With a career spanning almost four decades and dozens of films, TV shows and music videos behind her, Sadie Frost is nowhere near slowing down. Her directorial debut, the 2021 documentary Quant, is followed by Twiggy, another eponymous biography about a fashion icon set for release this year, with several other projects in the pipeline. Sadie has found peace in yoga, which she practises with others at retreats she organises in the UK and abroad. At an interview at the Hilton Park Lane, London, Sadie spoke to our Editor-in-Chief, Julia Pasarón, about the journey of her life.
Sadie grew up in an unusual, or as she calls it, “colourful” environment. Her father, David Vaughan, was a psychedelic artist and her mother, Mary Davidson, was a teenage actress when Sadie was born. The family lived on a bus and spent a lot of time travelling, staying in communes surrounded by lots of eccentric people.
When Sadie’s parents separated, they went on to have multiple relationships, which provided Sadie with an extensive family of half siblings. “I was the eldest of us all,” she shares, “so from an early age I was looking for a role model in one of those matriarchal women that appeared in novels like Little Women.” Under this façade of matriarchal strength, however, was a kid dealing with the insecurities that all teenagers face. She sees her formative years now as a Pandora’s box. “At the time you don’t realise because you don’t know any different,” she says. “It is as if you put a lid on it and forget and then, years or decades later, it opens.” On one side, Sadie believes she lived in a kind of fantasy world, on the other, she remembers wanting to escape the chaos in which she found herself.
“They say that when people want to go onto the stage, it’s because they want to escape their lives, become someone else. I think that probably applies to me.”
– Sadie Frost
Sadie won a scholarship to study at the famous drama school Italia Conti Academy in Islington, north London. She remembers her days there with fondness. “I met a lot of lovely people, some of whom are still very close friends today,” she says. It also provided Sadie with a springboard for her career. “I got to be in theatre, TV series and films, none of which would have happened without that scholarship.”
The 1990s was a hectic decade for Sadie. Her role as the beautiful, ill-fated Lucy Westenra in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) catapulted her to global fame. She became the ultimate “it” girl, appearing in music videos, films and TV shows everywhere. By then she had married the Spandau Ballet guitarist Gary Kemp, with whom she had a son. They divorced in 1995 and two years later she wed actor Jude Law. She had three more children with him. In 2003 that marriage also ended in divorce.
Sadie looks back at that time as, in a way, not real. “I was very young, so it was all very exciting. However, as amazing as it was to hang out with bands such as Oasis and Pulp and socialise with big American stars like David Schwimmer and Hank Azaria, the truth is that it was a bit of a fantasy life that was not sustainable.”
“I was very young […] the truth is that it was a bit of a fantasy life that was not sustainable.”
– Sadie Frost
She believes her family helped her maintain a grip on reality. “I wanted to dedicate myself to my children and make memories with them,” she says. As her life moved out of the limelight, she focused on her children. Her career, she says, “peppered along with the school runs and the sports days”…
To read Sadie’s interview in full, order your copy of our summer issue HERE.
Author: Julia Pasarón
Fashion & Jewellery Director/Production: Marcella Martinelli @marcellastylis
Photographer: Debbi Clark @debbiclarkphotography
Hair: Tim Crespin @timcrespin @arlingtonartists.
Makeup: Charlie Duffy @charlieduffymakeup @carolhayesmanagemenet using Elemis and Sweed Beauty
Eyebrows: Suzanne Martin/The Couture Brow @suzannemartinaesthetics
Opening image: FOPE Panorama small earrings, FOPE Solo ring with diamond and Eka bracelet, all in yellow gold. ROKSANDA tailoring Erato jacket in grey wool, grey melange Therspia trousers.
First picture body text: ALEXANDER MCQUEEN single-breasted tailored jacket with corset detail and trousers in black wool grain de poudre.
Second picture body text: ASPREY single-leaf diamond earrings and pendant. ASPREY Deco diamond bracelet. CATHERINE WALKER midnight blue silk bias cut floor-length gown. CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Sandaloo platform sandals.
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