Mickey and the Bear‘s Camila Morrone Has Arrived

Jacket by Dsquared2. Bodysuit by Michael Kors Collection.

In the upcoming family drama Mickey and the Bear, Camila Morrone stars as the daughter of an opioid-addicted veteran whose abusive behavior threatens to destroy her future. In her previous film, last year’s raunchy buddy comedy Never Goin’ Back, the 22-year-old actor played a high-school dropout desperate to escape small-town Texas. But only now, after it’s pointed out to her, does Morrone realize that she might have a thing for characters trapped by circumstance. “I should probably talk about that in therapy,” she says laughing. “But actually, it was really hard for me to break free of modeling and for people to consider me as an actor. I was terrified, and everyone around me was terrified, because it’s such an uncertain business.”

Dress by Marc Jacobs. Shoes by Area.

Morrone’s first attempt to branch out was a short-lived, eponymous lifestyle blog that offered beauty and fitness tips. “I’ve always felt like I have a lot to say, and I wasn’t communicating that through modeling,” she says.“I wasn’t emotionally ready to take on acting so the blog was kind of an intermediate place for me to have opinions.” When she eventually landed her first big-screen gig—as Bruce Willis’s daughter in 2018’s Death Wish remake—nerves nearly got the best of her. “I was like, ‘What did I get myself into?’ I needed someone to talk me off the ledge,” she says. That someone was Al Pacino, whom her mother, the actor Lucila Solá, was reportedly dating at the time. His advice? Be yourself. “I’ve had a pretty organic approach,” she admits of her technique.“I’m not Jessica Chastain. I’m not theatrically trained.”

Mickey and the Bear is only Camila Morrone’s fourth film, but already she’s grappling with harrowing material. “I was like, ‘Holy shit, this is really intense,’” she says on her way to the airport for an Italian getaway with her rumored boyfriend, Leonardo DiCaprio. While shooting on location in Anaconda, Montana, she drew on her own father, the model-actor Maximo Morrone, to help create a sense of filial intimacy with her co-star James Badge Dale. “My relationship with my dad is nothing like the film, but he is my best friend,” she says. “Annabelle [Attanasio, the director] really gave me the reins to do whatever I wanted with this character.” Which included using some of her own clothes to create Mickey’s casual style: “My scrunchies make a cameo.”

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Dress by Salvatore Ferragamo.

This article appears in the fall 2019 50th anniversary issue of Interview magazine. Subscribe here.

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Hair: Ramsell Martinez using Bumble and Bumble at Lowe & Co.
Makeup: Kali Kennedy using Chanel at Forward Artists
Photography Assistants: Jonathan Bar and Bailey Edwards
Fashion Assistant: David Miller