Audrey Hepburn’s Granddaughter Looks Like Her Twin

Feb 24, 2021 by apost team

Audrey Hepburn is arguably one of the most iconic actors in American culture. From "A Roman Holiday" to "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the legendary performer has undeniably left an everlasting mark on Hollywood. While she might have tragically passed away in 1992, her legacy is carried by her gorgeous lookalike granddaughter, Emma Ferrer.

Audrey Hepburn was born on May 4, 1929, in Brussels, Belgium. Her mother, Ella van Heemstra, was a Dutch aristocrat, and her father, Joseph Victor Anthony Ruston, was a British national who worked in trade and finance. She lived a privileged childhood, having been educated at a British boarding school and traveled extensively because of the nature of her father's job. According to the New York Times, Hepburn studied at the Arnhem Conservatory in the Netherlands during WWII. Although her family thought the Netherlands would be safe for them since it was a neutral state during the war, the Nazis ultimately invaded, and her brother was taken to a labor camp. What followed were years of hardship, with the family resorting to eating tulip bulbs to survive starvation. 

As a teenager, Hepburn would learn to dance with the encouragement of Dr. Visser ’t Hooft – a prominent leader of the resistance against Nazi occupation. Impressed with her skills as a ballet dancer, Visser ’t Hooft would invite Hepburn to take part in illegal musical performances as part of the resistance movement. According to Time, the events, which were called zwarte avonden(Dutch for black evenings,) were a means for local artists to earn a living after the Nazi union of artists, the Kultuurkamer, forced them out of the mainstream. 

Zwarte avonden would also use their funds to support resistance efforts and hide tens of thousands of Jews. 

 "I did indeed give various underground concerts to raise money for the Dutch Resistance movement," Hepburn said in an interview, as cited by Time. "I danced at recitals, designing the dances myself. I had a friend who played the piano and my mother made the costumes. They were very amateurish attempts, but nevertheless at the time, when there was very little entertainment, it amused people and gave them an opportunity to get together and spend a pleasant afternoon listening to music and seeing my humble attempts. The recitals were given in houses with windows and doors closed, and no one knew they were going on. Afterwards, money was collected and given to the Dutch Underground."

In 1948, Hepburn made her film debut in a small role in the Dutch Film, "Dutch in Seven Lessons." Later that year, she moved to London after earning a scholarship for the Ballet Rambert in Nottingham. Although Hepburn had dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina, her teachers at Ballet Rambert told her the dream was unattainable due to her height and weak constitution. As a result, she decided to pursue acting instead.

Hepburn began taking small acting and chorus roles in various plays on London West End and the Cambridge Theater and made her debut on the small screen on the BBC Television play "The Silent Village." In 1951, the up-and-coming actor would take up many minor roles in the movies "One Wild Oat," "Laughter in Paradise," "Young Wives' Tale," and "The Lavender Hill Mob." 

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Hepburn's big break came that following year when Hepburn was cast as a prodigious ballerina in Thorold Dickinson's film, "The Secret People." That role then led to another small role in the French-British film "Monte Carlo Baby," which was filmed in Monte Carlo, Monaco. French novelist Collete happened to be there at the time and spotted Hepburn, whom she decided to cast in the title role for the Broadway play "Gigi." The play attracted much critical acclaim, particularly thanks to Hepburn's hilarious portrayal of Gigi. 

Within weeks of its premiere, the actor was contacted by Hollywood directors galore. The hype led to Hepburn being cast in her first major film, "Roman Holiday," in 1953. She played Princess Ann, a royal who decides to escape the constraints of her noble status for a short time to experience life as a normal person. Hepburn's portrayal of the Princess led to her winning her first even Academy Award in 1954 for "Best Actress – Drama."

Following "A Roman Holiday," the star took up the main role of Sabrina Fairchild in the legendary romantic film, "Sabrina." Hepburn's acting was once praised by movie critics and she earned another Academy Award nomination and a BAFTA reward. Bosley Crowther, a film critic for the New York Times at the time, wrote that she was "a young lady of extraordinary range of sensitive and moving expressions within such a frail and slender frame. She is even more luminous as the daughter and pet of the servants' hall than she was as a princess last year, and no more than that can be said." 

At just 25 years old, Hepburn had already made a name for herself as an iconic actor in Hollywood. 

That same year, Hepburn starred in the broadway play "Ondine" alongside Mel Ferrer as his lover. The two actors ended up becoming enamored with one another behind the stage as well, and married on September 25, 1954, in Switzerland. Upon their return to the USA, Hepburn took up many leading roles in critically-acclaimed films such as "War and Peace" (1956), "Funny Face" (1957), and "Love in the Afternoon" (also 1957).

Throughout her career, the legendary actor became best known for her more dramatic roles. In 1959, she starred as Sister Luke in "The Nun's Story," a film that followed the story of a nun who was struggling with her holy vocation. In the 1967 movie "Two for the Road," the actor portrayed Joanna 'Jo' Wallace, a British woman who endures two decades of a crumbling marriage. 

But perhaps Hepburn's most iconic role was that of Holly Golightly in the romantic comedy, "Breakfast at Tiffany's," in which Golightly, a socialite, falls in love with a struggling writer. The actor called the film "the jazziest of [her] career," but also admitted "I'm an introvert. Playing the extroverted girl was the hardest thing I ever did."

In the late '60s, Hepburn decided to semi-retire from acting to focus on her family. After that, the actor would only occasionally take up acting roles and instead focus on charity work, specifically for disadvantaged children. In the late 1980s, she became the goodwill ambassador for UNICEF and began traveling the world to raise awareness about children in need. Having experienced malnutrition herself during WWII, the cause was very close to her heart. 

Hepburn completed over 50 trips as a goodwill ambassador, mainly to countries in Africa and Latin America. Her last trip was to Somalia, after which she was diagnosed with a rare form of abdominal cancer. She died less than a year later in 1993 at the age of 63 – just months before she was scheduled to be awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award for her work with UNICEF. 

Although it's been almost 30 years since Audrey Hepburn passed away, her legacy is still honored by her children and grandchildren. Her granddaughter Emma Ferrer, who was born in 1994, never got to meet the famous actor, but still feels close to her nonetheless. In 2020, she and her father, Sean Hepburn Ferrer – who is Hepburn's first son – honored Hepburn with the documentary on her life, "Audrey." The film aimed to show the late actor in a different light, away from the glamour of Hollywood. The director, Helena Coan, told Bazaar she "really wanted to sort of deconstruct this myth of who [Hepburn] was."

Emma became very involved in the making of the film, which she later credited with helping her understand her grandmother better. 

“I know that Audrey went through a lot during World War II and that there was an immense amount of pain within her family and in the war, and all of the struggles with her father and whatnot, but to really understand how all of those aspects came together and formed this identity of a person, that is sort of like the new lens through which to see her,” she told Bazaar in January.

While Hepburn might have become a style icon thanks to her impeccable ensembles in her various film roles, Emma revealed that she was more inspired by the actor's style in her later years; when she worked with UNICEF. 

"When she went out into these developing countries, she was, like, in jeans and a polo shirt," the 26-year-old said. "And I really think that we can appreciate how rare it was for a celebrity of her magnitude to be seen in such a casual way."

Even without ever meeting Hepburn, Emma still takes inspiration from her in her life choices. She studied art in Italy and works as a model. But her grandmother's influence really comes through Emma's work with UNICEF.

"I was always involved lightly with UNICEF as a kid and its been great to find my own place there in more recent years. Its amazing to see the numbers changing every year in UNICEF, we see these massive reductions in harm and preventable causes of children’s deaths – you know, sickness, starvation – and then growth in access to education and water etc. To actually see that improvement in one’s own timeline there is so inspiring. It just feels right being involved with something like that," Emma told the Madame Blue in 2019.  

When she isn't busy continuing her grandmother's important work with UNICEF, Emma spends her time doing what she loves most; painting. She regularly updates her followers on Instagram with posts of her beautiful canvas works, which recently have been mainly abstract portraits. But painting isn't the only way Emma chooses to express her artistry. A quick look at her Instagram profile shows that the young artist has a knack for photography as well. 

Do you think Emma resembles her famous grandmother, Audrey Hepburn? Let us know your thoughts and be sure to pass this on to others!