Emmanuelle Seigner Joie de Vivre
César-nominated actress and Cannes Film Festival alumnus Emmanuelle Seigner impressed critics with her tour de force performance in Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, which won Best Director and Technical Grand Prize at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival. This year Seigner makes a special contribution with her cover of “Rosemary’s Lullaby” in Marina Zenovich’s documentary Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, which receives a special screening at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. Recently, Seigner signed on to horror maestro Dario Argento’s new film Giallo (produced by Rafael Primorac) where she plays opposite Academy Award® winner and fellow Cannes Film Festival alumnus Adrien Brody.
In this exclusive interview, IFQ’s Nicole Holland spoke with the fascinating and luminous Emmanuelle Seigner as she discussed her new film Giallo, her accomplished music career and cover of “Rosemary’s Lullaby,” the Academy Award®-winning film La Vie En Rose, 2007 Cannes favorite and Golden Globe®-winning film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, and working with her husband, the legendary Academy Award®-winning director and Cannes Film Festival Golden Palm winner Roman Polanski.
IFQ: You just signed on to Dario Argento’s Giallo and you play one of the lead characters, opposite Adrien Brody. Can you tell me about this project? What can we expect?
Emmanuelle Seigner: Well, it’s a great story. It’s a thriller that’s a bit like Seven or Silence of the Lambs. It’s kind of horrific in a way. The role is great and I’m very happy that I am doing that, especially with Adrien Brody, who is one of my favorite actors. Dario Argento is very talented.
IFQ: Are you excited that you are working with the Italian master of horror Dario Argento?
ES: I am very excited and I’m a little scared because my part is very big and I’m playing opposite of such a great actor; so I have to be really good and it’s very challenging for me.
IFQ: Are you familiar with Argento’s “giallo” genre films?
ES: Yes, I saw Suspiria and Profondo Rosso and I love them. I think he is a cult director.
IFQ: Let’s talk about the Academy Award®-winning film La Vie En Rose. In the film, you play the young Edith Piaf’s guardian Titine. You deliver an emotional heart-wrenching performance. How did you prepare for this film even though Titine was a fictional character?
ES: I didn’t really prepare actually. The real thing was when I arrived in Prague, I saw that little girl and I fell totally in love with her. She was so cute, pretty, full of talent and so alive that I just had to work with her and that was it. I put on my wig and did it with my heart. Titine was the only character in the movie that was invented by Olivier Dahan. It’s true that through Edith’s years in a brothel, it’s very possible that one of the girls was attached to her, but it’s not sure. I was the only person who had a little freedom with my character, which was great.
IFQ: Also you have a song in La Vie En Rose. How did this come about? Did they approach you? Was it already written in the script?
ES: Well, it’s because I’m a singer. I have a rock band called Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle. Actually I have a song (“Don’t Kiss Me Goodbye”) in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly too, when he is walking in Lourdes. Also I have a song in the movie that’s made about my husband, Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired. I did a cover of Rosemary’s Baby Lullaby (“Rosemary’s Lullaby”).
IFQ: Yes, I heard your version. It’s one of my favorites, and it’s so beautiful yet eerie at the same time. Are you a fan of Ira Levin’s novel Rosemary’s Baby and the film Rosemary’s Baby?
ES: Yes and it’s my husband’s favorite movie. [Laughs.]
IFQ: Mine too. [Laughs.]
ES: When we did the record, we did it with my band as an homage for him. And for me, it’s a beautiful present that’s in this documentary.
IFQ: The song put me in a trance. I was like, “Oh my god, this is brilliant!” [Laughs.]
ES: Yeah [laughs]. So that’s how Olivier (Dahan) knew that I was singing and he asked me to sing that song (in La Vie En Rose) and it was great. [Laughs.] I really enjoyed doing it.
IFQ: Who are your influences? The Velvet Underground and Nico?
ES: Yeah, The Velvet Underground and David Bowie.
IFQ: Oh yeah, I love The Velvet Underground and Bowie too.
ES: Yeah, that type of music. Now I am going to do a second album and I would like to do country music. I would like to try [like] Nancy Sinatra or something like that. I really like country music.
IFQ: Country music is quite a departure. Are you going to record in Nashville?
ES: You know I already mixed my first album (Ultra Orange & Emmanuelle) in Nashville.
IFQ: Well you know that Nashville is the “Country Music Capital of the World.” [Laughs.]
ES: [Laughs.] But I really like music and I love acting too. I like both.
IFQ: Your music video for “Sing Sing” was beautiful and well-done.
ES: Yes, “Sing Sing” is good. The video was done by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. He is really good. He is the one who does all of Madonna’s videos.
IFQ: He’s a genius. Continuing on the subject of music and film, in Backstage you play this French pop singer Lauren Waks who has an obsessed fan named Lucie and the interaction between your character and Lucie examines the frightening emotional dependency on both sides of celebrity culture. The film is quite disturbing at times. Can you talk about your role in this film?
ES: Well that was a very difficult role for me. It was a lot of work and how I started singing actually. That was my first step. Of course, the music I was singing in that movie was not my taste [laughs], but I was playing a character. So that’s how I started singing and discovered that I really like it. It was hard to do that role, but it was a great experience.
IFQ: The film hits on the theme of celebrity culture. How do you keep such a low profile? Celebs are splashed all over the tabloids in the USA.
ES: Yeah, but in France, we are very protected and it’s a very different story. We don’t have all that. We can be very quiet, live normal lives, walk in the streets and be very normal, which is nice. I wouldn’t like that type of celebrity that you have in America. [Laughs.]
IFQ: [Laughs.] Yes, it’s getting a little ridiculous over here with the celeb craze.
ES: In France, we are very quiet.
IFQ: I’ve seen your metamorphosis from your earlier films to present. Also you successfully went from model to actress to singer. How was the transition from model to actress, then from actress to singer? Did you feel any pressure?
ES: Well I was not a very big model; I just did a few years of modeling. I did the Jean-Luc Godard film when I was 18, and then right away I did Frantic, so I didn’t do much modeling. I was very lucky with the singing because the music I did was very different from what every actress was doing in France. Because it was a band, it was rock and roll, and it was in English, the press raved about it and it was like my best review that I have ever had, even as an actress. So it went really well. I was actually lucky.
IFQ: You just mentioned Frantic. You first worked with Roman Polanski on Frantic (1988), and then Bitter Moon (1992) and the latest with him was The Ninth Gate (1999). How is Polanski as a director?
ES: He is a great director. I love working with him and I would love to work with him again. The thing is when I worked in those movies in those times and because I was his wife, the press judged me as a wife and not as an actress, which was very painful for me. That’s why I decided to do my own work and work separately. But one day I would love to do a great movie with him—something really great and amazing. But I think I needed to take my identity without him. That’s what I’m doing now. [Laughs.]
IFQ: When I interviewed Asia Argento that’s what she said about working in Dario Argento’s films. She branched away for a few years and when she found her own separate identity, she went back and worked with him on The Mother of Tears.
ES: Exactly. You know it’s difficult because when you work with someone who is your family or with your husband, or your father, people say, “Oh, of course she has the job because she is his wife or because she is his daughter.” In fact, it’s a bit true. So I think it was good to work with other people and show that I was capable of doing something without my husband. [Laughs.]
IFQ: I definitely saw that with your performances in Backstage, La Vie En Rose and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. You were solid and phenomenal, and you stood on your own.
ES: Thank you!
IFQ: Earlier you mentioned one of your first films, Jean-Luc Godard’s Détective. So far, you’ve had three films that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival: Julian Schnabel’s The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007), Jean-Luc Godard’s Détective (1985) and Nirvana (1997). Can you tell me about your experience in Cannes?
ES: I didn’t experience Cannes with Jean-Luc Godard’s film because I had a very small part and was very young. I was 18 so I wasn’t invited and didn’t get to go. [Laughs.] The second one was Nirvana. I had a small part too, but they invited me. The screening was at midnight and I think it was out of competition. It was nice and fun. But of course, the most interesting experience for me and the most powerful was The Diving Bell and the Butterfly because we were in competition and it was shown at 7 o’ clock or 8 o’clock. My role was bigger and it was of course, something much stronger for me.
IFQ: In The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, how was it working opposite of Mathieu Almaric, who played Elle France editor Jean-Dominique Bauby? Was the limited communication (Bauby was paralyzed and could only communicate with his left eye) a challenge for you as an actress?
ES: Well, yes it was. The challenge was playing the part because she was a woman who was left six months before the accident. It was a bit between the revenge and the pity. I didn’t want her to be bitter, but I didn’t want her to be a saint either. The real challenge was trying to find the reality in my role. In the beginning, we were playing only with a camera, so there was nobody else. It was a technique, but it was quite difficult. Then, playing with him was great in a way because even though he couldn’t talk, he was so powerful with his eye and the way that he was doing it. It was great. I really enjoyed it. It was a great experience for me.
IFQ: Also you are in Julian Schnabel’s Lou Reed’s Berlin.
ES: Yes. Lou Reed’s Berlin was with his daughter Lola. She did the film with me, so I worked more with her even though it’s he who did the final thing. I worked with Lola for four days in New York and we were filming, just the two of us and a guy who helped us with the lights. It was really a lot of fun and very nice to do that.
IFQ: Currently, you are filming Le Code a Changé—a film by Danièle Thompson, who is also the director/writer of Fauteuils d’orchestre and another Cannes Film Festival alumnus. Can you tell me about this project?
ES: It’s a comedy and an ensemble film with eleven actors. One of the stars is Dany Boon—you know the guy whose film Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis) was seen by over 20 million viewers in France. Dany Boon’s movie has beaten all the records ever in France. He is one of the stars in the film. It’s a lot of fun.
IFQ: Finally, are you going to be in Cannes this year?
ES: I’m not because I am shooting Giallo in Torino with Dario Argento and I am really excited to do this film with him.
