- Isabelle Adjani, L’été meurtrier (UK/US: That Deadly Summer, France, 1983.
A cruel tale of star power… “The French media first knew me as the girl who didn’t make L’été meurtrier. Jean Becker looked for a girl for three years and finally decided on me. We signed a contract. The whole French movie business knew I was going to do it – my first really big part. And then, Adjani wanted to do it. First I heard about it was in the papers. Becker never called to tell me, never to this day. Nor did Adjani. But she didn’t have to. She was just another struggling actress landing a role. I cried for a week. A week after that, I tested for Breathless…” and won her Hollywood debut, with Richard Gere. Adjani always thought the girl, simply known as Elle, was irresistible:”well-built, in a bikini, incredibly arrogant.” But “not my style,” she wrote Becker. “Je suis pas Elle.” Re-reading the script while making Antoinetta in Mexico, she said: “But I’m mad. It’s my story.” She phoned Becker: “Wait – I’m coming!” Despite the film’s enormous success, the gypsyish Elle suited Kaprisky’s fiery eroticism far more than Adjani’s subdued tragedienne. -
Béatrice Dalle, 37°2 le matin (UK/US: Betty Blue), France, 1985. “A movie,” said Chicago critic Roger Ebert, “about Béatrice Dalle’s boobs and behind… everythng else is just what happens in between the scenes where she displays them.” The first producer, Anne-Marie Rassam wanted Adjani, then the feistier Valerie Kaprisky (aha!). Auteur Jean-Jacques Beineix craved an unknown. (That way a director usually garners all the praise!). And casting director Dominique Besnehard found her on the cover of the now defunct Photo-Revue magazine. “She’s the same race as Bardot anf Monroe!” Said she: “I was afraid. But the only alternative was shoplifting.”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 1