I generally think of Marion Cotillard as a whackadoodle in real life. She’s a talented actress, but her interviews usually sound sort of spacy and restless. Marion has a new interview with The Guardian to promote her new film Two Days, One Night, which debuted at Cannes this year. The filmmakers, the Dardenne brothers, are beloved in France and their films usually win big prizes. But at Cannes, the film was snubbed. Marion tells The Guardian: “For me? I really don’t care. But the film? Yes. The Dardennes get an award every time they go to Cannes, so I got a little paranoid and thought: ‘Oh my God, maybe it’s my fault.’” Huh. I wonder? I’ve heard that Marion isn’t super-popular in France. Like, she’s a bigger movie star here than in France. I wonder if that’s it. Anyway, you can read the full Guardian piece here and here are some highlights:
She is an outcast: “I’ve always felt an outcast. There is something strange about me. I don’t ever feel at ease in a group of people. I have to fight hard to overcome my fears.”
Not wanting to be haunted by Lady Macbeth: “Before my family, everything in my life was dedicated to the character. The more deeply affected I was by her, the closer I felt to her. But I cannot lock myself away in another world any more. I don’t want it to affect my son when I’m in a weird state because I’m ‘depressed’ or ‘killing a king’.”
Paparazzi attention in France & abroad: “Having your picture taken in the street and put in a magazine won’t change your life. But what happened to people in England, hacking phones. It’s vomit. It’s sick. This f–king changes your life. If someone is cheating on their wife in the street and pictures are taken, fine, that’s their risk. I’m not talking about some people… who currently run this country.”
France’s swing to hard-right politics: “French politics is a circus. The French people like to shake things up a bit, but Marine Le Pen getting into government? This will never happen. Never.”
Her environmental & political activism: “I’m a nature lover, but I’m a human being lover, too. Nature will survive us. The thing we’re going to f–k up is us – and animals. Destroying what makes us live is sick. More people are waking up but it’s super-slow. Why don’t we listen to the wise men in our world?” She reels off a list: Al Gore, French-Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves and Algerian writer and farmer Pierre Rabhi.
The paradox of being an environmentalist & an actor/model: “Campaigning and acting aren’t compatible. That’s why Audrey Hepburn gave up acting. That’s why Angelina Jolie will give up. I’m not ready to stop yet.”
I think she’s going to be an interesting Lady Macbeth, don’t you? I wasn’t jazzed about it initially, but I’ve started to come around on the idea. I want to see how much chemistry she has with Michael Fassbender. I bet it’s “a surprisingly amount.” Anyway, I thought that was interesting that she cited Angelina Jolie as someone who will quit the business to become an activist full time. Marion is probably right.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
Perhaps people are just bored by the Dardennes’s depressing movies.
I’m not bored. She is absolutely divine in my opinion. As for her coming across “spacey and restless….” She’s French! They speak in that poetic, passionate way whatever the topic. I bet Jolie has a crush on her.
“As for her coming across “spacey and restless….” She’s French! They speak in that poetic, passionate way whatever the topic.”
Sorry to burst your bubble but she comes across as crazy and out of touch in french ..actually french don’t like her at all because she is a pompous lunatic prompt to vacuous and senseless tirades…what were you saying about the french????
ps: as a french I find your generalization a tad bit offensive (if not a lot!)
Of course not all French people are as charming as Marion Cotillard… You for example… are passionate in an angry, rude way but unfortunately, not at all poetic.
well said Forthelasttime 🙂
@Forthelasttime I’m French too and we don’t speak like that, she’s one of those actresses that we, French people, seriously dislike exactly because of how she expresses herself, that and the fact that she lives in her small world, completly cut off of reality.
So, well said Truthtful.
That being said she’s a fairly talented actress though incredibly overrated in my view.
@Forthelastime: maybe your sense of poetry is bit outdated… but your abilities to generalize and offend are quite outstanding, so maybe you should try to taste the medicine you advise sometimes!
@JC: Merci!!!
About the last part… I actually think she’s right.
And for once, her dress is suitable for her nice figure, she’s gorgeous.
Lady Macbeth, not sure she can fill those shoes. We’ll see, maybe she will prove us wrong.
That dress is beautiful, she looks amazing.
She looks stunning. I’m a fangirl but my family in France calls her the French Goop.
I don’t see it but maybe I’m biased because as I said, I love her.
@theoriginalkitten: yeah we don’t like her over here! LOL!
for the anecdote I run into her 2 years ago in a parisian shop, although she has the most amazing skin i have ever seen, she is very bland in person (very random and average) and very very bitchy to shop workers!Yeah super bitchy actually !
Ugh really? That’s so disappointing 🙁
@TheOriginalKitten: yes. I was crushed because I really liked her and she was so so disappointing ! Sorry to give you this disappointment too 🙁
I wonder though because people always accuse me of being superbitchy when I go into Parisian shops and it’s not me being rude, it’s that I’m used to being acknowledged first. I’ve worked in shops so I’m aware of the abuse they take from customers, but my French friends always get mad at me “why don’t you say Bonjour immediately?”. I never noticed it but I find it moronic that I’m accused of being mean to shopkeepers but am admonished because I’m overly friendly with everyone I meet? Are you sure she wasn’t just being French because rudeness comes from both sides. Or at least being an American transplant the unfriendliness is perceived as rudeness.
@iseepinkelenfants:
As a parisian myself I can assure you she wasn’t being your random bitchy parisian.
It was at L’Eclaireur shop, and the staff is super devoted and used to very pampered people, while you shop you can comfortably seat on a sofa they serve you tea and propose you items you are looking for.
Well first she sent back the tea 3 times, too cold, too hot and then she figured out that it wasn’t organic, without a smile , appease or a thank you… actually without even looking at them!
Then she asks for a certain dress and she wanted to see how it shows but didn’t wanted to try it, so a staff person did, and while she was looking at the dress she made super bitchy fake compliment on the body of the poor girl, as in “maybe it won’t compliment me as well since I would need wider hips”…
And she was with a friend they were whispering and snarking the whole time… without of course interacting with the staff or very coldly…
Sorry in my book that’s not being simply rude, that’s just plain bitchy!
ps: oh and the “being french” as in being rude is an absolute myth, we are people attached to etiquette, if you understand this etiquette and the rules you will discover very friendly people even in Paris, but Lack of Bonjour, Merci, s’il vows plait (in french of course!) will get you immediately to deal with the “rude french” 😉
@Truthful
Actually I lived in Paris for a while and I don’t remember French people being rude or impolite, quite the opposite. Alas, I am originally from a country where rudeness, impoliteness and brawls between drivers are your daily life so I guess I was biased in my appreciation of the Parisians.
Re: Cotillard, she always seemed posh and kind od snobish to me (@TOK, yes the French Goop lol). The fact she is not down to Earth or popular doesn’t detract from her acting though. Or people should stop watching all movies with Leo Di Caprio or Russell Crowe in it.
@LadyMacbeth: Nice to hear a pleasant (and more close to the truth) experience of Paris!
I didn’t diss that much her acting (even if I find her very average) I was just giving a first hand experience of her real life bitchy attitude… French goop indeed!
I too am going to defend Paris and France here. I have visited Paris close to a dozen times since my early teens and I have never had single experience of a single person being rude to me. Not one. Yes, I do speak the language but I didn’t the first time I went but I made an effort and I also try to be polite to others. I have been embarrassed, not just in France but in other countries, when I see how some Americans behave while traveling. On my last trip to Paris, I brought a cousin on her first trip out of the US. When people in Paris realized I was translating for her; they immediately tried to communicate with her in English (whether they spoke it or not) and went out of their way to help her. She had what she considers the most wonderful vacation of her life.
Audrey quit to spend more time with her sons. She didn’t become a UN ambassador until later.
I don’t find her especially pretty or interesting.
She’s quite meh onscreen, isn’t she? She’s very gorgeous in real life.
Could be – sometimes a person’s beauty doesn’t translate to still photos or onScreen. I’ve never seen her in person.
@Adrien: Actually I find her super gorgeous onscreen or in pics… and very meh in real life, like super bland, oatmeal bland… and I saw her in person!
“I don’t want it to affect my son when I’m off killing kings….” 🙂
One of my fav actresses in Hollywood who doesn’t court the paps. Genuine beauty and great acting talent – very rare in Hollywood these days.
Marion is good friends with Angelina – I have seen them having lunch together in London a few times. That could be the reason and the fact that the subject is about humanitarian work – she mentioned Angelina because Marion never namedrops her friends just like Angelina never does.
I think personally think that Angelina has her wonderful children, partner and enough money to do what she really wants. She is the only actress who can pick and choose any movies to act or direct. That’s why even after 4 years of absence she still proved to the world that she is the queen with Maleficent grossing 720m and counting.
Audrey did the same – after having gained everything she wanted in life she was able to leave Hollywood behind and just focus on charity.
That’s interesting that Marion is friendly with Angie.
I think Angelina is someone who really conquered Hollywood very young with almost instant fame, and acclaim and it doesn’t really challenge her anymore. I think she’s just as ambitious as many other actresses however getting another Oscar or a particular movie role isn’t going to satiate her.
IMO I think Angelina Jolie is going to act fewer films then she will later give up acting to become a full time director 🙂
I like that dress on her. I think she’s gorgeous and an interesting actress, but agree in interviews she sometimes sounds a little loopy.
I totally buy that she sees herself as an outcast. She keeps a pretty low profile and doesn’t seem to be in the “mix” of Hollywood a lot. She is probably very shy/socially awkward.
Above all she doesn’t live in LA .She lives in Paris
actually she lives in NYC
She’s also very Hollywood-friendly : she’s friend with Leo Dicaprio ,Eva Mendes or ScarJo
She lost me as a fan when she started with her 9/11 truther stuff back when she won an Oscar. But she is pretty talented, I think.
Oh, didn’t know that. Yuck.
Yeah I was remembering the truther stuff too but it’s more common (and seems to be gaining ground as years pass) than people may realize. A truther was just on CSPAN for a long interview and people were all over social media like ‘yay, finally’. I think it’s more common in Europe than the US though. I just remember when one showed up on Bill Maher’s show to heckle him and he had him tossed out. I think every huge event (especially traumatic ones) eventually spawn conspiracy theories.
There have been actual socio-psychological experiments done about conspiracy theories, and it’s easier for people to cope with the idea of a grand conspiracy than simply accept that sometimes people do horrible things for little to no reason.
Completely agree, Algernon. I think it appeals to the same kind of people who become involved in cults – some people just can’t deal with the randomness of life and need a belief that gives them a feeling of control.
I love her face. I bet she and Fassie are hot together.
I believe that about Jolie, too.
And for once… Cotillard gives an interview where she doesn’t sound completely crazy.
I think Marion is gorgeous! Her face has an infinite charm about it and has a chameleon quality to it. I don’t always love her in photographs but I adore her face when it is in motion.
I also think she has a lot of talent but I will admit that she is much stronger in French films than in English. Love her in La Vie en Rose, in Rust and Bone, and in Jeux D’amour.
In interviews, her opinions sometimes seem strange and out there but I still love her.
On another note, I have a huge crush on her man Guillaume Canet. I think he is incredibly sexy and has a sort of sexy Patrick Dempsy vibe about him. He was hot in the terrible Keira Knightly film, Last Night.
I love her face too. There is a rare kind of intensity and beauty in her face that no one else has.
She’s so much more beautiful than other Hollywood stars, on another level. C’est Vie.
Pretty interesting interview, actually. And you’re right, I think the French turned their backs on her after she got so many parts in Hollywood. It’s still hard for a French actress to cross over like she has.
She becomes overexposed in France.Many french knew her by Taxi movies or The Dark Knight Rises and she was very bad so it’s difficult to believe when the critics praise her acting or talk about her as 4th wonder of the world
And You can’t say you’re down-to-earth or unpretentious and to be the face of a couture brand .
She’s much stronger in her French movies than American ones. I can’t imagine anyone watching Rust and Bone or La Vie en rose and not being impressed.
It’s not the fact she got parts in Hollywood. It’s more the insistence of the french press to shove her down our throats in this “look, she was anointed there so that makes her the best”.
Every time a french actress lands a role in a picture doing good in the US we get this little-girl-living-the-dream shtick. They tried it with Béart, then Tautou was the flavor for a moment, then Mélanie Laurent and I suspect Léa Seydoux will be next. Having won the Oscar,Cotillard will probably have more staying power.
She’s far less talented than Isabelle Carré, Emmanuelle Devos, or Sandrine Kiberlain. She’s just the one that took English lessons (with Binoche, who’s always pursued a more alternative path ).Good for her, but no reason for the french public to swoon.
On a sidenote: Pierre Rabhi IS French.
I love Mélanie Laurent too…maybe I should move to France?
@manta Isabelle Carré and Melaine Laurent are both awesome! I have only seen Léa Seydoux in Blue is the Warmest Colour. I thought she was very good in that movie. How is she in other films?
Ew Laurent is so pretentious worst than cotillard, and her english is not that great, Binoche is the only bilingual talent I can think of.
I was just thinking about Lea Seydoux. Isn’t she the girl in Midnight in Paris? She was so beautiful and that final scene is my absolute favorite. Looking forward to seeing more of her. As for Audrey Tautou. I am still obsessed with her work and her. English or French I will watch it. Marion Cotillard I like her too. So as an American I know there are some of us who love us some French actors. On a light note maybe the French need to learn how to maximize the media exposure because it works for British actors. Everyone loves a Brit. I hope my love of Marion isn’t the same as how the Japanese and China too, I think, love Tom Cruise and how he is despised and. ridiculed in the States. Lol
@Bubulle-Sorry but WHAT? If you want o say Laurent is “pretentious” fine but please at least elaborate. As far as her English not being great, she’s FRENCH!! And so are you, apparently. Do you expect American actors to speak French as well? Pretty high standards you have..
I ‘m sorry but if you want to work in hollywood the least you can do is to learn proper english, if it’s too difficult for this poor actors maybe they should abstain. And yes I’m french but contrary to these people I’m not paid boatload of money to butcher an other language, I do it for free.
As far as Laurent I saw and read enough of her interviews to know she always comes off as awkward and uber-pretentious (think Goop level), I’m also fairly certain she is way more hated than Marion Cotillard, she has quite the rep here if you know what I mean, people just don’t understand how is she having a career considering her lack of range and charisma. Truth is She has a very grating personality and is very unlikable, what do you like her so much Originalkitten ?
I have to disagree with her ! I can’ t see Jolie giving up acting for ” humanitarian work ” .
She talks about it all of the time.
Well, AJ dod not act for years, she is spacing her projects very much, what were her last 2 movies?
Its obvious to most people that Angelina’s humanitarian work is far more important to than acting!
I just love her for referencing my life idol Audrey. I’ll use any excuse to talk about what a wonderful, selfless woman she was.
I can’t find it now, but I remember when Audrey’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s dress was auctioned and she wanted the money donated to UNICEF. At the time it was the most expensive movie costume ever sold. Somewhere in Africa, there’s a photo of her in the dress on a life-size sign saying “Thank You Audrey Hepburn”. What a wonderful legacy to leave.
Anybody interested, I highly recommend the book her son Sean wrote about her. It’s lovely.
I’m French and I love Marion ! She’s rather awkward I guess, but she’s smart and funny (and gorgeous) and really talented, except she’s a lot better in French movies than in American ones. No offense here ^^
By the way, this is my first comment on CB 🙂
Welcome to CB:)
PS: I am not French and I love her☺️
Thanks The RealMaya 🙂
I’ve been reading the blog for two years now and I love it, especially the comments which are often hilarious !
I’m french and I don’t like her. I know she is generally perceived as this sweet classy french actress but I totally believe she is a fake bitch, when she was nominated for a Brutus award ( the equivalent of a razzie) for her poor acting in “le dernier vol ” she managed to diss the director , she also put the blame of her laughable Dark Knight rises performance on Christopher Nolan, not even talking about this silly 9/11 conspiracy theory, she also sounds super elitist.
Yes, she was really bad in Dark Knight Rises. But as she tends to be not so great in almost all her American movies, I wonder if it’s linked to the way she is directed in these movies ? A lot of French actors tend to be not so good when they come to Hollywood…
And I had totally forgotten about her 9/11 conspiracy theory mess !
But I can’t help, I love her anyway 🙂
I don’t think she was as bad as an actress in DKR as Nolans+Goyer kept on writing terrible female parts in the trilogy and miscasting. Sometimes you really can’t do much with badly scripted role. I really liked her in almost everything I’ve seen, but yes, especially french films. Maybe she’s not the best french actress that ever lived but she sure has a good combination of traits to stick around on both sides of the pond. I can imagine she feels out of place, not being liked in her home country and not being at home where she probably fits better.
You can put the blame on Christopher Nolan for this one, Marion was just plain bad regarding of the writing. Also a couple of actresses had the opportunity to shine in his movies : Anne Hathaway was great in the DKR, Tom Hardy wasn’t so lucky, she also has one of the best part in Interstellar, Carrie Anne Moss was also good in Memento, none of the characters in Inception had great story arcs but Marion ended up having one of the meatier role. I don’t think Marion is a bad actress she was really good in two days one, probably one of her best performance, and I agree with frenchlily she is infinitely better in french movies, you can tell she doesn’t feel comfortable speaking in english.
I don’t think it’s really fair to blame French actresses for being poor actors in English films because going through the list, if Binoche is considered the best, that’s not saying much. Don’t get me wrong Binoche is a goddess but her English is not great. I remember seeing her on Graham Norton and she had a hard time understanding what was going on and what was being said. So I really wonder if it takes her a long time to prepare for her English roles.
That said only two French actresses I can think of off the top of my head really excel with their English skills and that’s Eva Green and Julie Delpy, and even then Delpy (who has lived in America for years) does not speak perfect English. She is by far the most adept though at being able to handle both.
So I don’t think it’s really fair to say she’s a terrible actress because she only acts well in her French films. French people in general seem to have a hard time with English. Even those that lived in Anglospeaking countries. It’s like something just never clicks. The difference in how we speak, how we use our words is just something that doesn’t translate.
@Bubulle, she did never put the blame on Christopher Nolan! but she could do that and it wouldn’t be a lie! he’s the one who wrote, directed, edited and decided to put that scene in the movie, who’s the one to blame? Batman? Nobody said anything about her performance in the movie before that scene, even those who criticize her for the death scene said she was great before that, especially in the scene where she reveals that she is Talia, and how mature and smart are the people who judge an actor based on a 10 seconds scene in a silly super hero movie? BTW, Nolan did a very similar death scene in Batman Begins as well, so who should take the blame for that? the actor? of course not!
And why are you saying that Anne Hathaway has the best part in Interstellar if the movie was not even released yet? and considering Nolan’s history with female characters, it’s not so difficult to know how “interesting” will be the female roles of this movie!
Oh, I love Anne Hathaway but she wasn’t great in TDKR! (actually, nobody was great in that sh*tty movie! the only expcetion might be Michael Caine!) she was totally forgetable and most of her scenes were made by her two body doubles. Michelle Pfeiffer’s Catwoman still is better and more remarkable than hers!
@iseepinkelefants, it’s not true that Marion only acts well in French films because she was amazing in The Immigrant (speaking English with a Polish accent), Nine and Inception. People mistake “bad acting” for “foreign actor speaking with an accent that is not american?”, this is not fair!
You right she never directly put the blame on Christopher Nolan her boyfriend Guillaume did it for her, he gave on interview where he basically said she was not being at fault at all , that she shot several takes but for some reason he chose to keep the worst one, how would Guillaume know that unless Marion told him, again to each their own but she wasn’t just bad in that death scene to me, I just couldn’t buy her as Miranda Tate, just curious where did you see people saying she was great save for her final scene ? I would like her better if she could just admit she wasn’t good even Meryl Streep and Daniel Day Lewis can be bad.
As far as Interstellar, the script has been circulating for quite some time , I haven’t read it but several people have and they all keep saying that Anne’s part was one of the best . IIRC she has also hinted at it.
You don’t have to be a genius to know that several takes are shot for just one scene and the director chooses which one will be in the final cut! doesn’t matter if it’s just a 5 seconds scene, everyone who knows a little bit about cinema knows that! How Guillaume could know that? well, he is a director, I’m pretty sure that he does the same just like every other director of the world! David Fincher is known for shooting several takes (more than 90!) for just one scene for example. The scene where Bane and Batman are fighting in the street was shot several times, even Tom Hardy said that! it’s not so hard to find out that the same happened with other scenes in TDKR, because it happens with EVERY MOVIE!
Now you want to blame Marion for what her boyfriend said? REALLY?!
“she could just admit she wasn’t good” ??? When she said that she was great? nobody is obligated to do that! “hey, look at me, I’m so bad in that movie”??? what’s the point of this? btw, Marion made fun of her death scene when she was honored at Harvard last year, she doesn’t take it seriously like some 12-years old fanboys who made a huge drama for such a silly thing! Nolan recently praised Marion in the May issue of Variety, I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t do that if she had put the blame on him!
And about the script of Interstellar, it doesn’t mean anything! many scripts are great but the movies are awful! Last year, several people thought that Cameron Diaz would get an Oscar nomination for The Counselor because her character was the best in the script… look what happened: both Diaz and the movie are terrible!
Agreed. People will always enjoy hanging others out to dry. The reasons don’t matter. The mob can turn on you in an instant. Human beings used to cheer at public lynchings, now we just jeer on line.
Her face us lovely to watch and I appreciate her acting. She was excellent in The Immigrant.
To each their own I guess, I’m not dissing those who love her, but she just comes as fake to me personally and professionally.
Gorgeous!
I genuinely like her as an actress, but reading this interview makes her come across, to me anyway, as just another celebrity that is overly impressed with themselves and is completely out of touch with reality.
Whenever I see Marion Cotillard or read an interview of hers, I can’t help but wonder what happened to Audrey Tautou. Yes, I know she’s had a successful career in France. But I remember after Amelie, she did the big Da Vinci code movie. And then… she kind of faded off the American showbiz radar. I wonder if it’s because she didn’t want a big Hollywood career?
I remember reading that she doesn’t like doing English films. She considers her English poor or doesn’t understand it and just doesn’t see the point in improving on it. My French friends say that most people consider her as Amelie, so it was hard for her to break away from that character. I guess she kept getting typecast.
@iseepinklefants: Actually Audrey Tautou stated many times that she is not interested in having a career in Hollywood because she prefer working like an artisan and doesn’t like the whole Hollywood machine with PR and pretending things.
Actually a lot actresses in France did the same choice by CHOICE: Emmanuelle Béart, Juliette Binoche and Ludivigne Sagnier stated approximatively the same thing, they just want to stay free.
And can you blame them? In Hollywood your career is over past 35… In France you are considered an actress and a woman your whole life, with nice roles your whole life.
And Audrey Tautou broke perfectly her Amelie Character… since in the movies in France… there is no “typecast”, it’s the contrary if you play more than twice the same character your career is quite over…
Our actresses are really different than the hollywood type: they grow old, they act and they act their whole life… why someone will trow that away for a “botoxy” life of constant diet and pressure that will end at 35!
She has two (French) films out this year, both with the delicious Romain Duris, so I can’t blame her for sticking to French cinema! She gets interesting starring roles in her homeland, as opposed to Hollywood which doesn’t know what to do with French actresses other than fetishize or marginilize them in general. Same thing happened to Juliette Binoche. Cotillard isn’t my favourite but she has been v.smart with her film choices, mostly Oscar bait-y stuff which keeps her in line for high profile work. I think she will break the mould if she keeps on this path. I guess there is Julie Delpy but she mainly writes for herself (smart) though her French accent has been all but obliterated at this point so she probably could work more in English language than she does.
She doesn’t sound spacey she just sounds French. French people seem to be unable to put their thought process together in English. Once you hear it so many times you get used to it.
I have always wondered though how people perceive her in France because I don’t immerse myself in French cinema, so my only point of reference are those French actors that make it into American cinema, but it’s my opinion that once an actor crosses over to America, the French don’t like them anymore. You kind of have to take their opinion with a grain of salt because they seem heavily biased towards crossover actors. I don’t know if it’s just pride or what.
Don’t you think you are making a bit of an unfair generalization about french people? It’s just like saying american people sounds inarticulate because they tend to make whole generalizations out of a celebrity… how does it sound?
SHE IS spacey in french or in english, and you should try to meet more french people and try chatting with them in english you would be surprised, people under 30 in France speak oftenly outstanding english… even without any accent and they are used to converse properly in it.
“Once an actor crosses over to America, the French don’t like them anymore. You kind of have to take their opinion with a grain of salt because they seem heavily biased towards crossover actors. I don’t know if it’s just pride or what.”
Wow again you like your generalizations don’t you?
It’s not that we don’t like them anymore, it’s just that you just got the shitty ones to begin with: Marion Cotillard is in no way in the league of Isabelle Carré, Marina Hands, Anna Mouglalis or Charlotte Gainsbourg , Romane Bohringer, Elodie Bouchez, Julie Depardieu or Ludivine Sagnier to stay in her age range, and she doesn’t even hold a candle to the younger ones like Anais Demoustier or Marine Vacth!
Giving Marion an oscar was like rewarding Olivia Wilde for her acting from our point of view! You chose the meh one!
And don’t even get me started on Jean Dujardin… It’s like you gave an oscar to Steven Seagall he’s like one of the weakest french actor playing over and over the same character!
From a french point of view it’s not that we don’t like them anymore… It’s that we never did! And it’s amusing that america rewards the mediocre ones. Ex : Daniel Auteuil or Benoit Magimel never won an oscar but they are way way better and much more respected than Jean Dujardin.
PS: maybe you shouldn’t base your knowledge on french people on a touristy weak spend in Paris… generalizations are the worst enemy of good judgement…
@Truthful
Actually what she said was a generalization but it was not incorrect. People who speak any of the Roman languages (French, Spanish, Italian) have huge difficulty in speaking any language of the Germanic group or the Scandinavian one. It is due to the position of tongue and jaw, pronunciation is ‘lower’ for Roman languages speakers.
I still have an unbearable, horrible accent in English, despite 30-odd years studying it and speaking it. My husband says it improves when I’ve a cold lol
My MIL have been speaking English for the same amount of years as I have but she mustered to speak a flawless English in 10 yrs. Same can be said for a couple of my Swedish friends.
@Lady Macbeth: Actually she wasn’t talking about pronunciation but about our supposed inability to put our thoughts in perspective in english:
her quote:
“French people seem to be unable to put their thought process together in English”
Which is quite offensive and has nothing to do with accent…
Ps: for people under 30 in France we learned english since elementary school so we got much better than the previous generations 😉
But I think that keeping or not an accent is a personal struggle, my brother has a flawless british english accent , same for my boyfriend even english people think they are from england while my sister cannot hide that she is very french 😉
I like what she says about natural enviroment issues. It’s not “for earth”. It’s for us. Give earth a couple thousand of years and it will recover from every harm we’ve done to it. A couple thousand years is barely a hangover considering how old this planet is.
People have to understand natural enviroment issues aren’t charity or anything like that. It’s something that simply HAS to be done, and it just gets more urgent as years pass by.
It’s not exactly the truth that Marion is not super-popular in France! she’s the most famous actress in France nowadays and one of the highest paid as well. She’s also the French actor with more fans in AlloCiné (something similar to Imdb, the most popular site about cinema in France) after 3 pages filled with only american actors like Johnny Depp, Tom Cruise, ect.
Marion and Guillaume Canet are France’s “Brangelina” (in level of fame, they are discret about their relationship and don’t expose their lives neither their family).
The thing is that Marion (and all the french actors that get famous in Hollywood) is hated by some people in France because they can’t accept that she has a successful career in Hollywood! Before she won the Oscar they didn’t hate her, but suddenly she became hated… the same is happening now with Jean Dujardin, he was loved in France and now he is “the worst actor of world and the most overrated and pretensious man of the planet”.
True they are super famous. But super disliked too. Audrey Tautou or Juliette Binoche (and she won an oscar too) Vanessa Paradis have international fame too and are super well liked. Same for -ahem -Catherine Deneuve who is adored.Or Eva Green who is internationally famous and very well liked as well.
People dislike Jean Dujardin and Marion Cotillard because they are super pretentious and talk like they are above the “peasants”,….They are just pricks while they re far from being the most talented i-and only- France because if you start to compare them to the like of Cate Blanchett and Javier Bardem they are super laughable!
ps: Marion wasn’t really well liked before , she was this tacky actress playing in Taxi (the french equivalent of fast and furious) and hooking up constantly with A-married men or B-producers…she wasn’t like to begin with. The french Olivia Wilde!