NYLON x CLEMENCE POESY

"I realized at some point that the world I work in - the acting world - had become very related to fashion, so I decided to have fun with it rather than let it have fun with me," says Clémence Poésy in a breathy Franco-English voice that sails down the telephone line from Paris. "Putting on clothes is like putting on a different character."

A regular in the front rows of Chanel, Balenciaga, and Chloe, it may have been Poésy's feline beauty and feminine sense of style that first caught your attention (she graded the cover of NYLON in 2008 with Anja Rubik and Chloe Sevigny), but after her breakthrough English-speaking film roles in In Bruges and Harry Potter (not to mention her memorable cameo as Chuck Bass' paramour in Gossip Girl), the 28-year-old has proven captivating in more ways than one. 

Poésy recently finished work on the film Jeanne Captive, in which she plays Joan of Arc.  A skilled illustrator, she prepared for the role by drawing portraits of her heroine. "To embody a character, you have to lose all judgment about them," she says.  "Acting makes you look at life and try to understand it in a beautiful way."

See more of Clemence Poésy in the new issue of NYLON, on stands now!

Or get Clemence's past NYLON cover story on our Back Issues page!