Mia Goth covers the latest issue of Elle, mostly to promote her role in Frankenstein. She has plenty of other projects coming up though, and she’s hit a point in her career where she’s really in-demand for all kinds of projects. With that name and with her energy, she’ll always find a home in horror and sci-fi, which is fine with her. Mia also seems to have an on-and-off relationship with Shia LaBeouf, who fathered her daughter Isabel. She says, point blank, that she doesn’t want to discuss anything about Shia in this interview. The vibe I get is that he’s still in her life and he sees Isabel sometimes, but Mia is also on the move a lot of the time and Isabel is always with her. Some highlights from this Elle piece:

Working with directors like Guillermo del Toro & Christopher Nolan: “It’s given me a lot of strength, actually. To trust myself, to be a little less scared of the world. It’s empowering, having the opportunity to work at this level.”

Growing up poor on three continents: “There was this scarcity mind frame. We were going from one place to another, but nothing was ever really ours and nothing was ever permanent. And I was so desperately yearning for a home.” The stories she made up seemed safer. They felt like acting; they felt like play. “I think they made me feel more in control, as though I wasn’t just a passenger to the situation that was taking place. I can talk about it now because I’m so removed from it. But at the time, there was a lot of shame.”

She started working as an actress at 18: “I saw acting as a way to get out of the situation I was in. That’s really what made me work as hard as I did. It was my driving force.” She vocalizes her interior monologue as a teenager: “‘If this doesn’t work, then I’m going to go back to that, and I can’t let that be. So this needs to work. There’s no plan B. I have to do whatever it takes to make this scene good, to make sure that I’m good enough as an actor.’”

Her relationship with her parents now: Now that she, too, is a mom, Goth says she “definitely has more empathy” for her own mother’s struggles. “For a long time, I would’ve done anything to have changed the situation I was in. But, now, looking back on it, I’m proud of what I come from and what we went through and that we were able to survive that. I wouldn’t change any of it.”

Her daughter: “More than anything, I’d say my daughter is my home,” she says. Goth is fiercely protective of Isabel, the child she shares with fellow actor Shia LaBeouf. For Isabel’s well-being as much as her own, the actress wants to reconcile the feelings of displacement that still dog her. “It’s something that I’m trying to work through and understand more deeply, so that it’s not something I give to my daughter,” she says. “If you feel comfortable within yourself, you’re going to feel good anywhere. Because wherever you go, you’re going to be confronted with yourself eventually.”

She can “compartmentalize”: “I’m not the kind of actor who’s unable to shake it off at the end of the day. With a daughter, that’s just not realistic.” She has no social media; she doesn’t read comments. It’s “completely irrelevant” whatever people might claim about her online. “I have quite a thick skin in that sense. I have a good life. I’m happy. So things like that don’t affect me.”

She always knew she wanted to be a mom. “It’s a really psychedelic experience to have a child. You’re parenting her, but you’re also parenting the version of you that existed when you were that age. The amount of love that you can feel.…” Goth trails off and offers a warm smile. “She’s the greatest gift of my life. I really hope to be something steady for her. That no matter what happens in her life, she can return to me. No matter what her age—if she’s in a sh-tty relationship or something’s not going right at work—she can always come home. And she’ll always have a bed to sleep in and a home-cooked meal.”

[From Elle]

I didn’t know that Mia’s background was so rough and so poor – her mom was always moving her around to different countries and they never had any money. Now Mia moves her daughter around to other countries… but they have money, and it feels like Mia is trying to be more present for her daughter while at the same time making money so that Isabel can have everything Mia didn’t have. Add to all of that, the question of Shia’s involvement in Mia and Isabel’s lives. I don’t know, but I feel sorry for Mia and I hope she has a lot of support from friends and coworkers.

Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, cover courtesy of Elle.