Sophie Marceau

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

  1. Sandrine Bonnaire, A nos amours, France, 1983.    Obnoxious realisateur Maurice Pialat was delighted withthe tests he made with Bonnaire – for a promiscuous15-year-old.She hadbeen an extra in La boum starring Marceau in 1980, and if Bonnaire couldn’t handle the filming as well as she did her tests, Marceau   was First Reserve. Bonnaire more than held her own and Pialat made her a star, just as he had been planning to do with Nadia Sadi, his discovery for his never-made Meurtrieres
  2. Elizabeth Bourgine, La 7iéme Cible, France, 1984.    “She’s 17 and in love.”Realisateur Claude Pinoteau discovered theex-Sophie Danièle Sylvie Maupu and helped her choose her new name from one of the Paris avenues or boulevards. He made her a star with La boum, 1980.This time she pulled out of a support role in his film for the lead in her lover Andrzej Zulawski’s L’Amour braque although Gaumont had worked out dates so she could make both. Pinoteau was furious. Yethe had firstintroduced the lovers to each otherduring the 1981 Cannes festival… when the Ukranian-born director was the lover of Isabelle Adjani…star of Pinoteau’s La gifle, 1974.
  3. Anne Brochet, Cyrano de Bergerac, 1990.    “Why did I refuse? Who could say? Perversion? I don’t believe so. I mainly chose my films in order to find my true self. Not to go in too many directions. The idea is to try and draw one line with all the things you do.” Spoken like a true French movie actress…
  4. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, 1990.    Elizabeth Hurley, Patsy Kensit, Nicole Kidman, Amanda Pays, Joely Richardson, Ally Sheedy  were in the Sherwood mix for Maid Marian  – won by an an Italo-American!  Well, two French stars, had also been seen:  Marceau and Mathilda May.
  5. Andie MacDowell, Hudson Hawk, 1991.    Producers Joel Silver and Bruce Willis went through the Euro-delights from top to bottom, Adjani to Marceau. And all luckily escaped the massive flop. Sophie’s first big Hollywood moviebecame Mel Gibson’s Oscar-studded Braveheart, 1995.
  6. Demi Moore, Indecent Proposal, 1992.  Didn’t matter which lady accepted the role  – Marceau,  Irene Jacob, Andi MacDowell, Julia Roberts – the film had a fatal flaw. A zillionaire offers Woody Harrelson for a night with his wife. And Mr Money Bags was Robert Redford.  ’Nuff said?
  7. Juliette Binoche, The English Patient, 1996.    Sophie refused to be Hana and the Oscar went to…
  8. Celia Imrie, The Borrowers, 1996.   French star Sophie Marceau  and Mary Gross,  alumna of the Second City comic and Saturday Night Live, were the direct opposites  considered for Homily Clock, matriarch of the four-inch high family  living  beneath the floorboards of a house owned by ”human beans”   – in the fourth of six  screen versions (including a Japanese toon)  of the 1952 Marty Norton  book. Sophie was  30, Mary was 43,  and the winning Brit was 44 – better for  her screen husband, a similarly four-inch Jim Broadbent, at 47.
  9. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Ceux qui m’aiment prendront le train (US: Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train), France, 1997.   Refused at the last minute to join what Variety critic Lisa Nesselson called an “emotionally draining ensembler that makes the average Woody Allen film seem like a picnic for the well-adjusted.” Title comes from a painter’s final words  about his funeral – really said by docu-maker François Reichenbach before his 1993 death. Val eria is the sister of the model-turned-singer-turned-First Lady of France, Carla Bruni Sarkozy. 
  10. Chiara Mastroianni, La lettre, France, 1999.    Ironically, Sophie’s lover (and mentor wannabe), Polish director Andrzej Zulawski, was modernising La Princesse de Cleves, when she was asked to appear in Manoel de Oliveira’s version of the same 1678 book!Sophie remained faithful.

  11. Meg Ryan, Beyond Borders, 2001.     Director Oliver Stone’s first choice, Catherine Zeta-Jones, was pregnant. Hebegan his new search in Paris – before handing the project to New Zealand helmer Martin Campbell.
  12. Isabelle Adjani, Bon voyage, France, 2002.     Another pregnancy (daughter Juliette) meant Sophie had to leave realisateur Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s film. Not to worry his new producers, Laurent and Michèle Pétin, had an exclusive contract with… Adjani. And she had made his Tout feu, toute flame in 1982.
  13. Diane Kruger, Troy, 2004.     Diane’s rivals as the face that launched a thousand ships – Helen of Troy – were Halle Berry, Keira Knightley Kristin Kreuk, Jennifer Lopez, Connie Nielsen,Catherine Zeta-Jones.You wanna argue withThe Times (of London)?
  14. Audrey Tautou, The Da Vinci Code, 2005.
  15. Mélanie Doutey, RTT, France, 2009.     Adventures in handcuffs for Sophie and Jean-Paul Rouve. Five years on, the scenario was dug up  for Mélanie and the insufferable Kad Merad.
  16. Noomi Rapace, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shows, 2010.    UK director Guy Ritchie saw the Spanish Penelope Cruz andall the usual French girls for Sim – Juliette Binoche, Marion Cotillard, Cécile de France, Eva Green, Virginie Ledoyen, Audrey Tautou. And signed a Swede… the star of the Millennium trilogy.
  17. Cécile de France, Dix pour cent (10%), TV, France, 2015.   Created by Paris agent turned producer Dominique Besnehard, this Player-style series about a showbiz talent agency (based on Artmedia) invited various local stars to play “themselves.”  The tales were all true, just not those of the stars involved.  Apparently, Marceau feared the script written for her would be believed by her public – a 50-ish actress requiring plastic surgery before being accepted for a Tarantino project!!!   Cécile was excellent.

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  17