Dree Hemingway

My favorite question is 'What do you do?' I'm like, 'I'm a walking cliche: I'm a model and an actress.'

Whether in light touches or for a more glamorous look, I never go out without make-up - even if it's only a lick of mascara. And I always wear perfume, a light or more intense version.

I really do feel like I know myself, and I'm so happy to be by myself and I'm so happy to be with other people; I just know myself really, really well, and I think that is an amazing thing. I think a lot of people don't know themselves that well.

I think my biggest learning experience is that it's okay to be who you are - you don't have to exactly fit the mold of what people think a certain kind of career is. I think that discovery - of really knowing who I am and being okay with that and loving myself - was amazing.

I think the only reason I wanted to do modeling, really, was because I knew I wasn't ready to act; I knew I didn't have enough life experience, and I knew that doing photo shoots was a way of acting. Playing a character each shoot and being able to just emerge yourself in these awkward experiences - it was amazing.

I was scouted when I was, like, sixteen, and I hated it. I wasn't ready to work. When I turned 19, I decided to move to Paris to pursue modeling for myself there. It was kind of a way to get out of the house and discover something for myself, in a way.

For me, style is about how you feel that day and what inspires you, as well as taking chances and making mistakes. Everything has to be comfortable. If things are too tight or too constricting, I feel out of my element.

I remember having to read 'The Old Man and the Sea,' and I didn't want to read it; I didn't want to like Ernest Hemingway. I was being a stubborn teenager.

My mother says I used to breast-feed in a split.

I think people are always like, 'She's a model-turned-actress.' And I don't want to turn actress. I want to do both. I wouldn't have built the confidence to do acting if I didn't model.

I'm never going to be cast as a 'Bond' girl. I mean, I could do it and I would love it. But I don't ooze sexuality.

Although I was born in Idaho and now live in New York, I definitely identify with the European aesthetic. Paris is my mecca; it's where I discovered my flair for fashion. But I pay rent and work in New York, so that is my home - I love the culture clash of the city.

I dream of working with iconic directors such as Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann, Terry Gilliam and Wes Anderson - so I'm setting my sights pretty high! My perfect role would be in a fairy-tale period piece, and I'm quite upset all the Harry Potter movies have been made as I'd love to have been in those.

When I was 17, I studied at RADA in London for the summer. I wanted to live abroad and to pursue drama, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I thought I may as well throw myself in at the deep end. My first big role is in 'Starlet.'

The people who go the craziest when they hear the name 'Hemingway' are my English teachers!

I'm the least sexy person in real life.

I prefer to leave a little room in my bag to grab goodies when I'm travelling, but otherwise you need one good pair of shoes that can be worn day or night, a pair of black jeans, and a nice dress.

Once, in an interview with 'V' magazine, I said that I preferred Fitzgerald to Hemingway. I think that Hemingway is an amazing writer, but by being related to him, I had it in my head that I had to like him.

I'm a pants girl. I just feel more comfortable in them.

My whole thing was, as much as I was inspired by what my parents do, and growing up on film sets, watching that made me really want to do that. I am my own person, and I think that the only thing with the Hemingway name is that it has gotten me in the door.

My mother is an actress, and my aunt Margaux was a model. And it's funny, as much as I'm all about I'm my own person, and I'm making my own name for myself, I have grown up in a world where most of these people who are like me are children of famous parents. So it's easy to become the socialite and be famous for that.

I would never write, ever. I might as well exile myself.

I don't have any tattoos - I live vicariously through my sister, Langley, who has many. If I can't stick to one ensemble, I don't think I could stick to one tattoo.

A fragrance that matches the personality of the man or woman who wears it is an integral part of the memory that you have of him or her. It goes without saying that it's a formidable weapon of seduction.

If I were related to Monet, I don't know if I would be comfortable becoming an artist because it's too much, the comparison. If I wrote a book and put it out, the comparison to my great-grandfather, the comparison would be hilarious. Every critic, it would be their dream, they'd tear me apart.