If you’re world famous, how do you make sure that the inevitable documentary that’s made about you is up to scratch?
Kate Moss has the answer: she’s doing it herself.
On Thursday, Variety reported that the British supermodel will be executive producing her own biopic.
Titled Moss & Freud, it will be a deep dive into Moss’s relationship with painter Lucian Freud, who died in 2011.
Best known for his portrait work – including of fellow artists Francis Bacon and Frank Auerbach – Freud also painted a nearly life-size nude portrait of Moss over the course of 2002, when she was pregnant with daughter Lila.
Sitting for the painting was an experience that Moss considered to be one of her most formative. As a rare celebrity subject for the painter, the work went onto sell for £3.9m at American auction house Christie’s.
Moss explained that she had hired James Lucas to direct, after watching his Oscar-winning short film The Phone Call.
“I knew that James would convey the emotion in the storytelling in a fitting way, one this memoir deserves,” she said.
“Having been involved in the project and script development from the beginning I am now very excited to see the film come to life.”
She added that “sitting for Lucian was an honour and incredible experience,” and one that cemented a strong friendship between the two.
Lucas added: “In many ways, I believe all paths led me to make this film. Its topography, emotional and psychological drama, bohemianism, beauty, characters and artistic process all align with my life and the way I have lived it.
“So much so, I symbolically begun writing the screenplay in Lucian’s studio, the scent of his oil paint still lingering in the air. I’m grateful to Kate Moss and the Freud Estate for entrusting me with this precious and unconventional love story. It allows our diverse audience to take a look behind the curtain and see, truthfully, what makes these cultural titans tick. Not only will they find incongruity but, perhaps surprisingly, a type of commonality that is threaded through all of us.”
After all that, it might be a surprise to hear that neither Moss nor Freud much liked the painting when it was completed.
“He didn’t really like the picture, and I didn’t really,” she once told SHOWStudio’s Nick Knight.
“I mean, I had a great time. It’s not, like, my favourite Lucian painting.”
Well, here’s to the great time.
