Jane Birkin: No to facelifts, smile instead

Jane Birkin has been speaking out about plastic surgery. Topical because today Lulu told the Sunday Times Style that she has given up on fillers and botox:

"I used to see platypus lips only in Beverly Hills, but now they are everywhere, and it certainly doesn't make women look younger."


In a German mag a fraulein reporter gushed at Jane via flowery translation about this 61 yearng gorgeous. Love that she calls her "Frau Birkin".

"taz: Frau Birkin, you have been radiating freshness and innocence for more than four decades. How do you maintain your youthful aura?

Jane Birkin: I don't think I look either fresh or innocent. More like an aging teenager. I never had the courage to have a face lift. My pride stopped me. But smiling is important.

taz: Smiling is your secret?

Birkin: It has the same effect as a face lift. A vague smile into the future. And only minimal make up. At 15 or 16 young girls look lovely with lots of makeup and lipstick. But I keep it to a strict minimum."


And here she is proving smiling lets your inner beauty shine, back in the day:

And now:


Wish someone had sent Kylie to no-Botox memo:


Incidentally, it was a dream come true to interview Jane in person for Uncut magazine a couple of years ago. She was absolutely charming, and we sat on the floor together next to her very battered, Amnesty International sticker covered Hermes Birkin. Here are a few of the things she said:
(Thanks to Jane Birkin fan Mariana @ http://gatochy.blogspot.com for posting it)


"Jane Birkin left boarding school in 1964 to become a face on the King's Rd, later taking cameo roles in The Knack... and Blow Up. After her failed marriage to Bond composer John Barry, Birkin fled to Paris where she met Serge Gainsbourg. She soon became his muse, duetting on the Vatican-banned 'Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus' and inspiring the Lolita-esque character of Melody Nelson. She returns this month with a new album, Fictions.

'I moved to Paris because John Barry left me,' says Birkin. 'One afternoon I came back to our house and John was sitting in a stately chair and he said, 'I think the time has come for us to go our separate ways.' I had absolutely no idea what was happening, but he was having an affair with my best friend. Before this happened, I had been called by Time magazine 'an E-Type Wife', and I dressed the way that was stylish for young London wives to dress, but I hadn't been creative at all.

'I met Serge through taking a role in a French film called Slogan. To begin with, he didn't like me because my French wasn't very good and he'd been hoping that Marisa Berenson (Death in Venice, Cabaret) would get my role. Everybody told me he was a mad, bad, dangerous Russian, but after a dinner together I discovered he was very charming. He was still in love with Brigitte Bardot and I was still in love with John, but little by little we healed each other's wounds. He was 20 years older than me, but looked much younger. He used to say he loved the ambiguity of my body, a girl that looked like a boy, and with that in mind he made me sing an octave higher.

'Initially I didn't want to sing 'Je T'Aime...', but I was so jealous that I wouldn't let another girl get inside a telephone booth with Serge and sing it with him. Serge said to me he was frightened of large breasts and loved my petite body, but I didn't know whether to believe that because he had just been with Brigitte Bardot and she had a very different body to mine.

'I later starred as Bardot's lover in the 1973 film Don Juan. It's a terrible movie, but I took it up for the charm of being in bed with Bardot. I can tell you that every portion of her body is absolutely perfect. I should know: I had a good look!

'The film was directed by her ex-husband, Roger Vadim, who made her cry, saying she wasn't as beautiful as she used to be. I'm sure that because people judged her solely on her looks and she was slagged off for getting older that it turned her into a crazy person who belongs to the National Front and only talks to animals. Serge was very sweet to her; he was a very forgiving man.

'Today I've been working with people like Johnny Marr, Neil Hannon, The Magic Numbers and Beth Gibbons on my new album, Fictions. I especially loved spending time with Beth. We'd go into the studio and she would make me sing the song 'My Secret' over and over until I got it how she wanted to hear it. Then we'd stay out together in restaurants until 3am. I still find it great fun making music.'"