Marion Cotillard

Posted on 6 November 2023by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

Audrey Tautou, The Da Vinci Code, 2005.
Elsa Zylberstein, Le concile de pierre (The Stone Council), France-Italy-Germany, 2006. A return to her Une affaire privee director Guillaume Nicloux had been part of a four-movie marathon before shooting her international breakthrough: La môme. She settled for three.
Cécile De France, L’instinct de mort, France-Canada-Italy, 2008. No shortage of French actresses for Jeanne Schneider: lover of gangster Jacques Mesrine,something of a 1959-1979 French Dillinger: bank robber, kidnapper, killer (39 victims,at least), who preferred to see himself, bien sur, as an anarchist.
Kate Winslet, The Reader, 2008. Kate was always director Stephen Daldry’s first choice for Hanna Schmitz.However, she was delayed on Revolutionary Road, and Nicole Kidman was still making Australia and then proved pregnant. Daldry then considered Kidman pal Naomi Watts, Juliette Binoche (The English Patient Oscar-winner) and thenew French rave, already well used to hours of old-age make-up in her Oscar-winning La Môme, 2007. Finally, Kate was free and this time she got the 2008 Oscar.
Judi Dench, Nine, 2009.
Nicole Kidman, Nine, 2009
Cate Blanchett, Robin Hood, 2009. When Sienna Miller quit as the maid, er widow Marion (sic), director Ridley Scott and his (bulky) Robin, Russell Crowe, rushed to their partner in A Good Year, 2006.
Noomi Rapace, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shows, 2010. Director Guy Ritchiesaw Spanish Penelope Cruz and all the usual French girlsfor Sim – Juliette Binoche, Cécile de France, Eva Green, Virginie Ledoyen, Sophie Marceau, Audrey Tautou. And signed a Swede… the star of theMillennium trilogy.
Uma Thurman, Bel Ami, 2011. Her schedule ruled out being Madeleine Forestier opposite with Robert Pattinson in the latest version Guy de Maupassant’s 1885 novel of social ambition.
Juliette Binoche, Cosmopolis, 2011. Lost Pattinson again – pregnant with her and Guillaume Canet’s son, Marcel. Director David Croneneberg next looked at Keira Knightley and Noomi Rapace. They were busy and one French Oscar-winner succeeded another.
Sandra Bullock, Gravity, 2012. Natalie Portman was #1 choice after Angelina Jolie wanted $20m to be Ryan, lone survivor of a space mission to repair the Hubble telescope – trying to to return to Earth and her daughter. But Natalie was pregnant. Enter: Marion. Pregnant, too. Rebecca Hall, Salma Hayek, Scarlett Johannsson, Blake Lively, Sienna Miller, Carey Mulligan, Natalie Portman, Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz, Olivia Wilde all fought for the role… Because the female astronaut is alone on-screen for most of the movie. (Sorry about that, George Clooney).
Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables, 2012. The genuinely French La Cotillard was among the potential Fantines. But if everyone else had UK accents… Also seen: Amy Adams, Jessica Biel, Emily Blunt, Rebecca Hall, Kate Winslet – until Hathaway’s audition had everyone in tears…
Bérénice Bejo, Le passé, France-Italy-Iran, 2012. Being about the busist actress on the planet that year, Cotillard lost Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s film in favour of The Immigrant, by her US pal, James Gray. Both films unfurled at the 2013 Cannes festival where the best actress award went to… Bejo!
Lea Seydoux, Le journal d’une femme de chambre, France, 2014. Takes a brave realisateur to re-make a film previously made by Jean Renoir and by Luis Buñuel. Benoit Jacquot’s take on the Octave Mirbeau book had a sudden change of Celestine, the scheming chambermaid, when the new queen-bee of French cinema, Cotillard, fell out – needing a break after her Cannes entry, Deux jours, une nuit and milady Macbeth, no less! Her hottest rival, Seydoux, filled in. Renoir chose Paulette Goddard in 1945; Buñuel had a more memorable Jeanne Moreau in 1963.
Charlotte Gainsbourg, 3 cœurs (Three Hearts), France-Germany-Belgium, 2014. We’ve been here before. In the 2010 US mumblecore, Your Sister’s Sister: Jack Duplass stuck between sisters Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt. The Gallic version was Vincent Lindon caught between Cotillard and Léa Seydoux before becoming Benoit Poelvoorde and sisters Chiara Mastroianni (well, her mum, Catherine Deneuve is their mother) and Charlotte Gainsbourg – who looks so miserable in her movies that I suspect her pay-cheques never arrive.
Adèle Haene, La fille inconnue/The Unknown Girl, Belgium-France, 2015. Ken Loach, Belgian style, is a pair of brothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The gestation of their films takes forever. For their 2016 Cannes festival entry they began work in 2010 on the scenario and its main character. A doctor? A cop? Cotillard or Andre Dussollier? Finally it was Adèle as medic obsessed with the death of an African hooker… Meanwhile, Cotillard had time for their finished script of Deux jours, une nuit/Two Days, One Night, in 2013.
Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl, 2015. The role? Gerda Wegener, the US-born wife of Danish painter Einar Wegener – one of the first men, in 1930, to surgically become a woman: Lili Elbe. First choice Charlize Theron dropped out in 2008. Gwyneth Paltrow moved in but split for more family time. Uma Thurman entered the mix, then Edith Piaf – Marion Cotillard – in 2010. Rachel Weisz followed in 2011 and, finally, Vikander played Greta for UK director Tom Hooper… opposite Eddie Redmayne as her husband.
Halle Berry, John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, 2018. Still in need of a haircut and a real beard, Wick III kicks off when his his dog is klilled (“It wasn’t just a puppy”) and the Latin title explodes: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Not much room then for a girl th alongside Keanu Reeves. Shortlisted for Sofia were Cotillard, Jennifer Beals, Penelope Cruz, Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, Uma Thurman, Marisa Tomei. Halle had the edge. She’d worked with James Bond… played Catwoman… and won an Oscar!
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci, 2021. Ridley Scott’s Succession, Italian Style, had been on many shelves over the years. In one nearly done deal, Maurizio Gucci and his wife, Patrizia Reggiani, were set for Leonardo DiCaprio and Angelina Jolie. Other potentials Patrizias (who ordered his murder) were Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Margot Robbie, plus two of Scott’s previous leading ladies: Marion Cotillard, Penelope Cruz. But Gaga had the winning improvisation when making the sign of the cross, saying: “Father, Son and House of Gucci.

Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 19

WELCOME

to the films the stars did not make. The movies that never were. The most definitive collation of casting stories. Check up on all the films - of yesterday, today and tomorrow - that your favourite stars never made... A cast of thousands - 8,063 actors - to click on... More than 40 years in the making! And 2,777,633 words of spirited text.

The ultimate in movie trivia ... Better! Exactly the kind of history that Hollywood deserves. Back to front. Upside-down. Inside out. Full of flashbacks, close-ups, tracking shots (and, alas some badly edited sequences - sorry about that!) forming a fascinating, new and often bizarre flip-side perspective on your treasured movies and stars

HE SAID

“They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more.” – Adam Driver on no more Kylo Ren/Ben Solo ... Or is it that there will be no more Star Wars?

“I’ve been acting for 42 years and then you make one cocktail…” – Stanley Tucci on his new fame as a TV food and cookery expert.

"The point is it's very hard work and you have to really want to do it. It has to be something that you're burning to say." – Martin Scorsese on directing at 80 and thinking “possibly only one more”.

“Whether you are a competent actor, or an artist, is incidental. The main business is: you’re product. I had a hard time steadying myself against that stuff.” – Robert Redford.

“I’ve never done the same thing twice and how many people can say that?” – Tom Hanks… forgetting his two successive Oscars.

“I was so excited when I got the script for Silent Night. There’s no dialogue in the entire movie! I thought this would be very good for me because it lets me use my gifts for telling a story visually. – John Woo on his Hollywood comeback at 77.

“I’ve gotta be nice about Marvel movies, because I named myself after a Stan Lee character named Luke Cage. What am I going to do, put Marvel movies down? Stan Lee is my surrealistic father.” – Nic Cage.

“The man who invented mornings was no Christian.” – Peter O’Toole.

“The moustache did the acting.” – Anthony Hopkins on Howards End.

“It’s very difficult to get 100 million people to watch anything,” – writer-director Joe Russo.

“I gave him a little part in Looper, where he got to be shot in the face by Bruce Willis. He was just so overjoyed… like a little kid.” – director Rian Johnson on his father.

“I'm not an actor - and I've got 64 films to prove it!” – Victor Mature.

“If you cast it right, you don’t have to tell the actors what to do.” – John Huston.

CCC CLIPS

>> Name Game. James Spader really started something with his Blacklist series. He played – remember? – Reddington. And now we have Austin Butler and, Emma Stone are in making Eddington… and newbie Glenn Powell is Huntingdon, his tenth gig since Top Gun: Maverick. Perhaps it’s time to re-issue Carrington… with, among others, Steven Waddington!

>> Christopher Nolan says “No, sadly no – no truth to those rumours.” About making the next Bond. So, no Cillian Murphy as Jimbo, then?

>> Rolling Stone. Those Poor Things, Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe, are – naturally – in the next release of their Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. It’s Emma’s third Yorgos collaboration. Most likely she’ll be in his next one, too, a re-make of the South Korean hit, Save the Green Planet. That was a comedy. But one can never categorise a Lanthimos experience. After all this one was first titled… And.

>> Taylor Swift’s guy, US football superstar Travis Kelce, is making moves on movies. To be as famous as Dwayne Johnson. Although people are now beginning to ask: Dwyane Whosis?

>>Brandon Routh was Superman back in the day. Today he’s in…Ick.

>> A star sure was born! Lady Gaga now getting $10million for Joker 2…

>> Sean Ono Lennon says Emma Stone should play his dad. Now there’s a thought. After all, Cate Blanchett played Bob Dylan…

>> Sly Stallone has come this far without bothering with serial killers but that’s what he’s chasing in The Epiphany. He plays a retiring cop - what else at 78?

>> Thirty years after the first, Neve Campbell returns in Scream 7. She refused #6 over a money row…

>> Beatles director Sam Mendes made Skyfall and Spectre and another actor who has played John Lennon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, might yet be the next 007…

>> Ryan Gosling tipped to be join the Marvelverse. (They need him more than he them). Henry Cavill may follow – so definitely no Bond then. Not after Argylle. If anyone witnessed that accident, could they call the appropriate authorities.

>> Will Smith comes back (or so he hopes) in an almost suicide squad blasting drug dealers in Sugar Bandits… while Colin Farrell settles for just Sugar – back to his usual smoothie looks after The Penguin…

>> White Lotus 3 resurrects Parker Posey, Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Charlotte Le Bon, Scott Glenn and introduces Patrick Schwarzenegger. But which one is going to flash…something?

CHAMPION'S LEAGUE

The battle for the top spot between Marlon Brando and Jack Nicholson has – I think – come to an end. Recently, we‘ve seen Marlon leading Jack by one or two movies – and then, almost immediately, vice-versa. The gap is much wider now between the former Mulholland Drive neighbours. Latest research dug up more titles for Jack - Mr Mom, A Christmas Story, Striptease, The Bicentennial Man, Expend4bles – so that he is now safe (?) at the top of league with 177 films he chose not to make compared to Brando’s 172. But you know - you never know…

(The full list of their huge lists of bypassed films are not on their pages for now - one of the hassles being tackled in our - yes, very slow! – restructuring).

Marlon Brando – 177
Jack Nicholson – 172
Paul Newman – 160
Cary Grant – 150
Robert De Niro – 140
Tom Cruise – 135
Dustin Hoffman – 126
Mel Gibson – 118
Sean Connery, Al Pacino – 117

Highest Brit remains, as always, Sir Sean at 117… followed by Laurence OIivier, 93; Richard Burton, 87; Peter O’Toole, 79; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Peter Sellers, 72; Dirk Bogarde and James Mason, 68; Olivia De Havilland, 58; Vivien Leigh and Gary Oldman, 57.

Highest lady is Bette Davis, 97; Jodie Foster, 84; Michelle Pfeiffer, 81; Katharine Hepburn, 79; Julie Christie, 76; Meryl Streep, 75; Elizabeth Taylor, 73; Nicole Kidman, 72: Jane Fonda, 70; Julia Roberts, 68.

Younger Brigade: Johnny Depp 108; Leo, 75; Jim Carrey, 70; Madonna, 62; Natalie Portman, 57; Aishawarya Rai Bachchan, 40; Bridget Fonda, 36: Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, 35; Jake Gyllenhall, 33: Ben Affleck, 31.

(You'll find the full list at Champions in the Main Menu)

A BOND MISS

Is Léa Seydoux now a spy…or, to be more polite, a talent scout for Eon Productions? 007’s girl in both Spectre and No Time to Die appears to assisting the (rather quiet) search for the next Jimbo. In La bête (The Beast), one of her many new French films, Léa co-stars with Hammersmith’s George MacKay - Sam Mendes’ find for 1917. He learned French for the film, so this may not be his last Paris booking.

As Gabrielle and Louis, they work extremely well together as star-crossed lovers in three time-lines: 1904, 1914 and 2044. And he looks the business in his retro tuxedo. ‘Twould be fascinating to cast an eye over her report for Barbara Broccoli’s eyes only. On verra as Léa (and now even George) would say. We’ll see.

SHE SAID

“You need your parents to set boundaries and hold you accountable and keep you away from, like, weird people.” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a child actor.

“I was so deeply in love with Bella, it terrified me not to live up to her as a character. I felt like I was failing her in the first week, and failing Yorgos [Lanthimos]. ). It was just difficult. I could talk to him about it, but I couldn’t talk to her about it. “ – Emma Stone on making Poor Things, leading to her second Oscar.

“Everything was so beautiful up on that screen. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. My mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. Somehow, some way, thank you God, it all came true.” – Barbra Streisand, receiving lifetime achievement honour from the Screen Actors Guild.

“If I arrive at a moment in the history of cinema where I am legally obliged to have some kind of police on my set telling me what I’m allowed to do, I would rather stop filming sex scenes completely.” – French director Mia Hansen-Løve.

“I’m not one to sit around doin’ nothin’, I would never retire, I’ll just hopefully drop dead in the middle of a song onstage, someday, hopefully one I’ve written.” – Dolly Parton.

“Playing it safe doesn’t necessarily get you anywhere. You have to take chances. especially if you’re a black woman. You have no choice.” – Halle Berry.

“The more famous an actress becomes, the less she's allowed to eat.” – Lana Turner.

“I don’t do T&A very well because I haven’t got much of either.” – Tea Leoni.

“I was an idiot in terms of career-building, but I had a great time.” – Sally Kellerman.

“As you get older, you realise your parents aren't these superheroes. They're actually people.” – Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce Willis and Demi Moore.

“Everybody thought I was crazy. And by the way, I thought I was crazy.” – Jennifer Lopez on spending $20m of her own money on making This Is Me … Now: A Love Story.

“It’s dangerous to repeat performances. It becomes the sole thing on your gravestone.” – Helen Mirren on playing The Queen in The Queen and on stage in The Audience.

“I think I was offered every Marilyn Monroe script ever. I was like: Is this the end of the road creatively?’” – Scarlett Johansson on surviving as a star.

WAIT & SEE...

This is such a busy year for movies that various releases have been postponed until 2025… Captain America: Brave New World, Bong Joon-ho’s Mickey 17, Games of Thrones spin-off The Hedge Knight (not about a gardener), Ke Huy Quan’s actioner With Love, John Wick’s spin-off, Ballerina, Fast X :part 2, Avatar 3, Jurassic World 4, Black Mirror 7, Mission: Impossible 8, Fantastic Four, Superman and the dreaded Michael bio – more like horror film, surely. Oh and no The Batman 2 or Harry P TV series until 2026.