We bring you the facts about the star of TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT…
The latest film from Belgian directing duo the Dardenne brothers – TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT – is released in Irish cinemas this week. The film stars Marion Cotillard as Sandra, a woman facing redundancy, who has a weekend to convince her co-workers to give up their bonuses so she can keep her job. Movies.ie took this opportunity to gather together some facts about the French actress…
1. Winner Winner
Cotillard won the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in LA VIE EN ROSE. Cotillard is the first person to win this award for a performance in the French language.
2. Sing While You’re Winning
Speaking of singing, Cotillard would have liked to have become a singer, if her acting career didn’t take off. She co-wrote and sang the song ‘La Fille De Joie’ for the film PRETTY THINGS, and also sang ‘La Conne’ for the film. Cotillard also wrote and performed the song ‘Lily’s Body’ for the fourth episode of the Lady Dior Web Documentary..
3. First time for everything
Cotillard’s first role in a Hollywood movie was in Tim Burton’s BIG FISH. Cotillard played Josephine Bloom, the wife of Billy Crudup’s character Will. In an added piece of trivia, BIG FISH also stars a young Miley Cyrus in her feature film debut.
4. Ask and you shall receive
Cotillard said, in an interview with Jay Leno in 2012, that she is a fan of Will Ferrell and would love to work with him on a comedy. In 2013, her wish came true, when she had a cameo as a Canadian news anchor in ANCHORMAN 2: THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY.
5. Secret Singer
Although her acting career did, in fact, take off Cotillard has still realised her dream of being a singer, she sings under the pseudonym Simone in Maxim Nucci’s band Yodelice.
6. Eco Warrior
Cotillard is a defender of the environment; in November 2013, she caged herself near Paris’s Louvre museum to demand the freeing of 30 Greenpeace activists jailed in Russia over an Arctic protest. She entered the cage and held a banner proclaiming: ‘I am a climate defender’. A few days later, the activists were released.
7. Life Long Learning
Cotillard frequently throws herself into her work; she took Danish lessons after she saw FESTEN and wanted to meet director Thomas Vinterberg, she learned Spanish after seeing LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, she learned her Polish dialogue for THE IMMIGRANT and learned to play the cello for her role in the film TOI ET MOI.
8. The Dark Knife Rises
Marion Cotillard has starred in tow films by Christopher Nolan; THE DARK KNIGHT RISES and INCEPTION. In both films she stabs someone.
9. No Regrets
Speaking of INCEPTION, ‘Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien’ by Edith Piaf is used as a plot device in the film. Cotillard won an Oscar for her performance as Piaf in LA VIE EN ROSE. The film is 2 hours 28 minutes long as homage to the song, which – in its original recording – was 2 minutes 28 seconds long.
10. The future
Cotillard has several films currently in production; next, she will play Lady Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender in MACBETH, and provide the voice of the rose in THE LITTLE PRINCE.
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT is released in Irish cinemas on August 22nd 2014
Words: Brogen Hayes