Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne born 1 July 1985 is a French actress. She began her acting career in French cinema, appearing in films such as The Last Mistress (2007) and On War (2008). She first came to attention after she received her first César Award nomination, for her performance in The Beautiful Person (2008), and won the Trophée Chopard, an award given to promising actors at the Cannes Film Festival.
Since then, Seydoux has appeared in major Hollywood films including Inglourious Basterds (2009), Robin Hood (2010), Midnight in Paris (2011) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011). In French cinema, she was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actress for a second time for her role in Belle Épine (2010) and was nominated for the César Award for Best Actress for her role as a lady-in-waiting to Marie Antoinette in the film Farewell, My Queen (2012).
In 2013, Seydoux came to widespread attention when she was awarded the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for her role as a lesbian art student in the critically acclaimed film Blue Is the Warmest Colour. That same year, she also received the Lumières Award for Best Actress for the film Grand Central and, in 2014, she was nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and starred in the films Beauty and the Beast, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Saint Laurent. She gained international attention for her appearance as Bond girl Madeleine Swann in Spectre (2015), and will reprise the role in No Time to Die (2021). She also provides the voice and motion capture of the character Fragile in the video game Death Stranding (2019).
Early life
Born on 1 July 1985, Seydoux is the daughter of businessman Henri Jérôme Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne and Valérie Schlumberger. She was born in Passy, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and grew up in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement. She had a strict Protestant upbringing, but she is not religious. Seydoux is one of seven children. She has three older half-siblings (Marine Bramly, Noé Saglio and Ondine Saglio) from her mother’s first marriage, an older sister, stylist Camille Seydoux from her parents’ marriage, and a further two paternal half-brothers, Ismaël Seydoux and Omer Seydoux, from her father’s marriage to model Farida Khelfa.
Seydoux’s parents are both partly of Alsatian descent. Her father is a great-grandson of businessman and inventor Marcel Schlumberger, while her mother is a granddaughter of Marcel’s brother, Maurice Schlumberger. The family name came to exist in 1902, when Seydoux’s great-great-grandfather Charles-Louis-Auguste-Jacques Seydoux (1870–1929) married Mathilde, daughter of Languedoc aristocrat François Fornier de Clausonne de Lédenon, whose family held the titles of Baron de Lédenon and seigneur de Clausonne, de Laugnac et de la Bastide d’Albe. The Seydoux family is widely known in France. Her grandfather, Jérôme Seydoux, is the chairman of Pathé; her granduncle, Nicolas Seydoux, is the chairman of Gaumont Film Company; her other granduncle, Michel Seydoux, also a cinema producer, is the chairman of the Lille-based football club Lille OSC; and her father is the founder and CEO of the French wireless company Parrot. Despite Seydoux’s connections, her family initially took no interest in her film career and did not help her. As a child, she had no desire to act. She instead wanted to be an opera singer, studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Seydoux’s parents divorced when she was three years old and they were often away, her mother in Africa and her father on business, which, combined with her large family, meant that she “felt lost in the crowd… I was very lonely as a kid. Really I always had the feeling I was an orphan.” Through her family involvement in media and entertainment, Seydoux grew up acquainted with prominent artists such as photographer Nan Goldin, musicians Lou Reed and Mick Jagger and footwear designer Christian Louboutin. For six years, Seydoux went to summer camp in the United States, at the behest of her father, who wanted her to learn to speak English.
– Seydoux dismissing suggestions that her family connections have helped her career.
Her mother Valérie Schlumberger is a former actress-turned-philanthropist and the founder of the boutique Compagnie d’Afrique du Sénégal et de l’Afrique de l’ouest (CSAO), which promotes the work of African artists. Seydoux once worked as a model for their jewellery line Jokko. Schlumberger, who lived in Senegal as a teenager, is also the founder of the charitable organisations Association pour le Sénégal et l’Afrique de l’Ouest (ASAO) and Empire des enfants, a centre for homeless children in Dakar, of which Seydoux is the “godmother”.
Seydoux describes her youthful self as short-haired, slightly disheveled, and widely viewed as a bit strange: “People liked me, but I always felt like a misfit.” Still concerned for her shyness in adulthood, Seydoux has admitted to having had an anxiety crisis during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
Career
2005–2007
Seydoux says that as a child she wanted to become an opera singer, studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris, but eventually her shyness compelled her to drop the idea. It was not until the age of eighteen that she decided to become an actress. One of her friends was an actor, and Seydoux has said: “I found his life wonderful, I thought, ‘Oh my god, you can travel, you’re free, you can do what you want, you’re the boss.'” She fell in love with an actor and decided to become an actress to impress him. She took acting classes at French drama school Les Enfants Terribles, and in 2007 she took further training at New York’s Actors Studio with Corinne Blue.
In 2005, Seydoux appeared in the music video for Raphaël’s single “Ne partons pas fâchés”. The following year, Seydoux played her first major screen role as one of the main characters in Sylvie Ayme’s Girlfriends (Mes copines). She starred in Nicolas Klotz’s short film La Consolation, which was exhibited at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.
In these years, she also did her first work as a model for American Apparel, posing for their Pantytime campaign, and had a role in the films 13 French Street and The Last Mistress.
2008–2012
Seydoux at the 66th Venice International Film Festival
Seydoux came to widespread attention in 2008, when she appeared in Christophe Honoré’s The Beautiful Person, a role that earned her the 2009 Chopard Award at the Cannes Film Festival for “Best Upcoming Actress” and a César Award nomination for Most Promising Actress.
In 2009 she had a major part in Jessica Hausner’s Lourdes, and a small role in her first Hollywood film, Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. In 2010 she starred alongside Russell Crowe in Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood, playing Isabella of Angoulême. That same year she appeared in Louis Garrel’s Petit Tailleur, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Belle Épine, which earned her a second César nomination of Most Promising Actress, and Raúl Ruiz’s Mysteries of Lisbon.
Seydoux auditioned to play Lisbeth Salander in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, but the part ultimately went to actress Rooney Mara. Seydoux recalled in an interview: “I got upset, but I don’t think I’d be able to do anything to get that part. It was totally against my nature. I worked hard, but Lisbeth was almost anorexic. I wasn’t like that”.
In 2011, she played Gabrielle in the romantic comedy Midnight in Paris. She later participated in another Hollywood production, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, in which she played the assassin Sabine Moreau alongside stars Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner. She also played Elle in the short film Time Doesn’t Stand Still by Benjamin Millepied and Asa Mader .
After Mission: Impossible, Seydoux returned to French cinema, starring in My Wife’s Romance (Le Roman de ma femme) and Roses à crédit in 2011, and the critically acclaimed Farewell, My Queen and Sister in 2012. Also in that year, Seydoux played roles in Blue Is the Warmest Colour by Abdellatif Kechiche, and Grand Central by Rebecca Zlotowski, both exhibited at the 66th Cannes Film Festival.
2013–present
Seydoux at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival
In 2013, Seydoux was nominated for Best Actress at the 38th César Awards for her role as Sidonie Laborde in Benoît Jacquot’s Farewell, My Queen. Later that year at Cannes, Blue Is the Warmest Colour won the Palme d’Or and the jury, headed by Steven Spielberg, took the unusual move of awarding the prize not just to the director Abdellatif Kechiche, but also to the film’s two stars, Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.
In 2014, Seydoux won the Best Actress award at the 19th Lumières Awards for her role in Blue Is the Warmest Colour and Grand Central. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Rising Star Award and the César Award for Best Actress in the same year. Her role in Blue Is the Warmest Colour earned her raves reviews, numerous accolades, and international attention.
Seydoux co-starred with Vincent Cassel in Beauty and the Beast, a Franco-German romantic fantasy film directed by Christophe Gans. Her other 2014 films were The Grand Budapest Hotel, a Wes Anderson film in which she cameoed as a maid; and Bertrand Bonello’s Saint Laurent, in which she played the role of the titular designer’s muse Loulou de la Falaise.
In 2015, Seydoux starred with Vincent Lindon in Diary of a Chambermaid, a period piece based on Octave Mirbeau’s novel Le Journal d’une femme de chambre. The film, whose script was written specifically for Seydoux, marked her second collaboration with Benoît Jacquot, following the 2012 film Farewell, My Queen. Although the film was screened in competition at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival to mixed reviews, critics were generally receptive to Seydoux’s performance. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian said that it was “a fine central performance from Seydoux”, while critic Jordan Mintzer wrote that her performance is “robust and engaging throughout “.
Seydoux appeared alongside Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in Yorgos Lanthimos’s English-language debut The Lobster (2015), in which she played the ruthless leader of a group of rebels, the loners, who live in the woods. The film had its premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize. She also appears as Madeleine Swann, the Bond girl in the 2015 Spectre, the 24th James Bond film.
In 2016, Seydoux appeared in Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World, based on Jean-Luc Lagarce’s play Juste la fin du monde.
In 2018, Seydoux co-starred alongside Ewan McGregor in Zoe, a sci-fi romance film by Drake Doremus. She also appeared in Thomas Vinterberg’s Kursk, a drama film about the 2000 Kursk submarine disaster.
During E3 2018, it was revealed that Seydoux would star in Hideo Kojima’s video game Death Stranding. She provided the voice, performance and her likeness to the character Fragile, the head of Fragile Express. Death Stranding released in November 2019 and was met with positive reviews.
Upcoming projects
Seydoux will reprise her role as Madeleine Swann in the James Bond film No Time to Die. The film was postponed worldwide three times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She will also star in Wes Anderson’s ensemble comedy-drama The French Dispatch. She will then play Lizzy in Ildikó Enyedi’s The Story of My Wife, and later star in the film France by French director Bruno Dumont.
Advertising and endorsements
Seydoux has modelled for numerous magazines and brands, but sees herself “always as an actress”, not as a model. She participated in the Levi’s television advert “Dangerous Liaison”, and has been seen in several photo editorials, including for Vogue Paris, American Vogue, Numéro, L’Officiel, CRASH, Another Magazine and W magazine. She fronted the 2013 campaign for French jewellery line Didier Dubot and appeared in Rag & Bone’s Fall 2013 campaign with Michael Pitt.
She also appeared in a nude pictorial for French men’s magazine Lui. In addition, Seydoux and her Blue Is the Warmest Colour co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos were featured in Miu Miu’s 2014 resort ad campaign. Seydoux advertised for Prada’s 2012 Resort line; and is the face of its 2013 campaign for the fragrances Prada Candy (shot by Jean-Paul Goude) and Prada Candy L’Eau (directed by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola), and the 2014 campaign for Prada Candy Florale perfume.
Personal life
In September 2016, Seydoux revealed that she and her boyfriend André Meyer were expecting their first child. On 18 January 2017, she gave birth to a son, Georges.
Seydoux has said that the filming of Blue Is the Warmest Colour made her question her sexuality: “Of course I did . Me as a person, as a human being… It’s not nothing, making those scenes. Of course I question myself. But, I did not have any revelations.”
Filmography
Film and television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Girlfriends | Aurore | |
| 2007 | La Consolation | Camille | Short film |
| 2007 | The Last Mistress | Olivia | |
| 2007 | 13 French Street | Jenny | |
| 2008 | On War | Marie | |
| 2008 | Les Vacances de Clémence | Jackie | Telefilm |
| 2008 | Des poupées et des anges | Gisèle | |
| 2008 | The Beautiful Person | Junie | |
| 2009 | Lourdes | Maria | |
| 2009 | Des illusions | The subway girl | |
| 2009 | Inglourious Basterds | Charlotte LaPadite | |
| 2009 | Going South | Léa | |
| 2010 | Robin Hood | Isabella of Angoulême | |
| 2010 | Petit tailleur | Marie–Julie | Short film |
| 2010 | Sans laisser de traces | Fleur | |
| 2010 | Belle Épine | Prudence Friedmann | |
| 2010 | Roses à crédit | Marjoline | |
| 2010 | Mysteries of Lisbon | Blanche de Montfort | |
| 2011 | Midnight in Paris | Gabrielle | |
| 2011 | Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol | Sabine Moreau | |
| 2011 | Time Doesn’t Stand Still | Elle | Short film |
| 2011 | My Wife’s Romance | Eve | |
| 2012 | Farewell, My Queen | Agathe-Sidonie Laborde | |
| 2012 | Sister | Louise | |
| 2013 | Blue Is the Warmest Colour | Emma | |
| 2013 | Grand Central | Karole | |
| 2014 | Beauty and the Beast | Belle | |
| 2014 | The Grand Budapest Hotel | Clotilde | |
| 2014 | Saint Laurent | Loulou de la Falaise | |
| 2015 | Diary of a Chambermaid | Célestine | |
| 2015 | The Lobster | Loner Leader | |
| 2015 | Spectre | Dr. Madeleine Swann | |
| 2016 | It’s Only the End of the World | Suzanne | |
| 2018 | Zoe | Zoe | |
| 2018 | Kursk | Tanya | |
| 2019 | Oh Mercy! | Claude | |
| 2021 | No Time to Die | Dr. Madeleine Swann | Post-production |
| TBA | The French Dispatch | Simone | Post-production |
| TBA | France | Post-production | |
| TBA | The Story of My Wife | Lizzy | Post-production |
| TBA | Deception | Post-production |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Death Stranding | Fragile | Voice and motion capture |
Accolades
In 2016, Seydoux was honored with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2018, Seydoux was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
| Year | Award | Category | Nominated work | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | César Award | Most Promising Actress | Nominated | |
| Étoiles d’or du cinéma français | Female Revelation | Nominated | ||
| Festival International du Film Francophone de Namur | Best Actress | Won | ||
| Lumières Award | Most Promising Actress | Nominated | ||
| Trophée Chopard Award | Female Revelation of the Year | Won | ||
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Award | Best Cast | Won | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Won | ||
| San Diego Film Critics Society Award | Best Cast | Won | ||
| 2010 | César Award | Most Promising Actress | Nominated | |
| 2011 | San Diego Film Critics Society Award | Best Performance by an Ensemble | Nominated | |
| Prix Romy Schneider Award | Prix Romy Schneider | Nominated | ||
| 2013 | Lumières Award | Best Actress | Won | |
| César Award | Best Actress | Nominated | ||
| Cabourg Film Festival Awards | Best Actress | Won | ||
| Chicago Film Critics Association Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| Glamour Awards | Next Breakthrough | Nominated | ||
| Hamptons International Film Festival Award | Breakthrough Performer | Won | ||
| International Cinephile Society Awards | Best Supporting Actress | Won | ||
| Lumières Award | Best Actress | Won | ||
| National Society of Film Critics Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| Online Film Critics Society Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| Cannes Film Festival Award | Palme d’Or | Won | ||
| Prix Romy Schneider Award | Prix Romy Schneider | Nominated | ||
| Portuguese Online Film Critics Circle Award | Best Supporting Actress | Won | ||
| San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| Village Voice Film Poll Award | Best Supporting Actress | Nominated | ||
| 2014 | BAFTA Award | Rising Star Award | Nominated | |
| César Award | Best Actress | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Award | Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture | Nominated | ||
| Critics’ Choice Movie Award | Best Acting Ensemble | Nominated | ||
| Detroit Film Critics Society Awards | Best Acting Ensemble | Won | ||
| Florida Film Critics Circle Award | Best Cast | Won | ||
| San Diego Film Critics Society Award | Best Performance by an Ensemble | Nominated | ||
| Screen Actors Guild Award | Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture | Nominated | ||
| Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award | Best Ensemble | Nominated | ||
| 2016 | Teen Choice Awards | Choice Movie Actress: Action | Nominated | |
| 2017 | Riviera International Film Festival | Best Actress | Nominated | |
| 2020 | British Academy Games Awards | Performer in a Supporting Role | Nominated |