Back to French cinema: the melancholy of Léa Seydoux

BET À DAY

PARIS | Even though she has played roles in James Bond, Dune and other major Hollywood productions, Léa Seydoux always returns to her first love, French cinema. For Un beau matin, a new film by director Mia Hansen-Love, the 37-year-old actress slipped into the skin of a young single mother who rediscovers love when the condition of her father, suffering from a degenerative disease, deteriorates. The Diarymet her last month in Paris.

< p>You have often been filmed as an object of desire in the cinema. Mia Hansen-Love says she was rather seduced by the melancholy that emanates from you. Does that surprise you?

“No, because I think I always had this melancholy in me, even when I was a kid. I also have a photo of me, when I was only 1 month old, and on which I already had a melancholy look. I think we are born that way. I find it fascinating to see how much our personality is already shaped in our childhood. I like Nietzsche's phrase which said: “Become who you are.” I believe that throughout our lives, we develop a personality that we already had at birth.”

Mia Hansen-Love was greatly inspired by her story and the illness of her father to write his film. What did you like about his script?

“I really liked the portrait of this woman. I also liked that it was her story that Mia told in the film. He is a character who is experiencing a new beginning. She has already had a romantic relationship during which she had a first child. She felt like her life was behind when this couple broke up. But all of a sudden, there is this new love story that happens to her, while she is going through painful moments with her sick father. It was something that touched me. There is also a certain form of naturalism in the way of shooting which I liked”.

Léa Seydoux and Camille Leban Martins in a scene from the film Un beau matin.

Mia Hansen-Love once said you were the first actress to make her cry while filming one of her movies…

“It's true that I saw her cry several times. But Pascal [Greggory, who plays the father] also made him cry. The film tells the story of her father so inevitably, it must have touched her. But this is not the first time that I have made my directors cry. I also remember making Xavier [Dolan] cry during the filming of Only the end of the world!”

You manage to alternate between major Hollywood productions and international auteur films. What type of production do you feel most comfortable in?

“For me, the closer the roles are to reality, the easier they are to play. I find it more difficult to act in the scenes that are shot in the studio on green screens because you have to invent everything and imagine what is around you.”

You are going to play the mythical character of Emmanuelle in a new film adaptation of the erotic novel of the same title, directed by Audrey Diwan. What can you tell us about this project?

“It will be very different and it will have nothing to do with the Emmanuelle films that were made in the past. It will really be an Emmanuelle of 2023. There will be some eroticism, but it will be approached through a feminine prism and from her own gaze.”

A beautiful morning hits theaters February 17.