The Siren by KATHERINE JOHN (general ebook reader .txt) 📕

Stella, forgive us, for we have misjudged you.

June 2021 IssueHollywood LifeSMART LIKE A FOX:

Inside the World of Breakout Star Felicity Fox

By Max Jones

On a bright spring morning in the Eighteenth Arrondissement of Paris, I find myself facing an ascent of what must be fifty stairs up to the faded cream building actress Felicity Fox calls home. As I contemplate the torture before me, I look up to see her backlit by the sun at the top of the stone staircase, her red dress billowing around her slim frame, shoulder-length blond hair framing her face like a halo. She waves, enveloping me in the warmth of her bright smile, and rushes down the stairs to meet me. “I know it’s a climb,” she says, laughing. “But wait’ll you see the view.”

We make our way through a heavy green door and up another flight of creaking wood stairs. A Chihuahua circles our legs as we enter an old-world apartment decorated with a bohemian flair. “This is Mimi,” Felicity says, scooping up the dog and scratching her ears. “She’s visiting while her mama is way across the world in China.”

(Though Fox doesn’t mention it, I’ll later discover Mimi’s mama is Fox’s good friend Stella Rivers, who recently adopted her daughter, Iris, from mainland China.)

The view of Montmartre from the tall windows is, as promised, breathtaking, but it pales in comparison to Felicity Fox in person. Without a stitch of makeup, she glows as though lit from within—and for good reason. Her turn in the title role of this month’s Barbie, which she co-wrote with boyfriend, Jackson Power (son of the late actor Cole Power), is being hailed as the must-see performance of the season. The film, directed by Power, is a dark fairy tale with elements of magical realism based on the life of Fox’s mother, a sex worker who was forced into heroin use by an abusive client before finding love with a woman shortly before passing away of an overdose when Fox was ten. “I wanted to do something to honor my mother’s memory,” Fox explains. “The story isn’t strictly factual, but more of an interpretation of who she was and who she could have been, set in 1890s Paris. I fell in love with the city while we were shooting, so here we are.”

Fox and Power met on the set of the ill-fated The Siren, during which Power’s now notorious father famously drowned when his boat capsized during Hurricane Celia. Fox was working as actress Stella Rivers’s stand-in at the time, and director Power recognized her talent during blocking rehearsals, but she wasn’t at first interested in acting. “It’s not that I don’t love acting. It’s the fame I was afraid of,” Fox admits. “I’ve seen what it does to people, and it’s not pretty. It took some convincing, but Jackson can be very persuasive, and when he came to me with the idea to do something based on my mother’s life, I couldn’t turn him down.”

When asked about her relationship with Power, Felicity instantly becomes demure. “Our relationship is private,” she says. “But I will say it’s very important to me. He’s an incredible person.”

Now the two are working on revamping Power’s script for The Siren, in which Fox will play the role originated by disgraced YouTube star Madison Kasabian, who dropped off the radar after it came out that she’d never had the cancer she became famous for beating. Fox’s friend and former boss, Stella Rivers, will star opposite her, and Taylor Wasserman, who produced the original film but has since moved on to a position as director of the Caribbean Film Commission, will executive produce.

“I’m really excited to be working with Taylor and Stella again, and to get to spend some time in the beautiful Caribbean,” Fox says. “But we’re still doing a little rewriting before we cast the male lead. I can’t say too much because I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but I really didn’t want to do anything that wasn’t going to be totally empowering to women. If having a platform is a side effect of doing what I love, then I want to use it for something positive, and to me that means empowering women and girls.”

True to her word, Fox and Rivers founded the charity Women Care, which has to date raised more than two million for women’s shelters in Fox’s home state of Florida. “We started in Florida, but we’re expanding across the United States in the coming months. Stella has started a program within Women Care where women write and perform their stories for one another in a supportive environment, which we’ve found really helps with self-acceptance and healing. Whether they’re battling addiction or fleeing an abusive partner, it’s so important for people to know they’re not alone.”

Meanwhile, Fox is unfazed by the rumors swirling about possible awards recognition for her breakout role in Barbie. “It’s flattering,” she says, “but it’s not about me. All I’ve ever wanted was to give my mother a voice, and I’m grateful every day for the opportunity to do so.”

EpilogueFelicity

Two Years after the Storm

Paris teeters on the far edge of springtime, poised to plunge into sultry summer any day now. Pink buds litter the grass, and sunbathers line the shores of the Seine; in the parks, the daffodils and tulips of May are already giving way to the roses and peonies of June. I won’t be needing the cardigan tucked into the canvas bag on my shoulder, next to the nearly empty urn of my mother’s ashes.

Today marks the fifteenth anniversary of Iris’s death, and I’ve finally followed through on my intention to spread her remains throughout the city she never got to visit before she died. Jackson was understanding of my need to spend the day treading the streets of Paris alone with her memory, dropping handfuls of ashes beneath willow trees and into