Performance Has Always Been in Devon Ross’ Blood
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Devon Ross was well within the bounds for “It” girl status long before she made her acting debut in the A24 and HBO series “Irma Vep” this summer. Born in Toronto, Ross grew up touring the world with her dad Craig Ross, who is the lead guitarist for Lenny Kravitz. She herself started with guitar as a teenager and began her journey as a musician, writing and performing her own work. In 2019 she tried her hand at modeling, making her runway debut for Gucci and going on to walk for the likes of Valentino, Saint Laurent and Simone Rocha. (British Vogue has dubbed her “the coolest model currently climbing up the ranks.”)
So, yeah, making her acting debut in an Alicia Vikander-led series that premiered at Cannes? Only the next natural step.
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Ross calls in from London, one of her home bases, where she’s just returned following a trip to Paris for the Celine show. “Irma Vep,” which has two episodes left to premiere in its first season, has introduced her to a new level of recognition.
“It’s kind of surreal,” she says. “I’m starting to get [my character] Regina TikTok edits coming out and people recognizing me from the show, which is so great. I haven’t experienced this before, so it’s been pretty amazing.”
Ross says in many ways she’s always wanted to be an actor, but didn’t give it much thought as modeling had started taking over.
“Which is great and I’m very grateful about it,” she says. “The acting came at such a good time and I feel so ready to dive into something new.”
carole bethuel
The role was the first time she’d ever done a self-tape, and when she found out she got the part she had a hard time believing it wasn’t a prank. With the season behind her, she’s now focused on acting, eager to see what comes next.
“I love Sofia Coppola, I’d love to work with her. I grew up watching her films, they were my whole teenage existence,” she says. “‘Marie Antoinette’ and ‘The Virgin Suicides’ were my favorites.”
With an upbringing like hers, it was only a matter of time that she’d fall into a creative lifestyle, though she didn’t know exactly what form that would take as a kid — luckily for her, she seems to be talented in every realm she tries.
“We were always traveling and I always grew up around music and fashion,” Ross says. “Music was everything in my family: The Beatles films were my favorite when I was a kid and I kind of just grew up with that stuff, which just totally carried into my adulthood. I’m even obsessed with stuff now. But, yeah, we just grew up on tour and around music and everything, so it was kind of natural for me to end up doing stuff like this.”
She started learning the guitar at 15, after years of thinking it would be the last thing she’d pursue.
“Before that I was kind of not really into the idea of being a guitar player because everyone would ask me if I wanted to do that. And I’d always be like, ‘No, I want to do something else,’” she says. “But then I didn’t realize that it was just in my blood [and] I loved it. It’s only natural that I love it, too.”
MYLES HENDRIK
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