Marion Cotillard, the Parisian born actress who garnered worldwide acclaim for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose,” credits her parents for opening up the possibilities of a lifetime on stage to her. She was born in 1975 to famous French theatre director Jean-Claude Cotillard and Niseema Theillaud, herself an actress and drama teacher. For as long as she could remember, Marion always wanted to be an actress.
It didn’t take long for Marion to become a regular on French screens. By 1998, at 23, Marion had third billing in the popular Luc Besson-scribed picture “Taxi,” which earned Marion a Cesar nomination for Most Promising Actress. She reprised her role in the film’s two sequels over the next five years while appearing in a dozen other French films. It was in 2003, the year of “Taxi 3,” in which Marion crossed the Atlantic to make her debut in an American film. It was Tim Burton’s “Big Fish,” and Marion played Josephine, the French wife to Billy Crudup’s character. A string of high profile French productions followed “Big Fish,” including the highly acclaimed war drama “A Very Long Engagement.” Though the film did much to tout its leading lady Audrey Tautou (which led her to “The Da Vinci Code”) it was Marion who won the Cesar award for Best Supporting Actress. Among those who noticed Marion’s talents was Hollywood director Ridley Scott, who was in the process of preparing a Russell Crowe vehicle set in the vineyards of sunny southern France.
2006’s “A Good Year” teamed Scott, his favorite actor Crowe, and Marion for a romp through chateaus and beautiful scenery that grossed fewer than $8 million at the American box office. But the good year for all three was 2007: Scott and Crowe made “American Gangster,” and Marion immersed herself into the character of Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose” – and in doing so was awarded a Golden Globe, a BAFTA, and an Oscar. In her early 30s, Marion now looks to more work for Hollywood, and a chance to conquer acting on two hemispheres. She already scaled one.
Marion on the Screen
Marion made her acting debut on the TV series “Highlander” in the 1993 episode “Nowhere to Run” at the age of 18. A wealth of French movies followed for the next decade until “Big Fish” in 2003, followed by “A Very Long Engagement,” “A Good Year” and “La Vie en Rose.” More recently, the actress has appeared in “Inception,” “Midnight in Paris,” “Contagion,” “Rust and Bone” and “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Marion Says
On the art of acting:
“I don’t think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings, and my first teacher was my mother and then I worked with my father, who helped me to find in myself all those emotions and how to play with the emotions.”