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"   It&amp;#039;s impossible to take one&amp;#039;s eyes off catwalk darling Lily Cole in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Terry Gilliam&amp;#039;s trippy fantasy film, which hits theaters December 25. The Pre-Raphaelite beauty, who plays the teen daughter of the title character\u2014the leader of a travelling theater troupe who wins immortality through a bargain with the devil\u2014recently chatted with us about her first major role, her Cambridge studies, and upcoming acting projects.\u2014Erin Clements What attracted you to Parnassus?  I love fantasy films, but it was more that the script was incredibly fascinating. I met Terry Gilliam and he was such an unusual, brilliant person. I&amp;#039;d seen Brazil and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and was very excited to have the opportunity to work with him. If you could have any superpower, what would it be? To fly. What was it like working with veteran actors like Christopher Plummer? It was intimidating but very inspiring to be up against some of the greatest actors of our age. It&amp;#039;s a wonderful place to be and also a scary place to be.  What was the atmosphere like on set after Heath Ledger passed away and Colin Farrell, Johnny Depp, and Jude Law took over his role? It was very sad, but also lovely to see everyone again. There was a sense of unity and everyone really was so grief-stricken and really loved Heath and came back together in a beautiful and loving way to try and finish the film, so it was a strange mixture. Is acting a long-term goal? I&amp;#039;m going to see what&amp;#039;s offered to me. I&amp;#039;m definitely more interested in acting than modeling and if I&amp;#039;m lucky I&amp;#039;ll keep pursuing that path and keep finding these interesting projects. At the same time, I&amp;#039;m studying the history of art right now [at Cambridge] and the world&amp;#039;s got vast possibilities. I&amp;#039;m not hell-bent on one particular path. What led you to study art? Wanting to know and appreciate the greatest influences in visual culture over the last 2,000 years. It&amp;#039;s an inspiring subject and it doesn&amp;#039;t seem at odds with filmmaking these days, which is a technologically developed way of expressing creativity. Do you have a favorite artist? I love artists who make innovative changes\u2014Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht D\u00FCrer, if you look back hundreds of years. And then a lot of 20th-century artists\u2014De Kooning, Eva Hesse, Newman, Picasso, Gerhard Richter. Has it been difficult juggling school with modeling? I never get sick of school\u2014well, I hardly ever got sick of school, and I hardly ever get sick of modeling. But I&amp;#039;m sure I&amp;#039;d get sick of both if I&amp;#039;d just committed to one entirely.  Who are your favorite fashion designers? Jean-Paul Gaultier, Noir, Alexander McQueen, Chanel, a lot of the French designers. How did modeling prepare you for acting? I think it prepared me for being on a film set and having a hundred people in a room watching you and having cameras on you and not being self-conscious and being confident enough to take on such a proposition. It gave me a lot of tools that allowed me to not be too terrified by the prospect of acting.  Do you have any other film projects lined up? I&amp;#039;m starting a film next year with Mary Harron. It&amp;#039;s based on a Rachel Klein book called The Moth Diaries. My character is accused of being a vampire throughout it, so it&amp;#039;s kind of ambiguously a vampire story, but it&amp;#039;s also about the narrator&amp;#039;s psychological obsession with another girl.  What&amp;#039;s the best and worst advice you&amp;#039;ve gotten? The best is probably to stay true to yourself and pursue the impossible. The worst advice\u2014did you hear about the Kate Moss scandal?\u2014I know she was joking, but &amp;quot;Nothing tastes as good as being skinny.&amp;quot;  Photo: Getty Images "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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