She still deals with self-doubt. Having every one of her choices—her hair, her clothing, her makeup, her fiancé—questioned is not helpful. As for getting engaged at 19, she knows what people are thinking. But she knows herself too. She might have teenage insecurities, but she also has instincts that have steered her through a phenomenally successful career. She trusts herself. If there’s one thing she has faith in, it’s her own sense of timing. “It’s like—I know I should make this movie now. I know I should write this book now. I know I should do this now,” she says.
“It’s not because I can’t do it in 10 years; of course I can do it in 10 years,” she says. “But why, when I know that it’s going to work now? Just like Florence will be there in 10 years. You’ll be able to see my movie in 10 years on TV. And I know that Jake and I will be okay.”
She says she learned to seize the moment from her own family, who drove across the country to let her pursue an acting career. “It’s like, why wait? Let’s go for it.”
Both she and Bongiovi, Brown points out, have parents who married young and are still in love decades later. (Yes, his dad is Jon Bon Jovi.) “We were modelled wonderful, loving relationships,” says Brown. “So it’s something that we both had that mutual drive for.” They’re close with both sets of parents (the two had been having lunch with hers just before this interview). “His family were so wonderfully accepting of me and embraced me, and it’s so nice to find a second family in that,” says Brown.
Repeatedly during our interview I ask Brown to clarify: Where does she get the energy? The 12-hour shooting days, the long production meetings, new Florence launches, the book, UNICEF, the endless cycle of orphaned pets in need of homes, the global domination—doesn’t she get tired? She looks confused.
“Of course, anyone gets tired, but I take a nap!” she says. “And then I wake up, and then I keep going.”
Photographed by AB+DM
Stylist: Ryan Young
Hair: Nasetia Windham
Makeup: Blake Johnson
Manicure: Kim Cao
Set Design: Sinclair E. Reddings
Production: Sienna Brown