Mia Goth Reflects on Turbulent Childhood Lies for Stability, Hopes for Better Relationship with Daughter Isabel

Life appears to be pretty good for Mia Goth. 

A relative unknown when she met Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf on the set of Lars Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac, the actress has made a successful transition from art house and independent film to big budget studio blockbusters. 

Off-screen, a tumultuous relationship with LaBeouf – the couple married and divorced within two short years before reconciling in 2021 – has resulted in the birth of their first child, daughter Isabel, now three years old. 

But the actress admits her present day success follows a turbulent past, and an unsettled childhood spent moving from country to country – notably Brazil and Canada, where she attended nine different schools in the space of one year. 

Born in London to a Brazilian mother and Canadian father, Goth, 31 – whose maternal grandfather is the celebrated artist Lee Jaffe – says she only coped with the constant upheaval by making up stories about her family. 

Featuring in a new cover shoot for the November issue of ELLE, the actress admits to telling classmates her mother was a brain surgeon or that she was distantly related to Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. 

‘There was this scarcity mind frame,’ she explained. ‘We were going from one place to another, but nothing was ever really ours and nothing was ever permanent. And I was so desperately yearning for a home.

‘I think they [the stories] made me feel more in control, as though I wasn’t just a passenger to the situation that was taking place. 

‘I can talk about it now because I’m so removed from it. But at the time, there was a lot of shame.’  

Goth eventually settled in south London with her mother, who worked as a waitress to make ends meet while the actress attended Sydenham College. 

‘For a long time, I would’ve done anything to have changed the situation I was in,’ she said. 

‘But, now, looking back on it, I’m proud of what I come from and what we went through and that we were able to survive that. I wouldn’t change any of it.’ 

A rapidly developing Hollywood career will see Goth star in two forthcoming blockbusters – Christopher Nolan’s eagerly anticipated The Odyssey, released next year, followed by Shawn Levy’s science fiction epic Star Wars: Starfighter in 2027.

And success means Goth – currently starring alongside Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein – can afford her own daughter the sort of childhood stability she missed.

‘More than anything, I’d say my daughter is my home,’ she said.  ‘I really hope to be something steady for her. That no matter what happens in her life, she can return to me. 

‘No matter what her age – if she’s in a sh**ty relationship or something’s not going right at work – she can always come home. 

‘And she’ll always have a bed to sleep in and a home-cooked meal.’

For now, the actress is attempting to reconcile her chaotic past and address the feelings of rootlessness caused by her childhood.  

‘It’s something that I’m trying to work through and understand more deeply, so that it’s not something I give to my daughter,’ she said. 

‘If you feel comfortable within yourself, you’re going to feel good anywhere. Because wherever you go, you’re going to be confronted with yourself eventually.’ 

The November 2025 issue of ELLE is out now.