Worlds Celebrities

Overview

Date of Birth: 30 September 1975, Paris, France

Birth Name:

Nicknames:

Height: 5' 6½" (1.69 m)

Trade Mark: Mole in the middle of forehead

Often plays femme fatales (Clarisse Entoven in A Private Affair (2002), Tina Lombardi in A Very Long Engagement (2004), Mal in Inception (2010), Adriana in Midnight in Paris (2011), Talia al Ghul in The Dark Knight Rises (2012) and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (2015).

Spouse:

Bio Data: Academy Award-winning Actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris. Cotillard is the daughter of Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. Her father's family is Breton.

Raised in Orléans, France, she made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans. After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in television series such as Highlander (1992) and Extrême limite (1994), but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994) and had small but noticeable roles in such films as Arnaud Desplechin's My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument (1996), Coline Serreau's comedy La belle verte (1996).

In 1996, she had her first leading role in the TV film Chloé (1996).

In 1997, she won her first film award at the festival Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Istres in France, for her performance as the young imprisoned Nathalie in the short film Affaire classée (1997).

Her first prominent screen role was as Lilly Bertineau in Gérard Pirès's Taxi (1998), a role which she reprised in two sequels: Taxi 2 (2000) and Taxi 3 (2003), this role earned her first César award nomination (France's equivalent to the Oscar) for Most Promising Actress in 1999.

In 1999, Cotillard starred as Julie Bonzon in the Swiss war drama War in the Highlands (1999). For her performance in the film, she won the Best Actress award at Autrans Film Festival in France.

In 2001, starred in Pretty Things (2001) as the twin sisters Marie and Lucie, and was nominated for her second César award for Most Promising Actress.

Cotillard's breakthrough in France came in 2003 when she starred in the box-office hit Love Me If You Dare (2003) as the daughter of Polish immigrants Sophie Kowalsky, starring opposite her friend at the time Guillaume Canet, with whom she would have a relationship four years later.

Her first movie in Hollywood was Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003), years later she starred in Ridley Scott's A Good Year (2006) alongside Russell Crowe.

In 2004, she won the Chopard Thophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival.

In 2005, Cotillard won the César award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's A Very Long Engagement (2004).

In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007). Director Olivier Dahan cast Cotillard to play the legendary French singer because to him, her eyes were like those of "Piaf". The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's. The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren (Two Women (1960)). Only two male performers (Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Robert De Niro for The Godfather: Part II (1974)) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts. Trevor Nunn called her portrayal of "Piaf" "one of the greatest performances on film ever". At the Berlin International Film Festival, where the film premiered, Cotillard was given a 15-minute standing ovation. When she won the César, Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), he also praised her at the stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about".

Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's Public Enemies (2009), and later that year had a role in Rob Marshall's musical Nine (2009) and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance as Luisa Contini. Time magazine ranked her as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009. The following year, she took on the main antagonist role in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), and in 2011 she had memorable parts in Midnight in Paris (2011) and Contagion (2011) and reteamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

In 2011 and 2012 respectively, she appeared on the top of the list of the highest paid actors in France that was released by Le Figaro, it was the first time in nine years that a female topped the list. Cotillard was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood.

In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread critical acclaim for her role as the legless orca trainer Stéphanie in Rust and Bone (2012). The film received a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Cotillard won the Globe de Cristal (France's equivalent to the Golden Globe) and the Étoile d'Or award and was nominated for Critics' Choice, Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and César Awards for her performance in the movie. Cate Blanchett wrote an article for Variety praising Cotillard's performance in "Rust and Bone", the two actresses competed for the Academy Awards for Best Actress in 2008, Cate was nominated for her performance in Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007) and Marion for her performance in La Vie en Rose (2007) and Cotillard won the Oscar.

Her first leading role in an American movie came in 2013 as Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant who wants to experience the American dream in James Gray's The Immigrant (2013). Cotillard received wide-spread acclaim for her performance in the film at the 66th Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered.

In 2014, Cotillard starred as Sandra in the Belgian film Two Days, One Night (2014) by the Dardenne brothers. Her performance was unanimously praised at the 67th Cannes Film Festival.

With long-time boyfriend Guillaume Canet, Cotillard gave birth to her first child, Marcel, in May 2011.

Trivia: If she had not been an actress, she would have liked to become a singer.

She's an ecologist.

Had to learn how to sing in one month to play Marie in Pretty Things (2001). Also co-wrote and performed the song "La Fille de Joie" and performed the song "La Conne" for this film.

Her onscreen debut was in 1993 at the age of 17, in the Canadian TV Series Highlander (1992). She had an uncredited cameo as the girl who gives birth in the episode 17 of Season 1: "Saving Grace". She then returned in the episode 21: "Nowhere to Run", as Lori Bellian. It was also her first English-speaking role.

Member and Spokesperson for Greenpeace since 2002. She is also one of several actors, singers and designers involved in "Dessins pour le Climat" ("Drawings for the Climate"), a book of drawings originated by Greenpeace and Glénat, available for sale beginning April 2005 (all proceeds to go to Greenpeace).

Played Joan of Arc in the concert "Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher" (Joan of Arc at the Stake) twice: in 2005 in Orléans, France and in 2012 in Barcelona, Spain. Her mother also played Joan of Arc in the same concert in 1992.

Born to Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor and teacher, and his wife Niseema Theillaud, also actress and drama teacher.

Has two younger brothers: Guillaume and Quentin, they are identical twins (born on 6 November 1977). Guillaume Cotillard, is a screenwriter and director and Quentin Cotillard works as a sculptor, living in San Francisco, California with his Irish-American wife Elaine O'Malley Cotillard, a former Dutch National Ballet dancer and fashion designer.

She never had her ears pierced.

Grew up in Orléans and moved to Paris at the age of 16.

Cousin of Laurent Cotillard.

Is the Godmother of Costa Serena and inaugurated the ship in Marseille, France on May 19, 2007.

Best friends are Cécile Cassel, Élodie Navarre, Mélanie Laurent and Gilles Lellouche.

Companion of her Love Me If You Dare (2003) co-star Guillaume Canet since 2007. They met years before starring together in the film and had been friends since the 90s.

Having won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for La Vie en Rose (2007) on 24 February 2008, she has become the second French actress to do so. The other one is Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959). Claudette Colbert, who won in 1934 for It Happened One Night (1934), was French-born, but raised in the U.S. She is also the second French actress to win a BAFTA and a Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for the same performance. Simone Signoret was the first to win both awards with her performance in Room at the Top (1959). Simone Signoret's daughter, Catherine Allégret, portrayed Édith Piaf's grandmother Louise Gassion in "La Vie en Rose (2007)".

Re-enacted the iconic shower scene of Psycho (1960) in a photoshoot for Vanity Fair in 2008. In the film, the scene was made by Janet Leigh and Cotillard shares the same first name of Janet Leigh's character in "Psycho", who was called Marion Crane.

When she won the César Award for her performance in La Vie en Rose (2007), Alain Delon presented the award and announced the winner as "La Môme Marion" (The Kid Marion), he also praised her at the stage saying: "Marion, I give you this César. I think this César is for a great great actress, and I know what I'm talking about".

First and so far the only artist to win a Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for a performance in the French language and is also the first leading lady to receive the Best Actress Oscar for a non-English speaking role since Sophia Loren in 1962 for Two Women (1960).

Is the fifth actress to win the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for portraying a female singer in a biography; the first being Luise Rainer as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), followed by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968), Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005).

Is one of six performers to win an Oscar playing a character that mostly spoke in a foreign language. The others are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Roberto Benigni, Benicio Del Toro and Christoph Waltz.

One of 105 people invited to join AMPAS in 2008.

First French actress to win Best Leading Actress at BAFTA Film Awards since the integration of Best British Actress and Best Foreign Actress to one category: Best Leading Actress in 2008.

The dress she wore to the Academy Awards (where she won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar) was especially designed for her by Jean-Paul Gaultier.

Was considered for the role of Hanna Schmitz in The Reader (2008) after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to pregnancy. However the part eventually went to Kate Winslet. In 2009, Cotillard presented and gave the Academy Award for Best Actress to Kate Winslet for her performance in The Reader (2008).

She was originally set for a role in Mesrine Part 1: Killer Instinct (2008).

Was in a relationship with French actor Julien Rassam in the late 90's until 2000. She had a long relationship with French actor Stéphan Guérin-Tillié from 2000 to 2005 and was in a relationship with French singer Sinclair from 2005 to 2007.

When she won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for La Vie en Rose (2007) in 2008, the statuette was presented to her by former co-star in Mary (2005), previous winner Forest Whitaker.

Announced that she and long-time boyfriend Guillaume Canet are expecting their first child together. [10 January 2011].

Ranked #48 in a 2011 study on the favorite celebrities of French kids aged 7 to 14, who gave her a grade of 6.21 on 10. The same study ranked her as the 53rd best-known celebrity by these kids, with 33.8% of the surveyed knowing her, either by name or by picture.

Was six months pregnant with her son Marcel when she completed filming on Contagion (2011).

Gave birth to her son Marcel Canet, with partner Guillaume Canet, in Paris (19 May 2011).

Was originally set to star in Cosmopolis (2012) but was replaced by Sarah Gadon after dropping out due to her pregnancy.

Was in consideration for the role of Ryan in Gravity (2013) but Sandra Bullock was cast instead.

Returned to work one month after giving birth to her son Marcel, to begin filming The Dark Knight Rises (2012). Most of her scenes were pushed back a month and director Christopher Nolan made room on the set for Cotillard's family. During an interview for Vogue in August 2012, Nolan marveled at Cotillard's ability to do her job so soon after giving birth, calling it "amazing to see" and describing her as "Superwoman.".

Ranked as having one of the most "Beautiful Famous Faces" by "The Annual Independent Critics List of the 100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World" for 13 consecutive years. She was ranked #14 in 2014, #1 in 2013, #2 in 2012, #7 in 2011, #12 in 2010, #15 in 2009, #4 in 2008, #3 in 2007, #8 in 2006, #17 in 2005, #35 in 2004, #20 in 2003, and #31 in 2002.

Three of her films, Chloé (1996), Love Me If You Dare (2003) and Inception (2010) have featured a song by Édith Piaf. "La Vie en Rose" was used in "Chloé" and "Love Me If You Dare", and "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" plays in "Inception" - Marion won the Academy Award for Best Actress portraying Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007).

Is one of 5 French actors to have won an Academy Award. The others in chronological order are: Claudette Colbert for It Happened One Night (1934), Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959), Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (1996) and Jean Dujardin for The Artist (2011).

Is one of 12 French actresses to have received an Academy Award nomination. The others in chronological order are: Claudette Colbert, Colette Marchand, Leslie Caron, Simone Signoret, Anouk Aimée, Isabelle Adjani, Marie-Christine Barrault, Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Bérénice Bejo and Emmanuelle Riva.

Is a fan of the British sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992).

Ranked on Askmen's list of the "Top 99 Most Desirable Women". She was ranked #39 in 2013, #58 in 2011, #54 in 2010 and #87 in 2008.

Cotillard, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tilda Swinton, Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Daniel Brühl and Jake Gyllenhaal are the only actors to receive a Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Critics' Choice Award nomination for the same performance and then fail to be Oscar-nominated for it: for their performances in Rust and Bone (2012), The Departed (2006), We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011), Saving Mr. Banks (2013), Captain Phillips (2013), Rush (2013) and Nightcrawler (2014), respectively.

Her name is pronounced "mah-ree-ohn ko-tee-ar".

She is the face of French fashion house Dior since 2008 and stars in the ad campaigns for the Lady Dior Handbags since then. In 2011, she also starred in the ad campaign for the Miss Dior Handbag Fall/Winter 2011/2012. Her ads for Dior have been shot by acclaimed photographers such as Annie Leibovitz, Craig McDean, Steven Klein, Tim Walker, Mikael Jansson, Peter Lindbergh and Jean-Baptiste Mondino. In 2012, Cotillard designed her own handbag for Lady Dior, the "360º Bag".

Is a fan of Kate Winslet, Will Ferrell, Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill and during an interview at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (1992) in 2012, she said she would love to work with them in a comedy. In 2013, she had a cameo in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013), a comedy film starred by Will Ferrell. Cotillard also wrote a review for Variety praising Kate Winslet's performance in Labor Day (2013).

Filmed The Dark Knight Rises (2012) in USA and Rust and Bone (2012) in France at the same time and few months after she gave birth to her son, Marcel. She was flying back and forth between USA and France to shoot both movies.

Was originally set to star in The Past (2013) but was replaced by Bérénice Bejo after dropping out due to scheduling conflicts with the promotion of Rust and Bone (2012). If Cotillard had starred in the film, she would have played the mother of Pauline Burlet's character; Burlet played Édith Piaf as a child in La Vie en Rose (2007), while Cotillard played Piaf as an adult in the same film.

Named Harvard's Hasty Pudding Theatrical Woman of the Year in 2013.

Is a fan of David Bowie, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Otis Redding, Radiohead and Elvis Presley.

Wrote and performed the song "Lily's Body" for the fourth episode of the Lady Dior Web Documentary (2012) with the same title. An animated clip was made for the song, featuring an encounter between Cotillard and Christian Dior.

Starred in David Bowie's music video David Bowie: The Next Day (2013) alongside Gary Oldman, her co-star in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Shares birthday with fellow actresses Deborah Kerr, Angie Dickinson, Monica Bellucci and actor Ezra Miller.

Sings under the pseudonym Simone in Maxim Nucci's band Yodelice. "Simone" is her grandmother's name. In 2010, Cotillard went on tour with the band in different cities in France and Belgium and sang few songs on the album "Cardioid". She also recorded the song "The Eyes of Mars" alongside Franz Ferdinand especially for Dior's "Lady Rouge" campaign.

Time magazine ranked her performance as Luisa Contini in Nine (2009) as the fifth best performance by a female in 2009.

Ranked #13 on Empire Online list of the "100 Sexiest Movie Stars" in 2013.

She has appeared on more than 200 magazine covers around the world, including Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Variety, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, Madame Figaro, Glamour, W, The Hollywood Reporter and Wall Street Journal Magazine. She was also on the cover of the first issue of Dior Magazine in September 2012 and appeared in 3 covers of Vogue in August 2012 (USA, UK and France).

Was the Honorary President of the 35th Annual César Awards Ceremony in 2010.

Is a "injection-phobic" and stated that she won't have Botox, plastic surgery or anything else that you put inside yourself to look younger.

Was the first non-model on a Vogue Paris September cover in five years with her September 2010 cover.

Ranked #8 on Forbes list of Hollywood's Top Earning On-Screen Couples alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in 2012. They are the only couple from a non-franchise film: Inception (2010), the film made $825 million at the global box-office.

In 2011 and 2012 respectively, she appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France, it was the first time in nine years that a female has topped the list. She was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood.

Received several honors, career tributes and "Actress of the Year" awards in 2012 at Hollywood Film Festival, Gotham Independent Film Awards, Telluride Film Festival, AFI Fest, Sant Jordi Awards, Irish Film and Television Awards, Hawaii International Film Festival and Harper's Bazaar Awards.

Beverly Hills, CA, USA: Attended Elle's 20th Annual Women In Hollywood Celebration at Four Seasons Hotel, where she was honored. [October 2013]

Starred in three movies with Jérémie Renier: Cavalcade (2005), Fair Play (2006) and Dikkenek (2006).

On November 15, 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.

Appeared in two films that made their world premieres at the Cannes Film Festival in the same week: Blood Ties (2013) and The Immigrant (2013). [May 2013].

Starred in three movies with Benoît Magimel: Lisa (2001), Fair Play (2006) and Little White Lies (2010).

Named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by France's Cultural Minister Frederic Mitterand alongside Tim Burton who directed her in Big Fish (2003) (he was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters). Recipients of the order are honoured for their significant contribution to the enrichment of French culture. [15 March 2010].

Starred in three movies with Billy Crudup: Big Fish (2003), Public Enemies (2009) and Blood Ties (2013). When Cotillard was honored at Gotham Awards in 2012, Billy Crudup introduced her tribute.

Co-wrote and performed the song "The Strong Ones" alongside Hawksley Workman for Olivier Dahan's short film for Cartier's Love range. [2008].

She plays guitar, bass guitar, keyboard and tambourine. She learned how to play the piano at home when she was a kid and learned to play the cello for her role as a soloist in the film Toi et moi (2006).

Starred in four movies with Gilles Lellouche: Boomer (2001), Love Me If You Dare (2003), Ma vie en l'air (2005) and Little White Lies (2010).

Was mentioned in Glee (2009)'s Season 2, Episode 7: "The Substitute", when Kurt asks Blaine about their favorite 2010 Vogue cover and they say: "Marion Cotillard".

Ranked #2 of Vogue's 10 Best Dressed of 2010.

Was chosen as one of the Best Dressed at Cannes Film Festival 2012 by Yahoo!.

Named "International Actor of the Year" at the Harper's Bazaar Women of the Year Awards for her performance in Rust and Bone (2012). [October 31, 2012].

Named "Sexiest Woman In The World" by the Hungarian magazine Periodika in 2012.

Chosen as one of the Best Dressed of SAG Awards 2013 by Huffington Post.

Starred in three movies about physical disability: Blue Away to America (1999), Cavalcade (2005) and Rust and Bone (2012).

Started taking Danish lessons after having seen The Celebration (1998), planned on meeting Thomas Vinterberg during the Cannes Film Festival in 1999 and also started learning Spanish after having seen Lovers of the Arctic Circle (1998) by Julio Medem.

She and Adrien Brody are the only actors to win both a César and an Oscar for the same performance. Cotillard won both awards in 2008 for La Vie en Rose (2007) and Brody won in 2003 for The Pianist (2002).

Has worked with Guillaume Canet in four movies. Two as co-stars: Love Me If You Dare (2003) and The Last Flight (2009) and starred in two movies directed by him: Little White Lies (2010) and Blood Ties (2013).

Being a huge fan of Canadian singer Hawksley Workman, she starred in two of his clips.

For her performance in La Vie en Rose (2007), she become the first actress to win a BAFTA and a César award for the same performance, the second is Emmanuelle Riva for Amour (2012).

She is the first non-Czech actress to win the Czech Lion for Best Actress for her performance in La Vie en Rose (2007).

Loving her job she nurtured her need for cinematic culture by going to the Cinematheque.

Her father, Jean-Claude Cotillard, played the mime in each episode of the popular PBS series French in Action (1987).

Named "Woman of the Decade" by Vogue Paris' list of the "40 Women of The Decade". [2010].

She and Guillaume Canet were ranked France's third Most Popular Couple by a Harris Interactive poll for Gala magazine. [August 2012].

She and Guillaume Canet were ranked #63 at Zimbio's list of the 100 Hottest Celebrity Couples. [2013].

Has played two characters of Polish origin. First in 2003 as the daughter of Polish immigrants Sophie Kowalsky in Love Me If You Dare (2003) and 10 years later, she played the Polish immigrant Ewa Cybulska in The Immigrant (2013).

Starred in 2 films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in two consecutive years: Inception (2010) and Midnight in Paris (2011).

Travelled to Congo with Greenpeace to visit the tropical rainforests that are being destroyed by logging companies. It was shown in the documentary The Congolese Rainforests: Living on Borrowed Time (2010). [2010].

Designed her own doll for UNICEF France campaign "Les Frimousses Font Leur Cinéma", that was sold to help vaccinate thousands of children in Darfur. [2010].

Patron of Maud Fontenoy Foundation, an non-governmental organization which is dedicated to programmes that teach children about preserving the vital heritage the oceans represent.

In 2012, she was featured on Kate Winslet's book "The Golden Hat: Talking Back To Autism", with celebrity self-portraits to raise awareness and support for autism.

Chosen as one of the Best Dressed of Cannes Film Festival 2013 by Vogue.

Appeared in five films that are on the Top 100 of the highest-grossing French films of all time in France, as of 2014. In chronological order: Taxi (1998) at #48, Taxi 2 (2000) at #9, Taxi 3 (2003) at #57, La Vie en Rose (2007) at #93 and Little White Lies (2010) at #80.

Named Best Dressed Star of 2013 by Grazia Daily.

Starred in 3 films where her character was named Marie: Pretty Things (2001), The Last Flight (2009) and Little White Lies (2010).

Ranked #12 on Slate's list of the "100 Most Influential Women of France". [2013].

Was the 132nd actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for La Vie en Rose (2007) at The 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008) on February 24, 2008.

Filmed four movies at the same time in 2004, one of them is Edy (2005).

Starred in three movies with Julie Depardieu: A Very Long Engagement (2004), Sauf le respect que je vous dois (2005) and Toi et moi (2006).

She hates filming scenes, but stated that the first and only time that she liked filming sex scenes was in Rust and Bone (2012), because it was a special moment for her character, who was having sex for the first time after she lost her legs.

Appeared in 6 movies that were released in 2005: Cavalcade (2005), Ma vie en l'air (2005), Mary (2005), Sauf le respect que je vous dois (2005), The Black Box (2005) and Edy (2005).

Starred in three movies with Élodie Navarre: Le marquis (2000), Love Me If You Dare (2003) and Cavalcade (2005).

Has a look-alike puppet in the French show Les guignols de l'info (1988).

When she was honored at Hollywood Film Festival in 2012, Joseph Gordon-Levitt presented the tribute to her in French, her native language. Cotillard and Levitt were co-stars in Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

After starring together in Rust and Bone (2012), she recommended Matthias Schoenaerts for a role in her boyfriend's Guillaume Canet directorial-debut in Hollywood, Blood Ties (2013). Canet told that he chose Schoenaerts after hearing Cotillard praising his acting several times.

Starred in two films directed by Christopher Nolan: Inception (2010) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012). In both films she stabs someone.

She was one of the two French actresses who starred in French-language films to be nominated for a BAFTA award for Best Leading Actress in 2013, with her performance in Rust and Bone (2012), the other was Emmanuelle Riva for her performance in Amour (2012). It was the first time in the history of BAFTA that two French-language performances were nominated in the Best Actress category.

Learned to speak her Polish dialogue (20 pages) in The Immigrant (2013) in only two months.

Became a member of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema (APC), which governs the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, the group that votes on the César Awards. [July 2013].

Her favorite films are: The Great Dictator (1940), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), I Am Cuba (1964), The Party (1968), The Elephant Man (1980), The King and the Mockingbird (1980) and Tandem (1987).

Planned to star and produce a film entitled "Second Coming", directed by Nenad Cicin-Sain and with Mark Ruffalo, Ethan Hawke, Anjelica Huston and Thandie Newton in the cast. The project found a financier in 2010 but never happened.

In 2011, she was considered for the role of Morgana in Arthur & Lancelot when David Dobkin was attached to direct, but Warner Bros. cancelled the project over budgetary concerns.

She's a locavore, where possible, she eats locally produced food and has been recycling since the 80s, a habit learned from her Breton grandmother (Marion's paternal grandparents were both Breton).

Is a fan of Greta Garbo, Romy Schneider, Juliette Binoche, Peter Sellers, Charles Chaplin and Sir Laurence Olivier.

Member of the jury of the 13th Marrakech Film Festival that was presided by Martin Scorsese. [November-December, 2013].

Chosen as "The Most Beautiful Face of 2013" by TC Candler's list of the "100 Most Beautiful Famous Faces From Around the World". [December 2013]

Was considered for the role of Sylvie in Three Hearts (2014).

Is the owner of two restaurants in France: Jaja and Glou.

Directors Jacques Audiard and James Gray have compared her to actress Maria Falconetti. Falconetti played Joan of Arc in The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) and Cotillard played the character in the oratorio "Jeanne d'Arc au Bûcher".

Turned down a role in Bel Ami (2012). When Robert Pattinson met Cotillard in Cannes and told her he was doing a film of Guy de Maupassant's classic French novel, she expressed bemusement: "But why make it in English?".

Was the first person to wear Chopard's Green Carpet Collection jewels at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Director James Gray who directed her in The Immigrant (2013), stated that Cotillard is the best actor he ever worked with. Gray wrote the character Ewa Cybulska especially for her.

Ranked #68 on Total Film's Top 200 Performances of All Time for her performance in La Vie en Rose (2007). [2013].

Brazilian brand Chara Rial named a shoe after her. [2014].

Chosen as one of the 'Best Film Femme Fatales' by Harper's Bazaar for her performance as Mal in Inception (2010). [March 2014].

Accepted to star in Two Days, One Night (2014) without seen the script. Cotillard is the first non-Belgian and the most famous actor to ever with Belgian directors Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, she was cast after they met her on the set of Rust and Bone (2012), which was co-produced by them.

Was director Benoît Jacquot's original choice to play Celestine in Journal d'une femme de chambre (2015), but dropped out. If she had starred in the film, it would have been the second time that she would have played a character that was played by Jeanne Moreau. Cotillard played the younger version of Moreau's character in Lisa (2001) and Moreau played Celestine in Diary of a Chambermaid (1964).

Was considered for the female lead of Untitled John Wells Project (2015).

Named "The Most Bankable French Actress of the 21st Century" in 2014. Her films have sold more than 38 million tickets in France from 2001 to 2014 and have grossed more than $3 billion worldwide.

Was considered to play Eleonora Duse in The Rivals, a biopic about the rivalry between Duse and Sarah Bernhardt.

As a big fan of Tim Burton, Cotillard slept with the script of Big Fish (2003) under her pillow for a month to hopefully help her chances to work with him.

With her second Oscar nomination in 2015, she became one of six performers with multiple Oscar nominations for foreign language films; the others are Marcello Mastroianni (Italian), Sophia Loren (Italian), Liv Ullmann (Swedish), Javier Bardem (Spanish) and Isabelle Adjani (French).

Personal Quotes: [on 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 [Niseema Theillaud] and then I worked with my father [Jean-Claude Cotillard], who helped me to find in myself all those emotions and how to play with the emotions.

[on accepting the best actress Oscar for La Vie en Rose (2007) (aka "La Vie en Rose")] Thank you life, thank you love, and - it is true - there [are] some angels in this city [Los Angeles].

Did a man really walk on the moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don't believe all they tell me, that's for sure.

[on her French accent] The first thing I have to do to erase my French accent is think that it is actually possible, whereas for the moment, I think it's not. I have a lot of work.

My parents always told me that if you want something, you can do whatever you have to do to get it. As long as it's not against someone else.

I have a tendency to often share the point of view of the conspiracy theory.

[on extreme characters] I do like extreme characters, but I think they are extreme because they are full of passion - they are rich inside. Tina Lombardi [from A Very Long Engagement (2004)] was such a beautiful character. What I love in her is that she's not a cliché of the femme fatale. She's just a girl who loves her man and feels desperate about losing him. It's not just about revenge. She is in that huge country, searching for something. She's lost, destroyed inside.

[on the beginning of her career as a child] I started in musicals when I was very young. Both my parents are stage actors, and I was fascinated by their jobs. My father was a mime. When I was 5, a director friend of my family put me in his movie. I played a little girl with a dog, but I remember my scenes and I was entranced by acting. It was a dream to me - the passion of the profession was contagious.

The first English-language movie I saw might have been E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). I remember I was so into it, I cried so loud that the audience around me wanted to take me out of the theater.

[on her Public Enemies (2009) character] She's a real product of this really tough period in American history. Out of the Depression came all of these people who struggled to live. Billie had no money, and she came from an Indian tribe, which, at the time, was not easy. By the time she came to Chicago and met Dillinger, she had already lived several lives - she had been to military boarding school, to learn military manners, to "get the Indian out." She's a mix of someone really sweet and tough.

When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be in a musical, an American musical. I knew Singin' in the Rain (1952) by heart.

I think that when you don't see the boundaries, you cross them without even knowing they exist in the first place.

I need to feel that for a director it's a matter of life and death; he needs to tell this story.

I adore my own life, more and more I love being myself, but I love this work of totally changing personalities, of creating something radically different from myself. I want to go profoundly into my roles. If not, what's the point?

[on Rust and Bone (2012) in which she plays a woman who has lost both legs in an accident] In the beginning of the film she is empty, she doesn't know who she is or why she;'s alive. She is numb. It's as if she were drugged. I have never experimented with hard drugs, but I've been at certain moments of my life in a state of shock close to something where you lose your footing, your sense of reality. I think that's the gift of the actor, the ability to put ourselves in a state.

[on working with director Jacques Audiard in Rust and Bone (2012)] Once he stopped a scene and said, 'How dramatic are YOU? Dramatic, dramatic, dramatic! It's boring!' We laughed, and it could seem a bit rude, but he was right. We were happy to have someone with that kind of genius to help us avoid going in the direction of things that are perhaps realistic but are not at all cinematic. And that's why he's a great director.

[on reincarnation] I don't know if we have many lives of if I will be reincarnated into a next life, but I really do think that when you die, it doesn't stop.

[on her musical career] A friend called me up who is an amazing singer who goes by the name Yodelice (Maxim Nucci). He said, "Would you come to the studio? I would love for you to sing one of my songs." So I went down and ended up going from a background singer to being in a duet. Then my friend said he was playing at the Olympia in Paris. So he asked me if I would sing with him there and I said, "Oh, yeah, of course." I went to rehearsals with them and he asked me, "Would you play bass guitar?" I had never played bass guitar before but it has always been my dream to play bass guitar. He said, "Just try it for a few songs." I took the bass guitar and suddenly it was so organic. So he said to me, "Would you play piano on this song?" I said, "I don't even play piano!" He told me to try. I took piano lessons when I was like 5 or 6 but that was a long time ago. I stopped when I was 13. But suddenly it was very organic when I started playing it. So he said, "How about playing the drums?" He made me try, and it went on and on like this for a week. I was part of the band, playing all of the instruments. One day I arrived at rehearsal and my friend said, "Okay, now that you've done everything else, how about singing a song by yourself alone?" I said, "Man, you are way out of your mind." But we did it and I ended up on tour with Yodelice for two months, traveling around to shows in different cities in France and Belgium.

[on The Dark Knight Rises (2012)] I didn't have a major part in the Batman movie, but I had to be available for it at all times. The script changed constantly, and I needed to be ready to get on the next plane and be on set as soon as they needed me.

I'm not somebody who opens up to people very easily. With this form of expression,I think I've found a way to speak to a lot of people and share something of myself, while still keeping my distance. I don't have anything against people who bare their souls to the media. I just know I can't do it. I want to share things that seem practical to me. It's the same if I go to a dinner party with guests I don't know. I'm not going to share my life story with them.

[on her school days] At school I was that black thing in the corner. I was not popular at all. I think I was very boring... not boring because I didn't talk, no, no it was terrible. I was not interesting at all. I thought I had no personality. I thought everybody was so cool, and I was not. You think things about yourself and then you start to give a little bit of love at least enough, to enjoy life. But I was, oooh.

I couldn't leave the character on La Vie en Rose (2007). It was weird because I used to kind of judge actors who would stay in character on set or who would have a hard time leaving the character behind when the movie was done. I had this very dumb idea that "Okay, it's a big part of your life but it's your job. Go home and go back to yourself." It turns out it's not that easy. In the process I was in character almost all the time. Even when I went home, there was something that was not entirely me.

[on singing] I'm a very happy actress. But I've always loved to sing because in my childhood my mother would sing all the time. I cannot remember one journey in the car without singing. So music is part of my life.

[on blockbusters] I feel very lucky that I can travel from one very special universe to another very special universe. My experience in Hollywood with the big blockbuster, though, is very special too, because it's a blockbuster directed, written, produced by Christopher Nolan, who's not a studio director. I need to work with directors who have the need to tell a story - and he is definitely a director who needs to tell stories.

[on what changed her life] It's not the fame that changed my life but La Vie en Rose (2007), which was a turning point for me. It put me in a different universe and gave me the opportunity to really discover different worlds. But I'm not like some celebrities who live with paparazzi 24 hours a day. That's why I'm keeping my life in France.

[on becoming a mother] Since having Marcel, every day of my life has been alight with him. One of the things I have learned recently is that I have the ability to be happy. I have found that in my family. And that is a new thing. And that hasn't always been the case for me - so I know how lucky I am.

[on her character in Rust and Bone (2012)] I think Stéphanie has moved me more than any character I've ever played. She rediscovers the carnal, sexuality, love. Everything is very positive in the tragedy she faces.

[on the first time she liked filming sex scenes in a movie with Rust and Bone (2012)] I've never liked filming them as I don't feel comfortable. I am shaking; I feel very bad and I want to cry most of the time because I hate it so much. But here it was totally different. I was so involved with my character that I was happy she would enjoy something like that. It's a movie about love, about flesh, about rust and bone and heart and sex, so without the sex scenes the movie would have missed something. The most emotional scene was after Stéphanie and Alain (Matthias Schoenaerts) make love for the first time, because I felt something that I never felt for a character before. I felt very moved for her because it's the first time she's had sex since she lost her legs. I was very moved because I was so happy for her.

[on being exposed and judged because of her career] Nothing can ever be taken for granted in this métier. It makes you very exposed and that can be violent. I'm strong but also fragile, and sometimes it's not easy to be exposed to judgment, and to play with your emotions, to go searching inside yourself to make yourself naked to the world.

I think this desire to protect the Earth comes from my family - especially my grandmother. I remember when I was a little girl at her house in Brittany. When she cooked, she wouldn't waste anything. And my parents always raised me to believe that the most important thing was respect. Respect the place you live, be aware of the impact that you have on things. I was lucky to have this education growing up. I was born in Paris and raised in the suburbs and then lived in the countryside. We had a beautiful house with a huge garden. When I moved to the country, I was really connected to nature and the seasons. So when I finally went back to Paris, I had a very hard time connecting with the city again and the way we waste so much. I started to read and teach myself about the environment - and why it was not organic and natural to be living in the city. I'm very happy with what's happening now and how the awareness is spreading. Because 10 years ago my mind-set wasn't really normal for most people. I sounded like a crazy person talking about the environment. People saw me as a hippie who wanted to make my own cheese and live with animals in a house without electricity.

When I was younger, I considered a lot of things, but I couldn't choose, so I thought that being an actor would let me have many lives. It was a way to do all the jobs I wanted to do.

I just want to do my best. I just want to find the authenticity of each character. That's what matters to me. It would be horrible to have an audience saying, 'Oh it's her.' It would be horrible. I want to experience something new each time.

I was fascinated by this world of telling stories, of having a different day every day. And my parents were -- still are -- passionate people, and to be raised with passionate people who open the door of your imagination and your creativity, I think it's why I am an actress now.

[on working in Hollywood] I feel very lucky that I can work in Hollywood. When I was a kid, I watched a lot of American movies and I never thought this was something that would happen to me. But once I started acting I didn't see any boundaries. I wanted to be an actress. I didn't want to be a French actress.

[on her sex scenes in Rust and Bone (2012)] The sex and flesh is part of the story. It's not sensational or a statement at all, it had to be in there. You know how you feel when you rediscover your body, love, your life. That's what happens to both these characters and I think that is very sexy.

[on beauty] I was raised with the idea of beauty in a different way. To me, it is something that really comes out of you and surrounds you.

[on choose a different career] Well, I could have never done a profession that was not creative. You know, there's a fighter inside of me. When you have the capacity to fight, when you have the ability to love life and the ability to be happy, it's easy to be creative. And that's a treasure that my parents gave me.

[on fashion] To be honest, I didn't consider fashion to be an art until I became involved with Dior. They changed my vision of fashion whereas I never paid attention to it before. Although I loved to dress and I liked clothes, now I see it as a very special form of art.

I looked terrible while filming La Vie en Rose (2007), so my hat collection increased dramatically. I love men's hats because my father wears them.

[on her voice in Polish in The Immigrant (2013)] Language is part of a whole. I like creating characters who have their own approach, their own body language, their own voice. Learning a language helps to build something different. I play a Polish woman in the film, so I had to speak Polish fluently, with a Polish accent. I understood that, in order to speak correctly, I had to sink into the Polish culture. I had the same experience with English and Italian. Culture enriches language and vice versa.

I've always wanted to be an actress but I never really asked myself why. I know now that I have this career for two major reasons: First, because it allows me to take such pleasure in work that I happen to be overwhelmed with happiness while acting. And second, because this job puts me the most in danger in relation to my emotional past.

[on spending a day in a wheelchair in Paris with her co-star Samuel Jouy preparing for Blue Away to America (1999)] Others looking at us, us being dependent on others - we had a unique experience. The movie is a celebration of life and hope.

[about the dream roles of actresses (1999)] I would like to be offered to play Count Dracula as a consolation for not having been in The Idiots (1998) by Lars von Trier.

More and more I love being myself, but I love this work of totally changing personalities.

[on why she became an actress - Elle, November 2013] When I was a kid, I started to have a lot of questions about human beings, and I was a troubled child because of all of these questions. I guess that's why I became an actress. Not only because my parents were actors and, yeah, it's a beautiful thing to tell stories, but I think I became an actress because I wanted to explore this- to explore what a human being is.

[on getting old and wrinkly] You know what? I'm not looking forward to it. I know that it's going to come. Some of the women around me, they tell me it's not fun to get old. But it's not about your look, it's about the fact that you cannot run like you did when you were younger, or - it's just about when your body gets tired and you don't have the hundred percent energy sometimes. So it's not something that I look forward to. But I have to say, since I'm a mum, I'm really looking forward to being a grandma. This is kind of my obsession right now. I hope my kids won't wait so long, like me, to have kids, because I want to be a very healthy and young grandma. So it's not getting old but being a grandmother ... this is really something that I look forward to.

[on why she'll never have Botox] When I have to have an injection I'm like a four-year-old, running around the room with the nurse behind me trying to catch me. So I guess I won't have Botox or whatever you put inside yourself to look younger. In France... I was at my friend's house the other day, and all those women there, they were between 50 and 70, and they were so beautiful. Sometimes in LA, or even in New York, you run into a lot of products - a lot of women filled with all those products. It's not just about plastic surgery now, it's about injections... and all the women look kind of the same. It just shows fear, and that makes me sad.

[at Elle's 20th Annual Women In Hollywood] As far back as I can remember, I began questioning the world around me. Then I realized that by exploring different human beings and their stories, I felt the connection I was longing for. I know these women have also found answers in what they do, and share my passion for discovering the human soul.

[on why she thinks so many actors succumb to alcohol and drugs] Actors are fragile creatures. The wider the gap, the more vulnerable we are. Any form of escape can seem good. You have to navigate through the different emotions because you're placed in tough positions as an actor. Everything we give in a performance can come back to torture.

[on become enthralled with the ideals of the 'American Dream'] In a certain respect, yes (I love the American dream). And I love their language. Three years before La Vie en Rose (2007), I came to New York to take an English language course with Berlitz. I didn't become an actress with the aim of having a career in the US, my dream didn't have any geographical boundaries, but just after filming Tim Burton's Big Fish (2003), I was looking forward to speaking the language fluently because my poor English from my school days was a problem on set. This love of English comes from my childhood, I grew up on American culture. Their music, cinema and literature were part of me.

I always wanted to express myself by being someone other than myself.

It is much easier for me to understand something vast and complex than something light and uncomplicated. Perhaps that makes me very French.

[on if she was afraid to be stuck with Édith Piaf (June 2007)] I think those things only happen when you think about it too much. For example, when I first got into movies in France, I had great success playing bimbos. But I never believed that I would be put in a box. I think if you have that inside of you it won't happen.

[on if she would like to play any other iconic women that she finds fascinating] Each time I hear that question the first name that comes to my mind is someone I can't do because it's Aung San Suu Kyi. For obvious and emotional reasons I can't. But I think a movie has to be done.

Talking about myself to someone I don't know has turned me into a wild beast when it comes to press. I've noticed that it's creating something kind of out of focus about myself.

You don't turn away a great director. And I always wanted to work with James Gray without thinking it was possible.

I cannot speak Italian. That was my idea, actually, to have an Italian character in Blood Ties (2013). My self loves difficulties, and when my brain comes into play, it's like, Hello!

Being the same person everywhere, that's something that I would love to feel, to achieve. But I have a responsibility in creating this person who is not someone that I like at all.

An actor has a huge failure in him. And this is not a weakness -- this can make you strong. But it's deep.

Working with Joaquin Phoenix was something very special. His instinct is like the instinct of an animal. There's a pureness about him. We lost this animal instinct that we used to have.

My parents were actors too. I don't even know if when I wanted to be an actress, they went, "Oh, shit." I must ask them.

I admired Greta Garbo but I didn't want to be her. I wanted to be Charles Chaplin. And I wanted to be Peter Sellers.

The directors I dreamed of were Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, David Lynch, Steven Spielberg because of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). I wasn't considered an actress. I didn't want to get bitter while waiting for something to happen, so when I was 27, I told my agent I was stopping and going to work for Greenpeace. He said, 'Please just have this one meeting.' It was with Tim Burton, for Big Fish (2003), and I got the part. Now, Tim Burton was my idol. And so I told myself, 'Wow... This is exactly what I want. This is even more than what I want! So if I get this, it means that I really have a place in this business. If not, I'll do something else.

[on if a disturbing sex scene is harder to shoot than a romantic sex scene] It depends. I was always so reluctant to shoot love scenes. On those days, I'm not very friendly. I want it to be done and then start the movie again. But in Rust and Bone (2012) we had very naked love scenes, and it was totally different. I was very happy. Not because [co-star] Matthias Schoenaerts is superhot, absolutely not, because I had experience with Johnny Depp before [in Public Enemies (2009)] and it was also really hard for me. I was just very happy for my character. The whole day I was naked on set and I was totally fine with it.

[on her cameo in Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)] I'm a big fan of American comedies, especially Will Ferrell and all his team. And they have known that I was a fan, so they asked me if I would be a part of it, and of course I said yes right away. But I never question how people could see me.

I think that when you discover something that was unknown before, it opens your mind, your heart. Roles after roles, I learned a little more about human beings. I want to go as deep as I can in a character.

I met James Gray with my boyfriend (Guillaume Canet) and we became friends. I'm a huge admirer of his work but when I met him, I didn't even dare to tell him. Never in my mind was I thinking, "I'm going to do everything to work for him" because I was never able to be in that kind of seduction from the beginning of my career. When I had to meet a director, I preferred to have a screen test and show what I could do instead of sell myself in a discussion, because I was bad at it. When I met James, we became friends and I never thought I could work with him because he was my friend.

[on working with the Dardenne brothers in Two Days, One Night (2014)] That was one of my best experiences. They offered me everything I had always wanted in a relationship between an actress and a director - well, two directors in that case. They work a lot, and I love to work a lot. Their level of demand is the highest I've ever encountered in my career, and that's what I'm looking for. They pushed me as far as I could go and maybe beyond. I would have done anything they asked me.

When I began working in the U.S., I started to think that all those amazing, greatest directors I never thought I could work with, suddenly ... I realized it was not unreachable anymore. But there were two people for me who were unreachable: Bruno Dumont and the Dardenne Brothers. When my agent told me they wanted me to meet with them, I genuinely thought it was a joke. Then I thought it would be a totally different movie than what they do usually, because they do stories in their hometown. With all due respect for all the directors I worked with, this experience [Two Days, One Night (2014)] was the greatest of my life as an actress, so I hope it'll be good. They push the actors so far in the detail. That's the relationship that I'd always expected with directors. That was idyllic.

To me the best recognition I can receive is someone like James Gray writing a movie for me. The Oscar is the cherry on the cake, but what deeply changed was Olivier Dahan who was crazy enough to think that I could do this (play Édith Piaf in La Vie en Rose (2007)). I remember when I read the script I asked my agent "Which part am I gonna do?" and he said "He (Dahan) want you to do the whole thing". I said it wasn't possible, but I didn't say it too loud. I thought it was crazy and felt right away it would be an amazing experience. And then yeah, the greatest recognition is still working with amazing people.

[on working with Michael Fassbender in Macbeth (2015)] I saw a lot of movies he was in, and I have the feeling he's reached another level here. When you start a scene and you don't really know where you're going to go, that's a roller-coaster. Many times I was surprised by what he does in this movie, and this is priceless.

[on playing Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (2015)] I knew that one day I would play Lady Macbeth, but in my mind it would be on stage and in French. I never thought that one day I would say the original lines, which took me ages to understand. I was very honest when I read the text for the first time. I called the director and said. 'Thank God I know the story, because I didn't get any of the words'.

[on working with Michael Fassbender in Macbeth] I saw a lot of movies he was in, and I have the feeling he's reached another level here. When you start a scene and you don't really know where you're going to go, that's a roller-coaster. Many times I was surprised by what he does in this movie, and this is priceless.

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