PLAYMATE

"Camille Rowe isn't just a model. It's not who I am." It's a brisk Sunday night in the City of Lights, and Miss April is in her Le Marais apartment, preparing a dinner of fish, fennel and Moroccan carrots. "I'm grateful for all I have," she continues, "but I've also had sleepless nights of feeling misunderstood. I had to learn how to separate myself from my job." She pauses and puts her focus back on dinner. "The thing is, my entire family is in the restaurant business. My siblings, my father and my grandparents all started as chefs and got their own restaurants. I'm agood cook, but in relation to them, I'm terrible," she says, laughing. Indeed, Camille, a native Parisian, veered from her family's rich his­tory as restaurateurs when a modeling scout discovered her at a cafe. Next came campaigns for Louis Vuitton and Dior, numerous magazine covers and a move to New York City when she turned 21. But tonight, she's back in her hometown to shoot her first major film role—and like the delicate cuisine she prepares, the film is a toast to her roots. "I can't reveal the title yet, which is annoying, but I can say it's a comedy by a popular, respected French director. And yes, I speak French in it." Camille hopes acting, along with her playboy cover, will propel her into a higher stratum where her voice is as recognized as her face. "You're in the public eye as a model, but you're rarely asked to speak—and even then, they ask only about your beauty routines. Now, though, people are starting to care what I have to say. It's why I wore my own clothes and styled myself for this shoot," she says. "This was my vision, and it's a proud moment for me." MISS APRIL 2016 C A M I L L E R O W E AGE: 26 BIRTHPLACE: Paris, France CURRENT CITY: Chinatown, New York MY PATH TO PLAYBOY I've collected playboy magazines from the 1960s and 1970s since I was a teenager. The entire ae^ thetic and the girls themselves are so classically beautiful, which is what we tried to imitate with my pictorial. I gave my opinion on everything; I'm so happy it hap­pened this way. THE BIGGEST MISCONCEPTION ABOUT ME I've definitely been branded in the modeling industry as a Franco-American. As such, for the longest time people assumed I didn't speak English or that I spoke with an accent. I'm kind of sick of people asking whether I feel more French or more American. WHAT I STUDIED IN COLLEGE I attended film school at the Amer- ican University of Paris, where [ studied screenwriting. In high school I watched Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law for the first time; I knew then I wanted to write movies. MY FAVORITE SEX SCENE [ love how free Brigitte Bardot is, and I used to obsessively watch that tragic, tragic movie Contempt oji repeat. Brigitte's name in the movie js also Camilje, so I guess I wejrdly related to her. But the sex scene between her and Michel Piccoli is so beautiful. When she asks him if he loves her totally, he replies, "Totally, tenderly, tragi­cally." I love that quote so much I got a tattoo of it. MY FAVORITE SPORT My mom is from southern Cali- fornia and was mortified by the thought of raising children who didn't know how to surf^So every summer we were sent to surf camp. I'm no expert, but I love it. [ love that it's a sporj_that relies on your understanding of nature. AN INSIDER'S TIP FOR VISITING PARIS My favorite bookstore is San Fran­cisco Book Company on Rue Mon­sieur le Prince. It has a lot of first editions, rare books and obsajre paperbacks from the 1960s and 1970s. It's tiny, but you'll spend hours there. The place is a treasure chest. Plus, the owner is this sassy American man who is hilarious. 0 <£FingerMonkey <3>CamilleRowe