A conversation with Léa Seydoux (Paris, 1985) is a long succession of silences, doubts and stumbles. “Today I can’t quite find the words,” she apologizes after a photo session in a studio next to the Eiffel Tower, while she observes through the window the spectacle of a Parisian sky through which clouds and clearings pass by. Seydoux is more interested in talking about cinema than about herself. Her team has imposed a condition that the journalist who came to interview her had seen her last two releases: Dune 2, where she plays a brief and memorable role – Lady Margot, a member of the matriarchal order of Bene Gesserit -, and The beast, A very free adaptation of the novel by Henry James in which she plays a woman subjected to the catastrophe of love in three different moments in history: 1910, 2014 and 2044. They are the latest fruits of a meteoric trajectory that took her, in record time, , from showing her breasts in an American Apparel advertisement—one of her first jobs as a model—to winning a Palme d’Or with The life of Adele and becoming a Bond girl alongside Daniel Craig on two separate occasions. And from there, to stardom.
At short distances, the French actress seems to like asking more than answering. “Is Madrid or Barcelona more beautiful?” asks Seydoux. The question is not coincidental: at the end of May she will attend the presentation of the new Louis Vuitton cruise collection, a brand of which she has been the image since 2016, at Park Güell in the Catalan capital. It is not the only news of it. After filming with filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, Woody Allen, Wes Anderson, David Cronenberg and Yorgos Lanthimos, the actress opened the Cannes Festival this week with Le deuxième acte, Quentin Dupieux’s new absurd comedy, and is preparing to shoot Separate Rooms directed by Luca Guadagnino and with Josh O’Connor, the fashionable actor, as co-star.
Before starting, we show you the cover of S Fashion which he starred in almost 12 years ago. Seydoux observes her face on the cover in fascination, as if it were a reflection frozen in time. She then wore her hair short and blue, because she was rolling The life of Adele. That film, a lesbian drama that uncompromisingly narrated all the tears of the transition to adulthood, changed everything for the actress. On the one hand, it brought her international fame, which propelled her to Hollywood. On the other hand, it was a painful experience that she does not want to continue talking about a decade later, due to the “moral harassment” to which the director Abdellatif Kechiche subjected her and due to the harsh filming conditions of the sex scenes, in which He did not feel his integrity was respected. Both she and the other protagonist, Adèle Exarchopoulos, denounced him publicly. They were then 27 and 19 years old, respectively. It happened three years before MeToo.
¿The life of Adele Is it some kind of trauma?
For years I dreamed of Kechiche. It was an incredibly difficult situation, of moral harassment, but I don’t know if it was trauma. As a child, I experienced certain things that made her well armed for adult life. This job is wonderful, but it is also very hard, especially if you want to last. It is a job that weakens you and for which you have to be psychologically prepared.
Was that movie a before and after?
Yes, it changed everything. And, at the same time, I remember it as a slow progression, rather than as a promotion that came suddenly. I feel like I’m still the same as I was in those times. If you asked me again today the questions you asked me 12 years ago, my answers would be almost identical. I’m the same, just with a little more experience.
Does she look more mature?
No, it was enough at that time. Didn’t I think so? I don’t think I have changed much, and I would have liked to change in some aspects. I would have liked to be cured of certain things. Getting older is difficult.
Why do you think he has done so well since then? Other European actresses tried it in Hollywood and it didn’t quite work.
I like to be called a European actress. I feel like a European actress… There are people who see Hollywood as the only possible goal for an actor. It’s not my case. I’m quite a nonconformist. I don’t want to bend or format myself. I don’t want to submit totally to the system. Even if I play along and agree to do promotion and photos, there is a place of resistance in me. I don’t want success to be alienating. I want to maintain control.
He has been the image of Louis Vuitton for eight years. Why did you choose to be the face of that brand and not another?
Nicolas Ghesquière, its artistic director, has reinvented the image of today’s woman. She is a woman who is not an object, who is not subject to man’s fantasies. What Ghesquière designs reflects a mix of avant-garde and romanticism. The past and the future that come together. I recognize myself in that spirit.
Dune 2 It is a futuristic film, but it also talks about the present…
Despite taking place in a fantasy world, science fiction always allows us to raise concepts metaphorically and establish parallels with what we live today in a very credible way. For example, Dune It reflects very well the struggles between clans. More than choosing a movie, I choose a creative universe. Making a film with a director is like having a conversation with him. It is a space in which to exchange ideas. I am of the opinion that actors are also co-authors of a film. We write them with our faces, bodies and voices.
And what interested you in a project like The beast?
That it was about the fear of love, its potential for destruction. Sometimes death is less painful than the end of love, which can be devastating. When it disappears, we feel empty. Although it is also true that it is not said enough that one always manages to get ahead. These are things that are learned over time. 10 years ago I would not have been able to formulate it like that, even if I had already lived it. It’s something you understand later. And today I also understand that that bond with others never disappears. It is a bond that can change with the times, but it never disappears.
She has said several times that she was a sad girl.
I grew up with a sense of transparency. My parents had their own lives and were very busy living them. At the same time, I don’t know if I would have liked to have other parents. If I am who I am, it is because I had the parents I had. And I’m happy with who I am, ultimately. It could have been worse, I came out quite balanced. I am proud of my career, because they did not help me.
It is curious, because she has often been treated as a spoiled child, being the heir to a great dynasty of French cinema, owner of the Pathé empire. A nepo baby, as they say now.
It is true that I grew up with privileges. At this point, social determinism and the reproduction of elites are things that seem undeniable to me. When you belong to that social group you go to the best schools, you have the best education, you travel and learn languages. And it is evident that, in the less favored classes, the opposite happens. But there are factors that go beyond the material. Growing up in an affluent environment doesn’t mean you haven’t been abandoned or faced violence. In the privileged classes there is also a lot of violence.
In recent months, actresses like Juliette Binoche, Emmanuelle Béart and Judith Godrèche have denounced the abuses that have occurred in French cinema in recent decades. How have you experienced it?
I think it’s good that things are changing. It was time. We are questioning the idea of the director or the artist as an all-powerful being, that he has the right to everything he wants in the name of his art. It’s an idea that has always infuriated me since I started working as an actress, when I was still very young. She drove me crazy.
He has worked twice with Benoît Jacquot, one of the directors accused by the French MeToo. Are these behaviors he saw up close?
Yes, of course I saw them up close. Being a young actress, you are always in a position of vulnerability. A young performer should be protected by the producers, and I wasn’t always. It is very good that everyone is responsible for her actions. Maybe now the directors will be more careful when speaking to us. I’ve already noticed a change. It seems to me that there is more respect.
When he started, he used to say that his absolute model was Catherine Deneuve. Do you think he has managed to emulate her?
I love Deneuve, because she is a woman before she is an actress. There is something very alive about her that inspires me a lot. And I’m not even talking about her as an interpreter, but as a person of her. Her curiosity has been inexhaustible. She is a woman full of life, who has lived hers making the most of it. She is also a model of insolence. I would love to be as insolent as her.
Deneuve says that to be a movie star, you have to cultivate a mystery. It is a word that is used a lot to define their interpretations.
It’s true that they tell me that often. I know it may sound pretentious if taken out of context, but I believe it is not mystery, but depth. I think I am a deep person, no matter how presumptuous it may sound…
EQUIPMENT
Styling Alba Melendo
Make-up Anglome for Charlotte Tilbury
Hair salon Cyril Laloue (wiseandtalented) for Oribe Haircare
Manicure Kamel (B-Agency)
set design Clara Lasagna
Local production Candice Carcaillon (Error_404 Production)
Production Christina Serrano
Digital assistant Farouk Taleb
Photography assistants Mathieu Boutang and Marc Fournier
Styling, set and production assistants María Bravo, Antoine Dugrand and Anastasia Honcharova (Error_404 Production).
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