Taken from the autumn winter issue of Dazed:

Chanel’s favourite Franco-Spanish actress has ditched the fins she donned as a mermaid in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides for a role opposite Michael Pitt in new indie sci-fi thriller, I Origins. The plot suggests our irises hold the key to our place in the universe – and past lives. “People have been asking me if the eyes on the billboard in the film are my real eyes,” says 28-year-old Astrid Bergès-Frisbey, whose sectoral heterochromia affords her character a multi-hued gaze as prismatic as David Bowie. “After watching the film, many people have become obsessed with eyes. They start to see ‘signs’ all over the place.”

WHERE’D YOU GET THOSE PEEPERS?

“I notice eyes when I meet someone. I’m fascinated by the fact that we all look like we have a small planet inside us. It’s such a complex, poetic part of us. In I Origins, it’s explained as a point of conflict between spirituality and science.” 

GOING IT ALONE 

“I moved to Paris when I was 17. It was the first year living on my own and was very intense. I’d lost my father. I probably needed to regain my perspective a little. I haven’t worked consecutively in the same language for the past seven films, which ensures you never do the same thing twice. It’s beautiful when you have the opportunity to change from a completely inward role to a very organic, present role.”

“It’s beautiful when you have the opportunity to change from a completely inward role to a very organic, present role” – Astrid Bergès-Frisbey

NEAR-NAKED AT SUB-ZERO 

“We shot in the middle of winter in New York. It was -15ºC when we did the rooftop party scene. I’m not naked but wearing pretty much nothing. It was intense but Mike (Cahill, director) is so positive, and so completely convinced by the story he’s telling that he really makes you believe it as well.”

I Origins is out in cinemas today

hair by Hiroshi Matsushita; make-up by Danielle Kahlani