The English-French singer and actress Jane Birkin (75) would like to disappear into thin air on her birthday. “If you could just literally disappear, that would be very nice,” Birkin told the German Press Agency in Hamburg.
She asked her best friend to forget the birthday and tell Birkin’s children that too. But the children would press their friend with questions about when and where. That’s why there will probably be a small celebration. “I would really prefer it not to happen.” She fears people are more likely to feel they need to come or find a gift. “You know, none of this has any charm anymore.” Birkin will be 76 years old on December 14th.
“I got off pretty lucky”
Born in London and French by choice, she moved to France in the late 1960s and has lived there ever since. She is still grateful to her first husband, the film composer John Barry, for this. She was married to him from 1965 to 1968 before he left her. “Otherwise I would probably still be Mrs. John Barry, no doubt still heating up his turtle soup and running his bath.” Maybe she would have just become a television actress. “So I think I got off pretty lucky.”
Birkin has acted in more than 60 motion pictures. She hasn’t appeared on screen for a while. You get film offers, but the roles would not have promised you recently. So she was offered the role of an elderly mother with Alzheimer’s. “But I don’t see myself as that kind of me. I don’t know if I would believe it myself and therefore be able to play it authentically,” Birkin told dpa.
However, she does not generally rule out a return to the screen. “I’d love to play an eccentric person like traveling to Egypt on a camel or something. I’d love to do that,” said Birkin, laughing.
Birkin is also the namesake for the luxury handbag from Hermès. When asked how many of these so-called Birkin Bags she owns, the 75-year-old has a clear answer: “I only have one. Who needs more than one handbag?”
In March 2023, Birkin will come to Germany for several concerts. She will sing in Hamburg on March 24th, in Munich on March 26th and in Berlin on March 29th.
