Marion Cotillard

Marion Cotillard (French pronunciation:  ( listen); born 30 September 1975) is a French actress, singer-songwriter, environmentalist and spokesperson for Greenpeace. She has received international acclaim and awards for her performances in films such as A Very Long Engagement (2004), La Vie en Rose (2007), Nine (2009), Inception (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011), Rust and Bone (2012), The Immigrant (2013), Two Days, One Night (2014) and Macbeth (2015). She is also known for being the face of Lady Dior handbags since 2008. In 2014, Cotillard was named "The Most Bankable French Actress of the 21st Century", her films accumulating more than 37 million ticket sales in France from 2001 to 2014.

In 2007, Cotillard starred as French singer Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, for which she received critical acclaim and won several awards, including the Academy Award, BAFTA Award, César Award, and the Golden Globe Award. She is the first and (as of 2016) only actor to win an Academy Award for a performance in the French language.

In 2010, she received a Golden Globe and a Critics' Choice Award nomination for her performance in the musical film Nine. In 2012, she received critical acclaim for her performance as an amputee orca trainer in Rust and Bone and received nominations for the Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award, Critics' Choice Award, Screen Actors Guild Award and the César Award. She received rave reviews and several awards in 2014 for her lead performances in The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night, receiving a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for the latter, which was also her second nomination for a French-language film and the first time an actor was nominated for a Belgian film.

Cotillard's other notable films include Chloé (1996), Furia (1999), Lisa (2001), Pretty Things (2001), Big Fish (2003), Toi et Moi (2006), Dikkenek (2006), A Good Year (2006), Public Enemies (2009), Contagion (2011), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), The Little Prince (2015) and April and the Extraordinary World (2015).

Marion Cotillard Posters

Early life

Cotillard was born in Paris, and grew up around Orléans, in an artistically inclined, "bustling, creative household". Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, is an actor, teacher, former mime, and 2006 Molière Award-winning director. He is of Breton descent. Cotillard's mother, Niseema Theillaud, who has Kabyle ancestry is also an actress and drama teacher. Her two younger brothers are twins: Quentin and Guillaume. Guillaume is a screenwriter and director. Cotillard began acting during her childhood, appearing on stage in one of her father's plays.

Career

After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional, minor roles in television series such as Highlander - where she had her first English-speaking role at age 17, appearing as Lori Bellian in the episode "Nowhere to Run", she also had an uncredited role in the episode "Saving Grace", in which she appeared giving birth in one scene. But her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s with small but noticeable roles in films like L' Histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse, Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument and the comedy La Belle Verte directed by Coline Serreau.

In 1996, Cotillard had her first leading role in the TV film Chloé, playing the title role, a teenage runaway who is forced into prostitution, co-starring Anna Karina. In 1998, she appeared in Gérard Pirès' action comedy Taxi, playing Lili Bertineau, girlfriend of delivery boy Daniel. The film was a hit in France and she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress. Cotillard reprised the role in two sequels: Taxi 2 and Taxi 3. She then ventured into science fiction with Alexandre Aja's post-apocalyptic romantic drama, Furia in 1999. That same year, Cotillard starred in the Swiss war drama film War in the Highlands (La Guerre dans le Haut Pays), for which she won the Best Actress Award at the Autrans Film Festival in 1999.

In 2001, she appeared in Pierre Grimblat's film Lisa, playing the title role and younger version of Jeanne Moreau's character, co-starring with Benoît Magimel and Sagamore Stévenin. In the same year, she starred in Gilles Paquet-Brenner's film Pretty Things (Les Jolies Choses), adapted from the work of feminist writer Virginie Despentes. In the drama, Cotillard portrayed twins of completely opposite characters, Lucie and Marie, and she was nominated for a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her performance.

In 2002, she appeared in Guillaume Nicloux's thriller A Private Affair (Une Affaire Privée), where she portrayed the mysterious Clarisse.

In 2003, Cotillard had a notable supporting role in Tim Burton's film Big Fish, it was her first American film and she appeared alongside Helena Bonham Carter, Albert Finney, Ewan McGregor, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange and Allison Lohman. In the film she plays Joséphine, the French wife of William Bloom (Crudup). In the same year, she starred in the French romantic comedy film Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants), as Sophie Kowalsky, the daughter of Polish immigrants. The film was directed by Yann Samuel and was a box office hit in France.

In 2004, she won the Chopard Trophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival. She also appeared in two critically acclaimed films: Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (Un Long Dimanche de Fiançailles), as the vengeful Tina Lombardi, for which she won a César Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the mystery thriller Innocence, as Mademoiselle Éva.

In 2005, Cotillard starred in six films: Steve Suissa's romantic drama Cavalcade as Alizée; in Abel Ferrara's religious drama Mary, alongside Forest Whitaker and Juliette Binoche; portrayed Isabelle Kruger and Alice in the thriller film The Black Box (La Boîte Noire), directed by Richard Berry; starred in the romantic comedy Love Is in the Air (Ma vie en l'air); in the drama Burnt Out (Sauf le respect que je vous dois) and Edy, directed by Stéphan Guérin-Tillié.

In 2006, the actress starred in four films, including Ridley Scott's romantic comedy A Good Year, in which she portrayed Fanny Chenal, a French café owner in a small Provençal town, opposite Russell Crowe as a Londoner who inherits a local property; the Belgian comedy Dikkenek alongside Mélanie Laurent, appeared in Fair Play as Nicole and in the satirical coming-of-age film Toi et moi, for which she learned to play the cello for her role.

Cotillard was chosen by director Olivier Dahan to portray the French singer Édith Piaf in the biopic La Vie en Rose before he had even met her, saying that he noticed a similarity between Piaf's and Cotillard's eyes. Producer Alain Goldman accepted and defended the choice even though distributors TFM reduced the money they gave to finance the film thinking Cotillard wasn't "bankable" enough an actress. Her portrayal was widely praised, including by the eminent theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn, who described it as "one of the greatest performances on film ever." At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. It was dubbed "the most awaited film of 2007" in France, where some critics said that she had reincarnated Édith Piaf to sing one last time on stage.

She is the first actress to win a Golden Globe for a foreign language performance since 1972, when Liv Ullmann won for The Emigrants. She is also the first person to win a (Comedy or Musical) Golden Globe for a foreign language performance. On 10 February 2008, Cotillard became the first French actress to be awarded the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role since Stéphane Audran in 1973.

On 22 February 2008, she was awarded the César Award for Best Actress for her performance in La Vie en Rose. Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), also praising her on stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about". Two days later, on 24 February 2008 at the Academy Awards, she won Best Actress, becoming the first woman and second person (after Adrien Brody, The Pianist) to win both a César and an Oscar for the same performance. Cotillard is the second French cinema actress to win this award and the third overall to receive an Academy Award after Simone Signoret in 1960 and Juliette Binoche in 1997. She is the first Best Actress winner in a non-English language performance since Sophia Loren's win in 1961. She is also the first and (as of 2016) only winner of an Academy Award for a performance in the French language. In her Oscar acceptance speech, Cotillard proclaimed "thank you life, thank you love" and, speaking of Los Angeles, said "it is true, there is some angels (sic) in this city!" The day following the ceremony, Cotillard was congratulated and praised by the President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, in a statement saying,

I would like to extend my warmest congratulations to Marion Cotillard, who has just received the Oscar for Best Actress for her masterful interpretation of Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose, directed by Olivier Dahan. Half a century after Simone Signoret, a French artist has received the Best Actress award at the Oscars. It was a good omen that Catherine Allegret, Simone Signoret's daughter, herself had a role in La Vie en Rose. Marion Cotillard embodies an Édith Piaf who is unsettling in her realism, emotion and passion. Her interpretation brings to life the story of a woman who gave French chanson its acclaim and authenticity; a singer, too, who closely united France and America.

La Vie En Rose was partly a Czech production, as Cotillard mentioned in her César acceptance speech. On 1 March 2008, Cotillard won a Czech Lion Award for Best Actress. She could not attend the ceremony in Prague due to the filming of Public Enemies. Her friend Pavlína Němcová – who played the journalist in La vie en Rose – was there to accept the award on her behalf.

Cotillard won a total of 27 awards for her performance in La Vie en Rose.

On 24 June 2008, Cotillard was one of 105 individuals invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Cotillard starred alongside Johnny Depp and Christian Bale in Public Enemies, which was released in the United States on 1 July 2009. Later that year, Cotillard appeared in the film adaptation of the musical Nine, directed by Rob Marshall, playing Luisa Contini, the wife of Guido, played by Daniel Day-Lewis. On 15 December 2009, Cotillard was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy for her performance in the film. Cotillard appeared on the cover of the November 2009 issue of Vogue with her Nine co-stars, and on the July 2010 cover by herself.

For her role as Luisa Contini in Nine, Time magazine ranked her as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009, behind Mo'Nique, Carey Mulligan, Saoirse Ronan and Meryl Streep. Cotillard was awarded the Desert Palm Achievement Actress Award at the 2010 Palm Springs International Film Festival for her performance - her second prize from the festival.

On February 27, 2010, she was the Honorary President of the 35th César Awards Ceremony.

She appeared as "Mal Cobb" in Christopher Nolan's film Inception, alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, which released on 16 July 2010. Cotillard and Leonardo DiCaprio ranked #8 on the list "Hollywood's Top Earning On-Screen Couples" by Forbes for Inception, which made $825 million at the worldwide box-office. They are the only couple from a non-franchise film. In the same year, she also starred in Guillaume Canet's drama Little White Lies (Les petits mouchoirs), playing the environmentalist Marie, alongside Jean Dujardin and François Cluzet.

In 2011, she starred in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris alongside Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson and Kathy Bates. In the film, Cotillard played Adriana, a fictionalized mistress of Pablo Picasso with whom Owen Wilson's character, Gil, falls in love. She also co-starred alongside Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon in Steven Soderbergh's thriller film Contagion. Also that year, Cotillard appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France in 2010, the first time in nine years that a female has topped the list, and she was also tied with Kate Winslet as the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood. In 2012, she was ranked #9 on the list of the highest paid actresses in France.

In 2012, Cotillard appeared in Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight Rises, playing Miranda Tate, a board member at Wayne Enterprises. The film reunited her with her Inception co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Caine, Cillian Murphy and Tom Hardy. It also reunited her with Public Enemies co-star Christian Bale.

She next starred in Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone (De rouille et d'os) alongside Matthias Schoenaerts, for which she received rave reviews for her performance as the orca trainer Stéphanie and won the Globe de Cristal Award, Étoile d'Or Award, Sant Jordi Award, Irish Film & Television Award and the Hawaii International Film Festival Award for Best Actress and received a fifth César Award nomination, a fourth Screen Actors Guild Award nomination, a third Golden Globe nomination (her first nomination for Best Actress - Drama), a second Critics' Choice Award nomination and a second Lumières Award nomination. The film premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. Cate Blanchett wrote an op-ed for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in Rust and Bone, describing it as "simply astonishing" and said that "Marion has created a character of nobility and candour, seamlessly melding herself into a world we could not have known without her. Her performance is as unexpected and as unsentimental and raw as the film itself". She also received several honors and career tributes at Telluride Film Festival, Hollywood Film Festival, AFI Fest, Gotham Awards and Harper's Bazaar Awards.

In 2013, Cotillard was named Hasty Pudding Theatricals' Woman of the Year by Harvard students. She was also ranked the 2nd highest paid actress in France in 2012. On May 2013, She appeared in the controversial music video "The Next Day" by David Bowie, alongside Gary Oldman, her co-star in The Dark Knight Rises.

She had her first leading role in an American movie in James Gray's The Immigrant, starring as the Polish immigrant Ewa Cybulska, opposite Joaquin Phoenix. For her performance in the film, Cotillard was widely acclaimed at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival in May, 2013 and was nominated for an Spirit Award for Best Actress in 2015. The Immigrant was released in U.S. in May 2014, exactly one year after its Cannes premiere, and was highly praised by American critics, especially Cotillard's performance. She then co-starred in Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties, alongside Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and again Matthias Schoenaerts, the film premiering at Cannes in the same week that The Immigrant premiered. Cotillard also had a cameo in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues, acting opposite Jim Carrey as a Canadian anchor. From November to December 2013, she was a member of the jury of the 13th Marrakech Film Festival that was presided by Martin Scorsese. Cotillard was named "The Most Beautiful Face of 2013" by The Independent Critics List, and was ranked #13 on Empire Online's list of the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars" in 2013.

In 2014, she starred in Dardenne brothers's Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit). In the film, Cotillard plays Sandra, a Belgian factory worker who has just one weekend to convince her workmates to give up their bonuses so that she can keep her job. The film premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and Cotillard's performance was unanimously praised by critics, earned a 15-minute standing ovation and was named "the best performance of the festival". For her performance in the film, Cotillard received several critics awards and was nominated for a second Academy Award for Best Actress and for a sixth César Award for Best Actress.

On 22 January 2014, it was announced that Cotillard would star in the New York Philharmonic’s production of Arthur Honegger’s oratorio "Joan of Arc at the Stake". Cotillard had previously starred in a production of the 1938 dramatic oratorio by the Orléans Orchestra in 2005 and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra in 2012. The new production, staged by the director Côme de Bellescize, was first created for Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival Matsumoto in 2012, and featured members of the Comédie-Française. It hit the stage of the Avery Fisher Hall in June 2015. Cotillard also performed the oratorio in Paris in March 2015.

In August 2014, Cotillard was named "the great silent film actress of our time" by The Daily Telegraph's Robbie Collin, for her ability to show emotions only with her eyes and facial expressions, although she never appeared in a silent film.

In 2015, Cotillard played Lady Macbeth in a new film adaptation of Shakespeare's play Macbeth directed by Justin Kurzel, opposite Michael Fassbender in the title role. The film premiered at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and Cotillard was nominated for a BIFA Award for Best Actress for her performance. She voiced The Rose in both the English and the French version in a 3D animated adaptation of The Little Prince, directed by Mark Osborne, was the voice of Scarlet Overkill in the French version of Minions and also voiced April, the lead role in the French-Canadian-Belgian 3D animated film April and the Extraordinary World (Avril et le Monde Truqué), directed by Franck Ekinci and Christian Demares,

In 2016, Cotillard played Gabrielle, the lead role in Nicole Garcia's From the Land of the Moon (Mal de Pierres), an adaptation of the bestselling Italian novel "Mal di Pietre" ("From the Land of the Moon" in US/Canada and UK and "The House in Via Manno" in Australia) by Milena Agus. In the same year, she played Catherine in Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World (Juste la fin du Monde), set to be released in France in September 2016. Both films subsequently premiered in the main competition section of the 2016 Cannes Film Festival.

As of 2016, Cotillard's films have grossed more than 3 billion dollars at the worldwide box-office.

On 13 February 2015, it was announced that Cotillard had been cast alongside Michael Fassbender in the upcoming Assassin's Creed movie adaptation that is due for release on 21 December 2016.

On June 8, 2015, it was reported that Cotillard will star alongside Brad Pitt in Allied, a spy film set in World War II directed by Robert Zemeckis.

On May 3, 2016, it was announced that Cotillard had been cast in Arnaud Desplechin's Les Fantomes d'Ismaël, alongside Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Louis Garrel.

Musical career

Cotillard sings, plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and tambourine.

She co-wrote and performed the song "La Fille De Joie" for her film Pretty Things (Les Jolies Choses), in which she played a singer and also performed the song "La Conne" for this film.

In 2008, she co-wrote and performed the song "The Strong Ones" alongside Hawksley Workman for Olivier Dahan's short film for Cartier's Love range.

In 2010, she recorded a song called "Happy Crowd" with the French band Yodelice and sang few songs on their album "Cardioid". She also went on tour with the band in different cities in France and Belgium under the pseudonym "Simone", which is her grandmother's name. Cotillard appears in the video "More Than Meets the Eyes" from Yodelice (2010)

She also recorded the song "The Eyes of Mars" alongside Franz Ferdinand especially for Dior.

Canadian singer Hawksley Workman said in interviews about his album Between the Beautifuls that he worked and wrote songs with Cotillard while they both were in Los Angeles during the movie awards season.

In 2012, she wrote and performed the song "Lily's Body" for the fourth episode of the Lady Dior Web Documentary with the same title.

In 2014, Cotillard wrote and performed the song "Snapshot in LA" alongside John Cameron Mitchell, Metronomy's Joseph Mount and Villaine. The song earned a music video that was written and co-directed by Cotillard herself especially for Lady Dior's campaign "Enter the Game - Dior Cuise 2015".

"Lady Dior" advertising campaign

In 2008, Cotillard was chosen as the face of Dior's "Lady Dior" advertising campaign and was featured in an online mini-movie directed by John Cameron Mitchell about the fictional character created by John Galliano. She also starred in a series of short films that were situated in different cities to promote the "Lady Dior" handbags: Lady Noire Affair (in Paris) directed by Olivier Dahan, Lady Blue Shanghai directed by David Lynch, Lady Rouge (in New York) directed by Jonas Akerlund and Lady Grey London directed by John Cameron Mitchell and starring Ian McKellen and Russell Tovey. This campaign has also resulted in a musical collaboration with Scottish rock band Franz Ferdinand, where Cotillard has provided the vocals for a composition performed by the group, entitled "The Eyes of Mars".

In 2012, she starred in the web-series Lady Dior Web Documentary and wrote and performed the song "Lily's body" for one episode, she also designed her own handbag for Dior, the "360° bag". Cotillard also appeared on the cover of the first issue of Dior Magazine in September 2012.

In 2014, she wrote and co-directed alongside Eliott Bliss, a music video for her song "Snapshot in LA", especially for Lady Dior's campaign "Enter The Game - Dior Cuise 2015".

Environmental activism

In addition to her film work, Cotillard is interested in environmental activism, and has participated in campaigns for environmental protection, in particular Greenpeace, for whom she has acted as a spokesperson since 2002. In 2005, she contributed to Dessins pour le climat ("Drawings for the Climate"), a book of drawings published by Greenpeace to raise funds for the group, and in 2010, she travelled to Congo with Greenpeace to visit tropical rainforests threatened by logging companies, it was shown in the documentary The Congolese Rainforests: Living on Borrowed Time.

In 2009, Cotillard was one of many celebrities to record a cover version of the song Beds are Burning by Midnight Oil, in support of TckTckTck and climate justice.

In 2013, she caged herself near Paris's Louvre museum to demand the freeing of 30 Greenpeace activists jailed in Russia over an Arctic protest. She entered the cage and held a banner proclaiming "I am a climate defender".

On 21 May 2014, Greenpeace released the animated video "The Amazon's Silent Crisis", narrated by Cotillard. The video highlights the troubling illegal logging that threatens the Brazilian Amazon.

In 2009, Cotillard designed her own doll for UNICEF France campaign "Les Frimousses Font Leur Cinéma", that was sold to help vaccinate thousands of children in Darfur.

Cotillard is the patron of Maud Fontenoy Foundation, a non-governmental organization which is dedicated to teaching children about preserving the oceans. She is also the ambassador of Association Wayanga, a French association that supports indigenous peoples for their rights and the preservation of their cultures and the Amazon Forest they inhabit.

In 2011, she publicly supported Chief Raoni in his fight against the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil and signed his petition.

In 2012, she was featured on Kate Winslet’s book "The Golden Hat: Talking Back To Autism", with celebrity self-portraits to raise awareness and support for autism launched by Winslet's Golden Hat Foundation.

In February 2014, she signed "The Tiger Manifesto", a campaign calling for an end to everyday products being manufactured through forest destruction. Launched by Greenpeace, the campaign is encouraging consumers to demand products are forest and tiger-friendly, particularly in Indonesia, where the Sumatran tiger is on brink of extinction.

On 26 February 2015, she went to Philippines along France's President François Hollande and actress Mélanie Laurent, to participate on a forum and encourage faster and more determined action on the global challenge of climate change.

Cotillard was the ambassador of "1 Heart 1 Tree", an art project that fights climate change through its Plant for the Planet reforestation program. On 29 November 2015, The Eiffel Tower became a virtual forest with trees and words encouraging environmental activism projected onto it every evening. Cotillard and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, inaugurated the light installation on the eve of the official opening of the COP21 conference. She also donated her shoes to be displayed among an installation of over 10,000 shoes at the Place de la Republique in Paris. The installation replaced a giant march for climate change which was forbidden by French authorities following the deadly attacks in the capital on November 13, which cost 130 lives. It was a way of showing the determination of protesters in their fight against climate change, and allowed them to still send a strong message on the eve of the U.N. climate conference (COP21).

Personal life

In the late 90s, Cotillard was in a relationship with French actor Julien Rassam. From 2000 to 2005, she was in a relationship with French actor Stéphan Guérin-Tillié. She dated French singer Sinclair from 2005 to 2007.

Since October 2007, Cotillard has been in a relationship with French actor and director Guillaume Canet. The birth of the couple's son, Marcel, was announced on 19 May 2011. In 2014, she denied being married to Guillaume Canet.

Filmography

She has dubbed several films in France, like Happy Feet. She also dubbed in French all of her roles in English-speaking films:

Theatre

Awards and nominations

Among other awards, Cotillard has received an Academy Award for Best Actress, a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, two César Awards, a Lumières Award and a European Film Award. She has also won a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a National Society of Film Critics Award, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress.

In March 2010, Cotillard was made a Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of the Arts and Letters) by the French government for her "contribution to the enrichment of French culture".

See also