Yes, there are moments of feeling a bit tetchy – but I’m here! That’s part of what you do.

You first burst into the limelight with an infamous advert for the Opium perfume.
It was the first big contract and it was the one which caused major controversy. It was a brilliant marketing plan because it was sensationalised so much. If you think advertising, there are so many ad campaigns that could be considered graphic and, actually, that one wasn’t particularly so. But (laughs) it came with a lot of press. I always found the whole thing quite comical. It’s not something I regret, but it’s not something that I’d repeat either.

It must have been weird seeing yourself – naked – up on the big billboards?
Yeah. All I could think about was how big my feet looked (roars laughing)! I remember driving past it with my mum and thinking, ‘Oh, my God! Look at the size of my feet’, because I’m not blessed with little feet to begin with and blown up to huge poster billboard size they looked massive.

Other people would have concentrated on different parts of your body!
(Roars laughing) I zoned in on my feet!

Obviously, being a model, you have to be very confident of your own sexuality?
I suppose in some ways. It depends what you’re modelling, really. If you’re modelling tea sets, I don’t think it really matters (laughs). But I think a general air of confidence is important because you are being looked at. If you're sort of shrinking away and looking like a wallflower it’s not going to help. Again, I grew up in London. I grew up around great women, so it was something that I was quite comfortable with.

I don’t know if you're aware of an Irish model called Katy French who tragically died from an apparent drug overdose.
I did hear about it, yes.

Since her death, the drugs issue has become one of the most significant topics in Ireland. Did you come across much drugs in the modelling world?
There are squalid sides to many industries that you can examine. The problem with the modelling industry is that it's so scrutinised and under the microscope because you have a business of, on the whole, very young, beautiful women – so, that’s immediately going to be attractive to the media. I don’t know that the problem is as rife as it’s portrayed to be, because we have a media that likes to paint things – there is a word I’m looking for – with a very sensationalist brush. It’s a bit like last year or the year before, when there was all of this thing about the size zero and girls who died from anorexia. But of a business that contains hundreds of thousands of people, there were two deaths from anorexia. Which is tragic – however, that is not the majority of the business.

For example, when you saw the Kate Moss photograph on the front page of The Sun, what was your reaction? Did you think, ‘Oh, silly girl?’
It’s not something I really feel fair to comment on either way. She was sort of witch-hunted and made an example of, which was rather hypocritical.

What is your stance on the drugs issue? Should they be legalised?
It's such a complex issue. I honestly don’t know what my stance on it is. I haven’t decided and I think over the years those sort of things change when you have children. One’s view changes constantly and sort of evolves and I think there are things to be said for both sides.

What about the drinking culture, both here and in the UK? You don’t hear of binge drinking in, say, France or Italy.
No, but that’s because drink is not kind of mystified over there. It’s something that they grow up with and something that they have respect for. It’s something that has been really polarised here and in England. And it’s like anything, if you say, ‘Oh, you can’t do this’, if you make something a great, unreachable mystery, then it becomes a lot more beguiling. If you teach your kids to behave responsibly around alcohol then that’s half the battle. When you are young in France, you are given a glass of wine with dinner, with some water in it, and it’s a socially acceptable thing.

You are obviously a very intelligent person – does the bimbo perception of models ever annoy you?
No, to be fair it’s not something I’ve really come up against. The great misconception about modelling… people are very, sort of, keen to make people victims of it. Like anything, you have a choice in how you represent yourself, in what you put out there.

Do you have any horror stories of backstage catfights or things like that in modelling events?
No! (Laughs) Sorry. The most boring interview you’ve ever had!

Which designers inspire you?
Lots and lots and lots. John Galliano. John Paul Gautier. Oh, there are so many. I love Vivienne Westwood because I just think she’s iconic and brilliant. I think there’s something to be said about all of them. I certainly don’t have an aversion to high street. I wear both and like both, to sort of mix and match. My style varies. If I’m at home it tends to be a bit of a mess (laughs) and when I’m out and about, meeting people, it tends to be a bit more together.

Would you consider yourself – Sophie Dahl – to be a brand?
I don’t think so. I mean, I don’t have a line of clothes or a line of perfumes or a line of Birkenstocks (shoes). I do the occasional modelling job and I write for a magazine (Men’s Vogue) and I’ve written two books and I’m writing my third, so I just do what I do.

I’m getting the distinct impression that you're planning to eventually step away from the modelling world and focus on writing?
One of the nice things – one of the positive things – about the age that we live in is that people can do a few things. There’s no crime in that.

You were in U2’s ‘Last Night On Earth’ video. What was that experience like?
I was so young – but it was brilliant. They were amazing. We were in Kansas City for three or four days. It was an amazing shoot. Howie B was there. William Burroughs (who appears at the end of the video) was kind of cantankerous in the trailer next door, getting up to all sorts.

What type of music do you like?
I go through phases. I like rock ‘n’ roll. I like old stuff – Joni Mitchell. James Taylor. Blondie. Nina Simone. Billie Holiday. Marianne Faithfull is really somebody I love. I love a bit of hip hop. I never really loved house but I’m vaguely starting to – not properly get into it, but appreciate it.

I’m not talking about you specifically, but a lot of models seem to date rock stars – why do you think that is?
It’s probably an element of the rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle. They tend to be on each other’s radars. One is travelling around the world and kind of finding yourself in funny places – that’s always been par for the course (laughs). But I don’t know why!

What are your thoughts on love and marriage?
Quite traditional.

Would you like to have children in the future?
Absolutely. Not loads. A few. I’m godmother to eight children. So, I’m always surrounded by them.

Would you describe yourself as a religious or spiritual person?
Certainly spiritual. Religious? I was christened Church of England. I’m not an ardent churchgoer, but I definitely do subscribe to a spirituality.

Do you believe in an afterlife?
Yeah, I think I do. I’m a big believer in ‘do as you would be done by’ karma – if you do bad things to people it comes back on you. I haven’t quite figured out how it translates… but I definitely believe in some God.

I don’t want to harp on about the book signing incident last year, but you must have thought the protest was ridiculous?
I can’t talk about that. But off the record…