La Deva Vita: Deva Cassel on Netflix’s ‘The Leopard’, legacy and defining her own path

Even so, Cassel has no illusions about the privileges of her background. “I once heard a saying, ‘Legacy—[in this case], having famous parents—is useful when you don’t know how to do anything’,” she says. “It exposes you to different worlds, but people will always downplay what you do, thinking it has [been] handed to you [and] that it’s easy. [But] it’s not.”

Throughout the interview, the 20-year-old Italian French actress and model speaks with a thoughtfulness beyond her years, offering measured insight into her life and career. Born in Rome and raised between Paris and Rio de Janeiro, Cassel is fluent in five languages and her cadence—in English, at least—bears the subtle inflections of her global upbringing.

“Being so close and in touch with such different cultures really opens your mind,” she says. “It opens your heart as well.” To Cassel, curiosity is one of the greatest gifts that travel can offer. Even something as simple as the willingness to try new foods, she believes, says a great deal about a person’s outlook. “I’ve always eaten everything,” she says. “Just be open and curious.” This curiosity shapes everything in Cassel’s life, from how she approaches fashion and film to her personal expression. “If you’re a traveller, you’re a great storyteller,” she says. “You encounter different people, sights and sounds. You absorb [these different elements], choose what [resonates] and make it your own.”

Storytelling by way of cinema was a constant in Cassel’s childhood. Her parents often showed old Italian and French films, including those featuring Sophia Loren, one of the most iconic Italian actresses of all time, known for her portrayal of women with strong characters, and one of Bellucci’s greatest inspirations. “[My mother] showed me a lot of [Loren’s] films and I fell in love with the way women were portrayed in cinema,” she shares. It seems natural that storytelling would be part of Cassel’s career.

She became a model almost by accident: she was on set at a photo shoot featuring her mother when a photographer took her picture. She made her modelling debut aged only 14, in a Dolce & Gabbana fragrance campaign and today, walks for big names such as Coperni, Dior, Fendi and Jacquemus. But despite her excitement about building narratives, her move into acting was less assured, due in no small part to her irritation at the assumption that she would join her in her parents’ industry. “I hated that people thought they knew what I was going to do when I had no idea myself. I was too young to know,” she says. “Everybody asked me if I wanted to do the same thing as my parents. So I said, ‘I will never be in front of a cinematic camera. I don’t want it; it’s not interesting to me.’”

But as Cassel continued modelling, her reluctance gave way to curiosity. “The more I worked, the more I got to know myself. I became more comfortable in front of the camera, interpreting different sides of myself. [Little by little], I started opening up towards the idea of cinema,” she says.

The turning point came with the script for the indie film The Beautiful Summer, a coming-of-age story directed by Italian filmmaker Laura Luchetti. “It was like reading a long poem,” Cassel recalls. “I fell in love with my character [the protagonist Amelia]. And I had so much fun on set that I decided that I had to do more [acting],” adding that she is eager to explore more diverse genres and roles: “I want to try a bit of everything to discover what I’m capable of.” Her upcoming projects include Bethlehem, an American biblical epic currently in production, and a contemporary French film adaptation of Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera.

In The Leopard, Cassel plays Angelica Sedara, a woman who, much like herself, enters a world steeped in tradition yet determines her own place within it. The series unfolds in 1860s Sicily during the Risorgimento, the movement leading to Italy’s unification. At its core is Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina, whose aristocratic family grapples with shifting tides of power as the old world gives way to the new.

When it came to bringing Angelica to life, Cassel explored the duality of a character caught between ambition and vulnerability. “I wanted to give this fierce, sensual and malicious creature a sense of vulnerability; something she tries to hide,” she explains. “She seems so certain of what she’s doing, fighting for what’s supposed to be right. But is it really what she wants? In both the book and series, she hasn’t had a choice of how to live her life. From a young age, she [was led] in a certain direction.” The parallels between Cassel’s own life and Angelica’s story are subtle yet meaningful—both are navigating worlds shaped by expectation, and both are determined to define themselves beyond inherited narratives.

This theme of legacy and reinvention extends beyond the screen. There is an interplay between heritage and modernity in The Leopard that resonates with Cassel, and that is reflected also at Cartier, for which she is a global brand ambassador. Incidentally, her mother, who is a longstanding maison ambassador, was also once on a Tatler cover, appearing on the front of the Singapore edition almost 15 years ago, also adorned in Cartier jewellery. “It’s funny how my mother and I cross paths in many of the things we do,” Cassel says. “It’s an honour to be a muse for this [Tatler] cover. It’s fun to interpret that in my own way.”

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In the 2011 story, Bellucci spoke about buying her first Cartier Tank watch with earnings from her early days in modelling. Years later, she gave her eldest daughter her first Cartier piece: a necklace from the Love collection. “When she gave it to me, she said that we’re forever intertwined,” Cassel says. “That was very special.” Now that she’s old enough to choose her own pieces, Cassel gravitates towards the timeless power and grace of the Panthère—“You can never go wrong with a Panthère piece.”—and the Juste un Clou collection which, with its rebellious undertones, she “associates with the most”. Her favourite piece from the Nature Sauvage collection is the Eusuchia ring. “I’m completely in love with this bold crocodile ring. The way it wraps around your finger, holding a stunning tourmaline, is just gorgeous. The realistic details, like the belly on the inside, make it truly special.”

Perhaps it is this same spirit of reinvention that steers Cassel’s approach to the future. She has no set plans, but a broad swathe of creative interests that extend into fashion, painting and music. “My father gave me a good musical foundation. He made us listen to different genres. I’m grateful because I developed my ear and passion for music,” she says. She plays the piano and writes her own songs, and hopes one day to move into artistic direction. “I love interpreting people’s ideas,” she says, “but I also want a team to help me create my own.”

For now, though, her focus is firmly on the present. “I’m lucky to have a job where I don’t feel like I’m working,” she says. “Even on long, exhausting days, I’m still happy. That’s what I wish for in the coming years: to stay happy and curious. “I’m just going with the flow, seeing where life takes me.”

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