Accepting the Middleburg Film Festival Achievement in Acting Award this weekend, Léa Seydoux told the crowd that her parents sent her to summer camp in Middleburg. “The first time I came to the United States,” she said, “I flew on my own, and I was eight years old, and I didn’t speak a word of English, which is true. I knew ‘yes’, ‘no’ and ‘sorry, I don’t understand.’ So it was difficult, but also rewarding. I discovered a new culture. I didn’t know then that I would become an actress and that this would be my life: travelling, exploring new cultures and exploring human nature.
It’s become a hallmark of Seydoux, 41, since she accompanied Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer to Middelburg with her Cannes breakout “Gentle Monster” (Netflix). Seydoux is in the running for the Best Actress Oscar.
Kreutzer got an idea for the film from a 2020 newspaper article about pedophiles. “The article made it clear to me how close it is [to us] In most cases those are the perpetrators,” he said, ”and I certainly need to know not only the victims of child sexual abuse but also the perpetrators themselves.”
When Seydoux first heard about the film from her agents, she was hesitant. As a mother of two children, “I was a little intimidated by it,” she said. “I read the script, and I fell in love with the character. The script was very well written, very intelligent, and it was just that.”
In the film, when Lucy Weiss, a French pop singer who lives with her Austrian husband (Laurence Rupp) and young son in the country, learns that her husband has been accused of child abuse, “she is in a state of shock,” Seydoux said. As revelations about his behavior continue to pour in, “It’s one shock after another. There are all these contradictions. That’s what I loved about the character. It’s through her point of view that the story unfolds. It’s not through the victim’s point of view, not through the traitor’s point of view, but through her. I was able to bring out a lot of different emotions that can’t be explained with words.”
Seydoux often reacts quietly. “I used my facial expressions,” she said. “I try to express inner emotions with my body and face. This was extremely interesting to me as an actor.”
Kreutzer crafted a script that begins with an intimate relationship with the husband, then evolves as Lucy learns one thing after another, fearing that she may discover that her son was a victim of her husband’s predatory behavior. Kreutzer said, “After doing research and learning more about the subject, I discovered that I had a lot of stereotypes in my mind about pedophile perpetrators, so I really wanted to show a person and couple that the audience could feel like a friend to, a person that would never have any suspicions like that. I like to make the audience like them, feel close to them. And then when it all comes out, to also be in Lucy’s shoes and not have it be true. Wanting, and hoping, and hoping for him, that it’s not true, and that there will be some explanation, because when it comes to someone we know and have trusted, it’s very hard to admit that they’ve done terrible things.
Seydoux said, “When it’s someone we know who is monstrous, it’s very hard to accept that because everyone has different sides, and even monstrous people have charming sides.”
Seydoux had to speak three languages in this film: English, French and German. “German is definitely hard to pronounce,” she said. “It was hard for me to deal with emotions in a language you don’t speak. But then I had to be emotionally strong. There was one word I struggled to pronounce, and at some point I remember I burst into tears. Lucy can’t really express herself, and she doesn’t even speak that language, and so she’s even more isolated.”
The great Catherine Deneuve, who plays Lucy’s mother, explains that she should live in the city, not the country, because she is an artist. “Yes,” Seydoux said. “The hardest part for me was the piano and the technical aspects. We spent some time in Vienna with Marie and a piano teacher, who helped me. I had to press the right key. Singing is my voice. I’m proud of it, and I’ve always loved singing. So it was a dream come true for me too.”
After 20 years in the business, Seydoux has learned many lessons, but none more heartbreaking than shooting Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue Is the Warmest Color,” which won a Palme d’Or in 2013 for the director as well as his two actresses, Seydoux and Adèle Exarchopoulos.
Seydoux said, “That was thirteen years ago, before the #MeToo movement. I’ve already talked a lot about how abusive the director treated us. We shot for six months, and we just discovered the film in Cannes. The scenes were graphic, let’s say. So I discovered them during Cannes, which is absolutely crazy, and I had no consent to these scenes. We won the Palme d’Or, which made us kind of co-writers. Makes the movie, which was true, because there were a lot of improvisations, and the story is based on both of us.
Things became complicated after that award, she said, when Seydoux began speaking out about “bad conditions.” “The producers came to me and said, ‘You better shut your mouth, because if you want to be nominated for anything, if you want to do awards season, you better stop.’ And I said ‘No, I want to tell how much we were abused in this film,’ and I didn’t tell even the half of what happened. Really, it was terrible. And so I was fired. They fired me for promotion. It was difficult because then the director started threatening me. He said that if I am speaking, it is because I come from this privileged family.
Seydoux has never disclosed firing a promo before. At the Golden Globes quiz, Seydoux was challenged by some members of the HFPA, who said she was speaking out because of her family. “It was very humiliating,” Seydoux said. “I could still cry, but I’m not. But I burst into tears and it was hard.”
Since “Blue,” Seydoux has worked steadily with directors in France and Hollywood, from Wes Anderson (“The Grand Budapest Hotel”) and Woody Allen (“Midnight in Paris”) to Mia Hansen-Löve (“One Fine Morning”).
After #MeToo, his directors have not returned to their previous position in international cinema. And Seydoux demanded final approval on any scenes involving her naked body. “When you work closely with a director,” he said, “as I did with Mary, he shows me the scenes. I have to get his approval because it’s so intimate.”