AS SEYDOUX STRENGTHENS HER GRIP ON THE TITLE OF MOST UNAVOIDABLE FRENCH ACTOR, SHE TALKS ABOUT, SHYNESS, THE BONDVERSE, WORKING WITH KECHICHE AND GODARD’S INFLUENCE ON THE FRENCH DISPATCH
Hello, Léa Seydoux. The last time I saw you was in Mexico City.
“I am French—I’m from Paris, I grew up in Paris. It’s true that French are not very sophisticated in the sense that they don’t dress up for dinners. They are not like Americans where they are always perfect—the girls are not very sporty; they don’t take care of themselves as much as Americans, who always have very white teeth, and are so fit. The French are a little more chic, very classic. I think it can be boring too, because they don’t take any risks. They don’t wear too many colors. Like when you walk the streets in Paris you don’t see too many colors. When you are in London or New York it’s all crazy styles. When you’re a girl, you cant really wear very sexy things, because you will have trouble. If you wear a skirt all the guys will be like, 'uh-huh!' For example this morning, I went out in my pajamas, and people were looking at me funny, but I feel like in New York or LA people wouldn’t even notice.
L'agent provocateur: meet Léa Seydoux, star of Blue is the Warmest Colour
Before the controversial and widely acclaimed film Blue is the Warmest Colour, Léa Seydoux was the anxious, melancholic scion of a French film dynasty, too scared even to travel by plane. But after a role that pushed her to the edge and beyond, the actress has found love, faced her fears and is ready to soar
Hermione Eyre 31 January 2014
W
hen Léa Seydoux created one of the most desirable gay women in cinematic history in Blue is the Warmest Colour, the French love story that ran away with the Palme d’Or at Cannes last year, there was hope, in some quarters, that she might be living the lesbian dream off-screen as well as on. The 28-year-old actress told me that she questioned her sexuality while making the film, which included a seven-minute sex scene: ‘Of course I did. Me as a person, as a human being…’ There are frequently little philosophical touches to her speech; she is French, after all. ‘It’s not nothing, making those scenes. Of course I question myself. But…’ Her mobile, screen-goddess features lighten as she finds the right word: ‘I did not have any revelations.’
meet men like Harvey Weinstein all the time. I have starred in many films over the last 10 years and have been lucky enough to win awards at festivals like Cannes. Cinema is my life. And I know all of the ways in which the film industry treats women with contempt.
A list of the accusations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who has denied many of the allegations
Last updated on Friday
OCTOBER 20, 2017
"He tried to encourage me by telling me what a fantastic opportunity it was for me to be part of this project.Paula Wachowiak"
Age 24 Year: 1980 Location: Unspecified hotel in New York state
Intern Wachowiak was invited to Weinstein's hotel room where he exposed himself and asked for a massage Source: The Buffalo News
"Mr Weinstein was quite calm about trying to explain to me that if I would at least take my top off, this would demonstrate to him that I wasn’t going to be shy about doing so in front of the cameras."
Tomi-Ann Roberts
Age 20 Year: 1984 Location: Unspecified hotel in New York
Weinstein invited Roberts to his hotel room to discuss a script, but was nude in the bathtub when she arrived. Source: Democracy Now
"He pushed me inside and rammed me up against the coat rack in my tiny hall and started fumbling at my gown. He was trying to kiss me and shove inside me. It was disgusting."
Lysette Anthony
Age Mid 20s Year: Late 1980s Location: Anthony's home in London
Weinstein turned up at Anthony's home, later buying her a coat that she saw as an apology Source: Sunday Times
Lea Seydoux in 'Spectre.' The French actress best known for her role in the award-winning 'Blue Is the Warmest Color' is the latest addition to the Bond girl canon.
Léa Seydoux:
Meet the Chic 'Spectre' Bond Girl
How a 'street' kid from Paris became 007's coolest leading lady in ages
By Alex Morris
I learned from the streets," says actress Léa Seydoux, perched on a plush sofa in the bar of New York's Bowery Hotel. "I mean, I'm not, like, Jay Z," she adds, laughing through the gap in her front teeth. "But in a way, I really did my own education."
It was "the life of freedom, being your own boss" that drew Seydoux, 30, to acting. She had her breakout performance in the 2013 French filmBlue Is the Warmest Color,which featured a now-legendary seven-minute lesbian sex scene and won her a Palme d'Or at Cannes. Right now you can catch her as the newest Bond girl inSpectre,opposite Daniel Craig. It's by far the most high-profile role yet for an actress with deep art-house roots. "I thought, 'Oh, it's never going to work, all the other girls will want [the part],'" she says.The "streets," in Seydoux's case, were the boulevards of Paris' Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, historically the city's cultural center, where, thanks to her parents' bohemian tendencies, she was often left to her own devices. "I've always felt like an orphan," says the actress, who was one of seven kids. "I didn't have any structure."
In fact, Seydoux was used to being the misfit in a glittery world. Her father is CEO of the wireless company Parrot, and, in Seydoux's words, a "genius" engineer; her mother a philanthropist whose work often took her to Africa. Her family had entertainment-world connections thanks to her grandfather, a film producer, and she remembers childhood encounters with Mick Jagger and Lou Reed. But Seydoux was also left to wander the streets "badly dressed and in too-small shoes. And I had lice," she recalls. "I would ask girls to come to my house and play, and they were like, 'No, my mother doesn't want it, there's no supervision.'"
Seydoux started acting when she was 18, taking up a profession no one in her family had envisioned for her. "When I said, 'I want to be an actress,' my parents were like, 'Bullshit. Try if you want, but it's never going to work.' " But after becoming a fixture of French cinema, she was cast in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris and as a farm girl being questioned by Nazi soldiers in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Her upbringing helped prepare her for her character in Spectre, an assassin's daughter who shares Seydoux's "instinct de vie" – the scrappy survival skills of someone burying her past. "Acting, you play a role every time," she says softly. "So it was made for me because, in a way, I can hide."
French actress Léa Seydoux wears only a transparent chiffon cape by Alexandre Vauthier on the cover of the newly relaunched French monthly Lui or ‘him’ in English. Seydoux is lensed by AOC favorite photographerMario Sorrenti.
Jean-Yves Le Fur, founder of Numéro, has taken on the goal of reviving the seventies erotic publication, with the first issue hitting newsstands now.
‘It is the whim of a spoiled kid,’ said editorial director Frédéric Beigbeder, commenting on his involvement in the revival of the original publication that ceased to be in 1994. Beigbeder told WWD that he has collected every issue since the magazine’s creation in 1963.
Yseult Williams, founder of Grazia in France, is the editor in chief of the magazine, while New-York based George Cortina is the editor in chief for fashion. Céline Perruche has joined Lui from Grazia as beauty, style and lifestyle editor.
Also in the first issue are editorials by Mikael Jansson and Glen Luchford, who flashed Malgosia Bela, Le Fur’s soon-to-be wife.
WWD writes:
The launch comes at a time when men’s magazines — albeit a smaller world — are trending better than women’s. Paid circulation in France of men’s magazines, a segment that includes GQ andVogue Hommes International, grew 2.8 percent in 2012 to 2.5 million copies, according to France’s Circulation Audit Bureau. In the meantime, circulation of the vastly larger women’s magazine segment fell 3.4 percent in 2012 to 371.6 million copies.
Estimates are that women will be one-third of Lui readers. Based on the femme readership of Treats!, that’s a low number. Perhaps Smart Sensuality women prefer men’s magazines these days? ~ Anne
I recently saw Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013). I will confess that I saw the film mostly due to its surrounding controversies and the numerous awards the film, director and actresses received. Come on, Palme d’Or! After seeing it, I agree that despite its controversies and criticism, it was a well-made film. Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux are amazing!
Their interview with www.interviewmagazine.com basically sums up controversies and their feelings towards the film. A good read!
The Look: Vroom Vroom. The classic American cars that speed across pieces from Prada’s latest collection give whole new meaning to the term “fast fashion.”