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Estella Warren interview
Heaven scent - and determined
A bureaucratic decision at the Atlanta Olympics was instrumental in helping to launch the career of one of Hollywood's newest sex symbols.
Estella Warren was a member of the Canadian synchronised swimming team when her two events were dropped by the organising committee six years ago. Rather than feeling despondent, however, she took a chance on her sultry looks and aged just 16 headed for New York and modelling instead.
Her career culminated in her being made the face of Chanel No 5 which got her so much attention that Warren embarked on a film career.
Such success doesn't happen by accident and while Warren is undoubtedly extremely beautiful, she is also determined and the title of her new film Driven, which is released on Friday, could sum up her attitude of making the most of any opportunity.
The 22-year-old certainly doesn't regret that Olympic decision. "I remember I was devastated at the time but if it hadn't happened I wouldn't be here in Hollywood and I love what I'm doing," she says philosophically.
"I had this opportunity to get into this lucrative business (of modelling) so I did it."
Warren is the youngest of three daughters and grew up in Peterborough, Ontario. It was her sister Julia who got her interested in synchronised swimming. "Back then I think I did everything my older sister did."
Her modelling career took off when photos of her taking part in a high school fashion show were sent to a top New York fashion photographer. Soon after she arrived in the Big Apple, she was appearing on the cover of Italian Vogue magazine and was then snapped up by Chanel.
The first experience she had of acting was playing Little Red Riding Hood in a high profile Chanel TV advert and, appropriately, her movie debut earlier this year was in a film called Perfume.
Warren first went west to LA two years ago to see if she had what it took - and landed three film offers in two weeks. Her striking good looks make her ideal for romantic roles and she played beautiful human slave Daena to Mark Wahlberg's lost astronaut in Tim Burton's remake of Planet Of The Apes which was released at the end of the summer.
She has a similar role in Driven, Sylvester Stallone's racing drama which critics have dubbed `Rocky on wheels'. Stallone, now 55, stars as an aging star driver in the film who comes out of retirement to join an Indy racing team. Warren provides the sex appeal as Sophia Simone, causing friction as she goes between the two young rival drivers.
"It's just an action-packed, fast-paced eye candy," she says candidly. "But I think the script and the characters will engage you."
Life has certainly changed for the young actress. While her sister remains a swimming coach, it is life in the fast lane for Warren, complete with a Hollywood Hills home and a shiny black Land Rover. She says little about her love life but is reportedly dating Boogie Nights director Paul Thomas Anderson. She seems fairly realistic about her success and accepts that it was her good looks that got her started in films with limited acting experience. Earlier this year she was voted the world's No1 babe by lads' magazine Maxim. "I'd be the first to admit I got these jobs because of the way I look."
Neither does she appear troubled about being treated as eye candy - for the moment at least. "If I can't use my beauty now, I'm never going to be able to. This is the way I'm going to get myself to a position where it isn't a factor."
Her 34-24-34 figure is voluptuous rather than model-thin, she says. "I was more like a Victoria's Secret model, I'm very curvy and womanly."
It was French director Luc Besson who directed Warren in the Chanel No 5 TV advert who suggested that she should try acting. "In the first two weeks I was in Los Angeles I was offered three movies. I'd just gone there on spec," she recalls.
It's not hard to see why Hollywood's power males have fallen for her. "Name one woman in the world who's more beautiful than Estella? She's every guy's dream," says Driven director Renny Harlin.
The role of an Amazonian she-warrior in Planet of the Apes really appealed to Warren, and got her noticed. She beat several A-list stars for the role, including Winona Ryder - and her tough swimming training as a teenager really helped with the role.
"It was so empowering to play this female action hero," she recalls. "I'm so aggressive in that movie, with all this pent up animosity. I got to run and horseback ride, and I'd get clobbered fighting these apes. All the action was the fun part."
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