French actress MÉLANIE LAURENT talks about her new directorial career, life on set with the Pitt-Jolies, and how she asked for the moon – and got it. By TINA ISAAC-GOIZÉ.
When Mélanie Laurent arrives at the Hôtel Amour, near her home in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, she is unaccompanied, her porcelain complexion bare but for a hint of pink lip color. Dressed in a sweater and pistachio-colored jeans by Notify, pastel Repetto derbies and a black Saint Laurent bag, she flashes a smile at the staff, suggests taking a table in the courtyard, and proceeds to discuss cooking, grocery shopping and how she balances writing, acting and directing with caring for her two-year-old son, Léo. He only has a nanny when she is on set, says Laurent, adding, “It’s my way of staying connected to reality, even though my life is completely unreal.” She counts herself fortunate to have lots of help from her family and her partner, a cinema technician. “I’m going to keep it this way as long as I can – we’ll see what happens when there are two!”
Now 32, Laurent has been in the film business for more than half her life. Discovered at 14 by actor Gérard Depardieu while tagging along with a friend to his Asterix and Obelix vs. Caesar movie set, Laurent gained international fame in Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, and has since become one of France’s most bankable actresses in a generation that includes Marion Cotillard, Audrey Tautou and Léa Seydoux.
To date, Laurent has appeared in 31 films and spent two years as the face of Dior’s Hypnotic Poison fragrance. In 2011, aged 28, she added writing and directing to her extensive résumé with her first film, The Adopted, and served as the mistress of ceremonies at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. “I’ve been around a long time already, but I am never blasé about it,” she smiles. Her eyes light up as she describes the custom Dior dresses she wore at Cannes. “It was like being a princess,” she says. “They brought me designs by Monsieur Dior from the early ’60s that were absolutely sublime, and the petites mains in the atelier recreated them for me.”
Having grown up in Paris surrounded by the arts – her mother, Annick, is a ballet dancer; her father, Pierre, is a voice actor; her grandparents published poetry books – writing and directing came naturally. “I guess it’s always been there,” says Laurent, as she reveals she wrote her first play at age seven. She credits her grandmother for any storytelling talent she may have: “I’m sure it comes from her. She used to tell me incredible stories, and still does today for Léo. It’s marvelous.”
This fall is an especially busy one for Laurent. She has just returned from New York, where she presented the much-acclaimed film Breathe, her second directorial effort for which she also co-wrote the screenplay. A wrenching portrait of friendship, jealousy and betrayal, the US critics were just as impressed as their French counterparts. In late September, Boomerang, an adaptation of novelist Tatiana de Rosnay’s A Secret Kept, hit French movie theaters. The same week, a preview of her crowd-funded environmental documentary, Demain [Tomorrow] – Laurent is a Greenpeace ambassador – roused an audience to its feet for a five-minute ovation. Meanwhile, back in Hollywood, buzz is building for romantic drama By the Sea, in which Laurent co-stars with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who also directed, due in November.
Such a schedule explains why, though brands love her and she loves them, Laurent attends few fashion shows. She does, however, make a point of getting to London at least once a year for Burberry. “There’s always live music [SS16’s was provided by Alison Moyet]. I still get as excited as a little girl,” she says. “Christopher Bailey is the absolute master of the trench. He does extraordinary things.”
One could say the same of Laurent, who attributes her positive outlook to being raised in an environment where she could choose to be or do anything. It gave her confidence, she says, but it also made her stubborn. “Later, when I found myself in a business that is as extraordinary as it is cruel, it never occurred to me to step on others to get ahead,” she says. “When you are lucky enough to do something that is about freedom, creativity and telling stories, there’s no reason to focus on anything but passion for what you do.”
Passion is the undercurrent in By the Sea, a story about two couples in a French seaside town in the ’70s. The elder couple, played by Jolie and Pitt, is struggling in their marriage; the younger pair, played by Laurent and Melvil Poupaud, is just starting out. “I didn’t know Angelina before she called about the role,” says Laurent. “After she offered me the part, I spent a long time pinching myself.” On set, she got to know Jolie and Pitt as “a really normal couple – you can just sense this connection between them, and their kids are really polite and adorable,” she says. “Yet here they are, two monstres sacrés [superstars]. The hard part was figuring out how to act opposite them without being such a fan.”
Working with Jolie has only increased Laurent’s admiration. “Angelina is extraordinary,” she enthuses. “On top of being breathtakingly beautiful, she is extremely intelligent and kind. It’s not often you meet a woman who has so much going for her, yet possesses not an ounce of jealousy.
She has such confidence that she can just explain her vision and then let the actors live.” Jolie let Laurent choose which actor would play her husband – a delicate decision, given the script’s intense love scenes. “When you care about an actor, you get so much in return,” says Laurent. “I’ve believed it for years, and Angelina confirmed it for me.”
The two actresses also share a commitment to activism. “When Angelina wants to do things and affect change, she just goes out and does it,” observes Laurent. The pair have stayed in close touch about their various projects. For Demain, Laurent’s environmental film, she wanted to tell a positive story. “We are all accustomed to hearing bad news, so I wanted to highlight the good that is possible, because countries are generating wealth with renewable energies,” she says. “I’ve become a little radical on certain things.” To wit: she declined a beauty contract because of the company’s involvement in deforestation.
That positivity seems to reward Laurent. Take her first Met Ball: the story begins with an invitation from designer Tory Burch, then a one-of-a-kind dress in vintage fabric and hand-sewn pearls, and a stunning moonscape inside the gala. Fast-forward to a lunch in Paris: “I found myself telling my tablemate about that moon; how I wanted one for a play I’m adapting.” As it turned out, she was talking to Andrew Bolton, the curator of the Costume Institute at the Met, who promptly packed it up and sent it to her. For Laurent, it was more than serendipity. “When you approach the world with an open spirit,” she says, “sometimes it just happens that you can unhook the moon!”
By the Sea is out Nov 13
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