- [on her Farewell, My Queen (2012) character] What I liked about this part was that you don't know anything about her, and so I could invent everything. There is one moment that makes you understand everything about her, a character asks me 'We don't know anything about you...do you even have parents?' This for me was the key to build everything. That's why she's so fascinated by the Queen. It's through the Queen that she has an existence at all.
- I make films for directors. Before anything else, I choose films because of the talent of the directors. The story and the other actors are of course very important, but for me, it's all about the director.
- Five people I'd invite to my dream birthday party are Friedrich Nietzsche, Michael Jackson, Charles Chaplin, Maria Callas and Serge Gainsbourg.
- When I watch my films or read my interviews I come to know I have a very strange thing, I'm not easy to get.
- People are enthusiastic in America. They put heart into things. As soon as you get back to France people are picking on everything.
- [on her friendship with Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos] It's true that it's a friendship, but there's love between us. You can say there's love.
- I like to play deep characters and it's nice to have deep emotions, but it's also nice to just have a distance and to have a sense of humor with what you do as well.
- [on her role in Saint Laurent (2014)] I had to become chic, yes. But it's more like a color in the film. It's a very small part. It's like the film is a puzzle and I will be one of the pieces. I prefer to be a small part in a great film.
- I had a big family, but I felt lost in the crowd. I was very lonely as a kid. Really I always had the feeling I was an orphan.
- Frenchmen are a bit feminine for me - which I do realise is a generalisation. Americans tend to be a bit tougher. I like a mix of both. A man should definitely be sensitive and able to show his feelings, as long as he doesn't come across as too androgynous, because I am also looking for strength.
- [Grazia Magazine, France - August 2013] There have been moments where I've found myself pretty and sexy, but there are times when I find myself much less beautiful! A bit of a lesbian, you could say (laughs).
- [Grazia Magazine, France - August 2013] There have been moments where I've found myself pretty and sexy, but there are times when I find myself much less beautiful.
- I love challenge. I love to be afraid before a film, before acting. I think always I want to experience fear. I've become addicted to this feeling.
- [When asked about her son George, in an interview for Lady Fist] I want him to be better than me, a better human being. I want him to be more intelligent, I want him to be more cultured. I want him to feel free.
- I need to act, it's a necessity. I need to express myself through it and it's more like an existential necessity. I've always felt I had a melancholy inside me and that I had to just make that melancholy express itself.
- I do love sex scenes in cinema. Sex is part of life. It's not a bad word. I'm offended by violence, not sex.
- I have a body, I am carnal, I have dark circles. I don't want to erase it. And European cinema allows me to impose it.
- I have a feeling that I was made to be a part of cinema, that cinema was shaped for me.
- I think that nudity is beautiful. Sometimes it can be awful, but when it's beautiful? Cinema is the art about reality... It's art from reality. In french, we say l'art de la realite: you show reality, so you have to show bodies.
- Cinema really saved me from my sorrow. I've always felt like this. I had this melancholy in me as a kid, and I still carry it. It's something that I try to do in my films - transform that melancholy into something beautiful.
- For me, art, in general - literature, paintings, music- is a way to resist. It's also a way to explore our human condition. I think I'm only interested in that; I don't really care about the rest.
- I read the scripts and it's hard to turn down, I mean, it's impossible. I only make the films that I think for me are a necessity. But they all are. I really wanted every film I made. It's not a compulsion, it's just I have to say yes.
- I'm not crazy about films that are 'entertaining'. I don't think that I go to the cinema to be entertained. I know it's a big thing in America. I like to ask myself questions more. I don't like to be given answers. I don't want to stop thinking. I think certain films are just to feed you with images.
- I don't have problems with nudity. It's something I like to see as a spectator, as a viewer. I think it's beautiful. I love sex scenes in films.
- [talking about Crimes of the Future] To be honest, I didn't understand everything about the film. For me, it's like a metaphor about what it is to be an artist.
- [talking about her relationship with Adèle Exarchopoulos, in 2023] Our friendship is like no other. Nothing can weaken its power.
- [talking about her son, George] He is very handsome, I love him. I loved pregnancy, everything related to motherhood, being with my son, spending time together, delights me.
- I didn't want to become an actress because I saw a film. It was more actors who made me want to be an actress, because I just wanted to be my own master. And I loved the fact that actors were very free in the sense that they can choose whatever they want. It was because I wanted to be free that I became an actress.
- I make the films that I would want to watch. It's the only way I choose.
- With men, it's more like you are more of an object of desire, and when a woman films you, it's more like an alter ego.
- [talking about One Fine Morning (2022)] I liked the parallel between desire and death with her father's disease - it was very interesting to have those two very strong experiences happening at the same time. She's a very normal woman. She's like not a fantasy or an object of desire. She has a job, she's a mother, and we feel that she's struggling in life. I was very touched by that and felt that I could bring a certain level of emotion.
- I have been offered films very, very far from what I've done, and I'm like, 'Oh. Interesting.' I love to feel that I can adapt myself. For me, that's very exotic.
- When I make a film in France, I know I'm going to be judged. It's a little world. But English is more international, more universal. So I like crossing borders.
- I've always felt that cinema was a way to question the world. So I like, in a way, to educate myself by making films.
- [talking about Gaspard Ulliel's death] He was part of my cinema family, our paths were parallel. We were almost the same age, we had a child at almost the same time. We should have grown old together... his death was such an incredible shock, I still can't believe it.
- I like myself. (She laughs.) I think I'm pretty, even though I know I might not be and, to be honest, I don't really care. There are plenty of actresses that people find sublime and who I don't like. I like singular beauties, girls who are a little different, Marion Cotillard, Eva Green or Carey Mulligan with her funny face.
- [talking about working with Nicolas Ghesquiere] I find Nicolas very inspiring. He also invented his style. He has an idea of the modern woman: not in fantasy, but in reality. You feel good in his clothes. They reflect a certain emancipation of women. It's like armor to face the world.
- [talking about working with Daniel Craig] Between Daniel and me, it's true that it "matches". I loved filming with him. He's cool. And I appreciate his uncompromising side.
- I believe I am adaptable. I always play for someone, or according to an environment. And I'm never concerned about aesthetics: the camera can take whatever it wants from me.
- [on female solidarity and sisterhood ] I really like women. I feel part of this continent, I appreciate female solidarity . I love women… but I love men too!
- I like playing the role of Léa Seydoux. In real life, I'm the complete opposite, shy and unsure of myself. Paradoxically, the more confident I become on red carpets, the more I want to disappear from life. My life? I like simple things, and I am very loyal to people.
- I like to wear dresses, to be sexy. But I also like the mix of femininity and masculinity.
- [on how confident she is in real life] I am a shy person, but I learned to be more confident being an actor.
- [when announced as the new face of Louis Vuitton, in 2016] I feel extremely proud at the thought of representing such a strong symbol of French elegance, an iconic brand whose initials are known the world over. I deeply admire Nicolas Ghesquière's work, especially his newness. His incessant search for novelty is also highly impressive.
- I have got lighter as I've got older. I know you have to enjoy the moment. I feel I have no frustrations any more. I have done my best so far. As a young girl, I didn't know what I wanted or what I was able to do. Now I feel more confident, and that helps me feel better in my skin.
- [talking about her experience filming Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)]. I saw him snap his fingers to get his script, his text, and I remember thinking 'Wow... Not even Tom Cruise remembers his lines.' I looked at him fascinated.
- I try to adapt to the world of each director and to make things tangible even if the story takes place in a parallel world. The older I get, the more I like to play things disconnected from a certain form of realism.
- [talking about Gaspard Ulliel's death] It's crazy when I think about the ending of Xavier Dolan's It's Only the End of the World (2016). It's incredible, yes. I don't think I would be able to watch it again now.
- [on her reaction seeing Austin Butler as Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen for the first time] Actually, I was quite frightened. But, at the same time, he is so sweet, he looks like a baby a little. He has this kind of ambiguity that I found great for the character.
- [talking about her late friend and co-star, Gaspard Ulliel] I also said yes to this film for him. After his death, it was essential for me to make The Beast (2023), precisely in relation to him. But the whole time I thought about Gaspard, he was there with us.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content