‘I didn’t think I was very good’: Marion Cotillard doesn’t like herself in this famous American film, but has great memories of the director

Actress for Michael Mann with Public Enemies, Christopher Nolan for Inception and The Dark Knight Rises, Steven Soderbergh for Contagion or James Gray for The Immigrant, Marion Cotillard, who received the Oscar for Best Actress in 2006, spent for the film La Môme. A large part of his career on American sets.

It was in 2003, in front of the famous Tim Burton’s camera, that he got his first role in Hollywood. As he recalled on the microphone of the program Click on it Last November, he was going through a period of frustration with his career, which his collaboration with Burton allowed him to overcome:

“I loved this filmmaker.”

“I loved this director and it was a moment when I was no longer sure if I wanted to continue in this profession”he confided.

“I got tired of waiting for things that I wanted to happen to not happen. And the moment I said to myself, ‘Maybe you should do something else,’ that’s where I met Tim Burton and got this movie.”

The film in question was Big Fish, considered by AlloCiné viewers to be one of his directorial best films (behind Edward Scissorhands) and starring Marion Cotillard as Josephine, the wife of Billy Crudup’s character. The latter’s father, the main character of the feature film, was successively played by Albert Finn and Ewan McGregor.

“I didn’t speak English very well at the time.”

Even if she admits with hindsight and experience that she is not very happy with her performance, Marion Cotillard explains that filming with Tim Burton has revived her motivation:

“He loved me very much, even though I didn’t understand anything on the set, I didn’t speak English very well at that time. (…) I didn’t think I was very good in this movie, to be honest. Each time I told myself that I was really going to save the good times when I had a plan. And actually, I didn’t understand anything, I was a bit stupid, I was a bit stressed.”

In 2004, on our microphone, Marion Cotillard said a very good meeting with Tim Burton:

“At the time, he was one of the three directors who were true movie gods for me. He made me want to do this, he crystallized my little girl’s dream of movies. I was a little afraid of that. You know, but he’s a very open person, he let He let me rewrite the scene. (…) With him it was a square shot, but alive, human. We both talked a lot. He’s a big joker, but super professional.”

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