Ruby Rose might be a wise-cracking badass, but that doesn’t mean she wouldn’t welcome a little sympathy after a brutal BMX wipeout on the Toronto set of “xXx: The Return of Xander Cage.” But when the Aussie actress and DJ went wheels to heels on her new bike — a 30th birthday gift from co-star Vin Diesel, along with a trip to an ax-throwing range — she just got a good-natured ribbing from the cast.
“I started BMXing as it’s a part of my character’s back story, and I got a seriously big bruise on my leg and couldn’t walk for a few days,” recalls the gender-bending star, who plays a sniper in the D.J. Caruso-directed action movie, out early next year. “All Toni Collette could say was how much better she could ride a BMX than me and I wasn’t a true Australian, ha ha. But she’s right, she’s pretty hard core.”
Collette had better watch out or she might end up with fart bombs in her trailer. Fun-loving Rose left a pile of stinkers for fellow “xXx” actress Nina Dobrev as part of an escalating practical-joke-off that the pair have been documenting on Instagram.
Despite the odorous abuse, Dobrev says her pal is a breath of fresh air. “Ruby is a force to be reckoned with, and I’m beyond lucky to have her as a co-star and be able to call her a good friend,” Dobrev tells Alexa. “She’s hard-working, focused, funny, professional, fiercely determined and a lot of fun to be around.”
A celebrity for the aughts, Rose doesn’t so much defy stereotypes as dismiss them completely. She connects with fans — and there are more than 7 million of them on her Instagram account — with a potent millennial mix of disarming honesty, touching vulnerability and hot selfies.
She wears her heart on her tattooed sleeves, openly discussing her ongoing battle with bipolar disorder and depression and the suicide attempts and teenage bullying that devastated her. Rose’s patient explanations of what it’s like to be gender-fluid — she usually doesn’t identify as either gender, but somewhere on the continuum — have earned her praise from the LGBT community and beyond. Even her model looks, which just landed her a coveted beauty contract with Urban Decay, resist typecasting: She segues from glamour girl to beautiful boy next door and back again.
Rose is the face of Urban Decay’s biggest launch ever, Vice lipstick. The images here and above were taken behind the scenes on the shoot for the ad campaign, which breaks next month.Rhianne Bergado“When Ruby hit the scene, I was immediately hooked,” says Wende Zomnir, chief creative officer and a founding partner of Urban, a beauty brand that celebrates self-expression. “I connected with her on so many levels when we first met. We talked about dogs, working out, and I loved her individuality. Ruby nails every bit of what Urban Decay stands for.”
“She’s attractive to everybody, boys and girls,” Jennifer Euston, the casting director for Netflix’s “Orange Is the New Black,” told People magazine last year, after Rose catapulted to fame as sassy inmate Stella Carlin. “The one with a little edge, that’s always appealing to an audience.”
Indeed, her swagger and sex appeal have intrigued Hollywood. Ruby Rose Langenheim overcame a turbulent childhood in Melbourne, Australia, to achieve fame as a model, DJ, actress, television presenter and MTV VJ back home. She moved to Los Angeles in 2014 and got engaged to fashion designer Phoebe Dahl, but struggled to find work. At loose ends, she wrote, produced and starred in “Break Free,” a 2014 YouTube video about transitioning between feminine and masculine gender identities. It went viral, and “OITNB” came calling. After eight episodes (and a memorable nude shower scene) on the prison drama, she landed roles in three action movies out in early 2017 (“xXx,” “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” and “John Wick: Chapter Two”) and voiced an animated film (“Sheep & Wolves”).
Rose has found herself in some precarious positions in the last year. “I’ve had to conquer my fear of heights on ‘xXx,’ and had Keanu [Reeves] elbow me in the eye, but man was that a good take!” says the daredevil, who split with Dahl in December. “I did a lot of wire work in ‘Resident Evil 6,’ which helped me get my abs back — which I thought I’d lost for eternity.”
She received intensive firearms and martial arts training for her role as an assassin in “John Wick 2,” directed by former stuntman Chad Stahelski. “Nobody really wants to watch two stunt doubles fighting,” she explains. “So aside from one stunt that would have been impossible for me to do, I was able to do all my fight scenes with Keanu.”
There were no hit men lurking on the shoots for Rose’s first Urban Decay campaign, but she still managed to look fierce. Her images will promote the biggest launch in Urban history: the 100-shade, high-pigment Vice lipstick collection and 50 matching lip pencils hitting stores next month. Rose has long been a fan of Urban makeup (especially Perversion mascara and Naked Flushed bronzer), and not just because of its colors and finishes. She admires its cruelty-free stance and focus on letting customers be unapologetically themselves. “It’s a strong social message; it’s an important culture to promote.”
Another plus: The new concealer is great for covering up BMX bruises.
