Cara Delevingne gets her miracle in ‘Paper Towns’

She’s Britain’s most famous model since Kate Moss. But unlike her predecessors, she‘s about to become a major Hollywood star. 

Born into a posh London family, Cara Delevingne quickly graduated private school and stepped onto the catwalk, becoming the face of Burberry, Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel.

Accumulating as many magazine covers as she does famous friends, she’s besties with Rihanna, Kendall Jenner and Taylor Swift, appearing in the video for her pal’s latest song “Bad Blood.” But a small role in 2012’s Anna Karenina piqued interest among movie producers, leading to other small roles that built her resume.

Delevigne has since been cast in the upcoming big budget supervillain flick Suicide Squad, as well as in dramas Kids In Love and Tulip Fever. But her biggest coup was landing a lead role as Margo Roth Spiegelman in the upcoming YA novel-turned-blockbuster Paper Towns, opening in wide release on July 23. Delevigne, 22, tells us about her amazing life and drops names of her A-list besties.

You’ve come a long way from the catwalk. Do you care a lot about fashion? No.

But you’re the face of many fashion houses. Doesn’t mean I care about it.

You don’t? No, of course I do. I care enough. I know a lot more people who aren’t in the fashion industry who care about fashion a lot more than I do. I like clothes, just not all the time. I prefer to be naked, what can I say?

In the beginning of Paper Towns it says that everybody gets a miracle. What’s your miracle? My life, generally. Being able to act. Being able to do the things that I love as my job, and get paid for them, which is weird, because I would pay to do this, generally. Yeah, those are my miracles. I’ve got a couple, yeah.

Would you say your career in movies is better than your careers in modeling or singing? I think I have two loves of my life, maybe three, this is definitely one of them. The first time I ever went on stage I fell in love. So yeah, the fact that I’m able to do this now is really the biggest, best thing in the world.

Can you talk about the first day you were on the set? Do you get nervous or are you very confident now that you’ve done so much? I’m never not nervous whenever I start anything. Probably modeling, I’m not actually nervous anymore, I mean unless I’m doing a catwalk or something. 

And how do you handle the nerves? I don’t. I’m super nervous. I’m a super nervous person, I can’t stop speaking, and I get all weird, and I start doing stupid things.

Such as? So like performing on stage at the MTV movie awards, I just like fidget and I start eating loads of candy and start trying to think of things that I’m going to do, which are really weird, like throw things at people. I just kind of go off on a tangent to try and hide the fact that I’m nervous, but actually it’s very blatantly obvious that I am.

You play a really popular girl in Paper Towns, one that knows how to lure a guy out of his shell, and is this contagious, adventurous persona. Do you see any of yourself in this character? Oh yeah, sure. Not in that sense. I mean at school, I wasn’t that person at all, I was probably the opposite. 

Like how the opposite? Shy? A wallflower? OK, no I wasn’t shy, that’s for sure. But I definitely wasn’t someone who would lure anyone out of their shell. Actually, I’m all about making people feel comfortable. If someone out of the group is the most shy person, I’ll be with them kind of making sure that they’re having a good time. I like everyone to have a good time, that’s my attitude and spirit.

I don’t know if Margo’s completely aware of the power that she has over (her friend) Quentin. I think she doesn’t really like to think about it. I think she just is generally that person, and I don’t think she’s trying that hard to be that person; I just think that’s the way she is. I don’t know, maybe I’m like that, I’m not sure.

You have 10 million followers on Twitter. How does it feel to be young and to have that many people looking up to you as a role model and to have people following your every move? I’m so lucky because there are so many things that I think, there are so many people I want to help, and especially in terms of like kids and the youth, and generations to come, I really want to make a difference, and make a good one, and I want to be a good role model. I don’t think I understood the importance of being one, or what that really meant when I was younger, because I didn’t know I was one until probably quite recently, but I just want to be a girl that girls can look up to. I’m a big believer that when I was younger there weren’t enough, I think, female strong women role models that I had looked up to, so I kind of want to be that.

Who were your role models as a girl that you looked up to? When I was a little girl I had more men as my role models … because I was a tomboy and I liked to play with cars and building things, and that kind of stuff, and action men. I loved the Spice Girls.

So, which men were role models, I mean, do you remember characters, or actors? All the superheroes. I loved superheroes. I don’t think I had any real life — apart from the Spice Girls — I don’t think I looked up to anyone in real life, I think. it was more like fictional characters.

Fantasy? Fantasy, yeah for sure. Now, though, like as an artist I guess, you know, mostly actresses I think, like Meryl Streep, Angelina Jolie — I would love to emulate (Jolie’s) career. I think it’s amazing what she does now, especially being a director as well. I would love to be able to do that. I have a bunch of my friends who are role models to me, like Taylor (Swift) and Rihanna, those hard working ladies who are completely independent and are amazing.

Paper Towns is a lot about really strong friendship. How important is that to you, and how easy is it to have in this industry? I love people, and I love my friends more than anything. Friends are family to me in so many ways. I still have all my old best friends I’ve had since I was at school, but I think along the way I’ve managed to meet a lot of amazing, incredible, inspiring people who again, yes are as busy as me, but it’s the nicest thing in the world where you kind of can find time in the busiest of schedules to kind of meet up, and we understand each other. We go through the same thing, we have our private lives, public, and it’s nice to have that — people to rely on.

What friend do you call if you’re having a really bad day? Again, I speak to a bunch of people every day. From my oldest friends like Georgia (May Jagger) and Suki (Waterhouse), to like, Jordan (Dunn) to Dakota (Johnson), or Kendall (Jenner), or you know, any of them, like I’ll call pretty much every day. I FaceTime Taylor every week. FaceTime is the best thing in the world, it really is.

How about Karl Lagerfield (head designer of Chanel)? Karl, I text Karl a lot. Yes, he sends me pictures of his cat a lot. I love Karl.

He really is such an amazing man, and I’m so lucky that he includes me so much in what he does. I think the first couple times I met him I was terrified of him, but he just seems so intimidating just because of his … I think it’s his knowledge, or just the air about him, but he’s the opposite of that. He is one of the kindest, loveliest, loyal people who’s taught me so much, and knows so much, and has the best stories in the whole world. He’s really the best person to sit next to.