Star of the Cannes Film Festival selection Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg) and the Quizaine des realisateurs selection Un beau matin (Mia Hansen-Løve), Léa Seydoux is one of the most prominent stars at Cannes this year. Discover Léa’s interview and photoshoot with Crash from 2010 when she was just 24 years old.

How did you decide to become an actress?
A sudden desire and simultaneously several events in my life that led me to become an actress. I started wanting to be an actress when I was 18, I was in my last year of high school. After graduation, I enrolled in a theater school, Les Enfants terribles in Paris for a year, then I wanted to change schools. I like to change and it’s hard for me to stay with the same people all the time. I was like a wild animal, I felt like a dunce at school! I had a hard time differentiating my schooling from this theater school, I felt unable to acquire a technique. I couldn’t get on stage, I was to shy, but then I had to overcome my fear. Then I told myself that school was not for me. I then decided to dedicate myself to film rather than the theater.

So you stopped your training and went straight to film?
Yes, I started with a romantic comedy for teenagers and then Catherine Breillat’s film, La Vieille Maîtresse.

How was that first experience with Catherine Breillat?
I was impressed. I went to her house, I was dressed in a neutral way, I just had a cap on my head and then when I took off my cap, she was impressed by my hair! She asked me to do an improvisation and then told me: you have the part!

Can you tell us about your recent projects?
I just played in Belle epine by Rebecca Zlotowski, selected at Cannes in La Semaine de la Critique. I haven’t seen it yet and I had nightmares about it all night because I have to go to the screening after the interview! Rebecca was just out of the Fémis and she came to see me to offer me a role. She had seen me in La Belle personne and she chose me right away. It takes place in the 80s. It’s about a young girl who is left to her own devices because her mother dies and she gets caught up in a gang of young people who race motorcycles at a circuit in Rungis. It’s the first time I’ve ever done a film completely, I’m very proud of it.

How were you chosen for Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood?
Ridley Scott’s English casting director asked me to play a scene, and to send her the tape. I was cast and then I only met Ridley Scott on the set in England. Ridley Scott is a warm person and quite modest and pleasant. I like this film, all these men fighting with swords, it excites me in fact, it smells of sweat.

Can you describe your meeting with Christophe Honoré?
I met him at the time of the casting, there was a click, La Belle personne triggered my notoriety. The film did well even though it was originally made for Arte and was a low budget film. I have just played in a medium-length film directed by Louis Garrel: Le petit tailleur. It’s a very nice film that plunges us into a dreamlike universe. We are of the same generation, he is quite German-Pratin, St. Germain is a neighborhood in which I hung out a lot when I was little and I happened to cross paths with him often, I saw him again later for La Belle Personne.

You are part of a family that has been involved in cinema for a long time, big film producers. Does that make a difference for you?
Yes and no, in terms of work no, I don’t get more roles for that, I was never helped or lobbied even to be an extra. I decided alone to do this job, I’m not an actor’s daughter, which would be more complicated, being an actor’s daughter and trying to find your place, it’s more difficult, I think.

Are you working on any other projects?
I just finished a film by Jamshed Usmonov, he is a Tajik director. I play a very mysterious woman, married to a lawyer, a Hitchcockian character who has lost her husband. I have also just shot a film with Amos Gitai, based on « Roses on Credit », a novel by Elsa Triolet. It should be released in the fall, first on the big screen and then on the small screen. These are three magnificent roles, three main roles, very different roles, opposite roles, I am delighted that I am offered such varied roles in fact.

What do you prefer in the cinema?
From the inside, it’s a bit like a family, on the set, we’re all in the same boat, there’s a solidarity, I love shooting, it’s really exciting.

Directing?
I want to live experiences first.

Your relationship with fashion?
I love fashion, I like to be pretty, it’s a way to adorn yourself.

Do you control your image?
I don’t think I’m in control in general, not at all.

PHOTOGRAPHY Frank Perrin
FASHION Armelle Leturcq
HAIR Yusuke
MAKE UP Cathyanne Mac Allister for Dior
DIGITAL ASSISTANT Romain Diani
STYLIST ASSISTANT Jessica Huynh
VIDEO ASSISTANT Marta Calles
THANKS TO Galerie Jousse Entreprise, Paris