This is the VICE Interview. Each week we ask a different famous and/or interesting person the same set of questions in a bid to peek deep into their psyche.
Sadie Frost’s Twitter bio says she’s a “Actor, writer, designer, producer”, but she’s as well known as a tabloid and sidebar-of-shame mainstay, thanks to her circle of celebrity mates. To this day, journalists like me are still trudging up the time Sadie’s two-year-old daughter accidentally ate an ecstasy pill off the floor of Soho House.Sadie is starring in a just-opened new play called Britten in Brooklyn, where she plays the 1940s Burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee. She also has a new film coming out this week, British comedy Set the Thames on Fire, which co-stars Sally Phillips and Noel Fielding.
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VICE: What would your parents have preferred you to have chosen as a career?
Sadie Frost: Both my parents were in the arts, so creative anyway, and eccentric. They would have wanted me to be safe and secure financially, and able to express myself, but my father just would have wanted me not to be “conforming”. I think they’d both be happy with me doing what I’m doing.
Why did you break up with your first boyfriend?
When I was 16 I went out with a punk called Lucien who lived across the road from me, I thought he was so cool. I loved being a punk, going to Camden, to the Music Machine and Electric Ballroom, being mouthy, trying to bunk into gigs from Adam and the Ants or The Clash or whatever. It was a great time. We ended up going out for four years, but split up cause our lives went in different directions. I was travelling in New York and Japan working as a model. It sounds clichéd, and I adored him, but life choices just make you drift apart sometimes.
What was your worst phase?
Hmm, when you have children you get quite mumsy. You’ve had a baby, you’re enjoying being a mum and you don’t really care what you wear because that’s the least important thing on your agenda. So you’d get those comments of “sack the stylist”. But there was no stylist! I just think when you’re raising four children, what goes on in your own life goes out the window because you’re just trying to get the kids out the door.
Complete this sentence: the problem with young people today is…
…they spend too much time on Snapchat. I think it’s really sad that young people do that. We’ll be on holiday with my kids and all they’re interested in is Snapchatting their friends, I think it’s such a waste of time. I don’t get it.
How many books have you read and finished in the past year?
Probably about eight. Some of them were for research – Gypsy Rose Lee’s memoir, and a book called February House.
How many people have been in love with you?
Oh, that’s a hard question. You can count it on one hand. Four or five people. I’d say like eight people have said they love me and four people actually have. I think I’ve probably been in love with four or five too.
When in your life have you been truly overcome with fear?
I’ve been most scared of flying and dying. That kind of thing. I used to have a lot of panic attacks and anxiety. Eight years ago, when the kids were little and I felt unsafe and alone, I would get waves of fear that feel like running into a brick wall. Then you fear losing people, your life, your health, you have to come to terms with it and live as peacefully as you can or it takes over. I think it’s good to protect yourself from things that affect you negatively; don’t surround yourself with people, noise and craziness all of the time. If I don’t have calm times things can really escalate.
Can drugs ever make you happy?
I’ve had a lot of people around me affected negatively by drugs or die from them over the years. My father was into drugs and I grew up around drugs and I never saw anything positive come from it. Life would be better for everybody without them, I’ve always felt like that.
What would your last meal be?
A toasted cheese and tomato sandwich with onion and lots of salt and pepper. I know that’s quite specific but I’ve been thinking about it all day and whether I could fit one in before lunch. I haven’t had anything else today. Except a turmeric, ginger, cucumber and lemon shot. I do that every day now.
If you were a wrestler what song would you come into the ring to?
Oh god. Something taking the mick? “Sexy Sadie” by the Beatles?
What TV show or film is guaranteed to make you cry?
E.T. and Terms of Endearment.
What picture this year do you think you look the nicest in?
Oh there’s a lovely picture taken of me at the opening night of my play with my friend Kate. We just look really happy. That’s a nice photo because it was a real moment – not a photoshoot.
You’re having a conversation with a friend and they something racist… What do you do?
I would immediately challenge what they were saying and make them see what they’re saying is not right or correct in terms of human values.
How well can you explain how global warming works?
So obviously it’s something that’s affecting the whole planet. Due to pollution and different components that are man-made – carbon dioxide, or when you go away and the air conditioning is on and it’s cooling the room but heating the world outside. Air conditioning all over the world is having huge effect on global warming.
What’s the nicest thing you own?
My bed.
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