Melanie Laurent

At 41 years old, Melanie Laurent has this physical status:

Mélanie Laurent (born 21 February 1983) is a French actress, singer, pianist, screenwriter, and producer.

Laurent has established herself as a well-known actress in France, having been named recipient of two César Awards, an Étoiles du cinéma français, and a Lumières Award. Laurent was introduced to acting by Gérard Depardieu, who played her in a minor role in the romantic drama The Bridge (1999).

She gained more traction for her support work in a number of French films, most notably the 2006 comedy Dikkenek, in which she received the Étoiles d'Or for Best Female Newcomer.

Her breakthrough role in the 2006 drama film Don't Worry, I'm Fine, was the Céar Award for Most Promising Actress and Prix Romy Schneider.

In Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster war film Inglourious Basterds, Laurent made her Hollywood debut in 2009.

She has received critical acclaim for her appearance and gained the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics Association Best Actress Awards for her work. Laurent has worked mostly in independent films, including Paris (2008) and Enemy (2013), along with the comedy drama Beginners (2011) and the caper film Now You See Me (2013), the former winner of the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The Round Up (2010), the comedy thriller Et soudain, tout le monde me manque (2011), and the mystery thriller Night Train to Lisbon (2013) were among Laurent's other notable works.

She is also known for portraying Mary Katherine and Disgust in the French dubs of Epic (2013) and Inside Out (2015), respectively.

Laurent also appeared in Chris Weitz's 2018 drama Operation Finale, alongside Oscar Isaac and Ben Kingsley, chronicling Nazi Adolf Eichmann's capture. Laurent has appeared in stage productions in France in addition to her film work.

In Nicolas Bedos' Promenade de santé, she made her theater debut in 2010.

De moins en moins (2008) was her debut as a filmmaker.

The Adopted (2011) was her first film directorial debut.

At the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, Respire (2014), her second film as a director, was shown.

En t'attendant, her debut with a studio album, was released in May 2011; the album includes twelve songs, five of which are co-written and co-produced by Irish folk musician Damien Rice.

Early life

Laurent was born in Paris, France, on February 21, 1983, the niece of Annick, a ballerina, and Pierre Laurent, a voiceover actor (who dubs the character Ned Flanders in the French version of The Simpsons). She is Jewish, and she belongs to Ashkenazi Jewish (Polish-Jewish) and Sephardic Jewish (Tunisian-Jewish) descent. During the Polish war, her grandfather was exiled from Poland. Her maternal grandparents were film poster editors. She grew up in Paris's 9th arrondissement.

Laurent and her friend and the latter's father attended Asterix and Obelix, as well as the former's father. When actor Gérard Depardieu saw Laurent there, she wondered if she wanted to be in films. "Why not?" Laurent asked. He strongly advised her not to enroll in acting lessons because she reportedly had the necessary abilities. When Laurent was 16, Depardieu appeared in and co-directed with Fréderic Auburtin in The Bridge. Laurent played Lisbeth Daboval, the daughter of one of the film's protagonists, Claire Daboval. Laurent also appeared as a voiceover actor, dubbing the character Satsuki in the French version of My Neighbour Totoro, and the younger version of Madame de Fleurville in an animated version of Sophie's Misfortunes.

Personal life and off-screen work

Laurent was in a long-term friendship with fellow French actor Julien Boisselier, which ended in 2009. She admitted that she had married but refused to reveal her spouse in March 2013. "He was a crew member and I was an actor," she told The Independent, "I was an actor." Léo, her first child with her partner, was born in September 2013.

Laurent has established herself as a good actor in French cinema. In a 2009 interview, she stated that she does not have aspirations to be a crossover actress. That said, the bulk of her films since 2009 have been in English. She loved France, her street, her café, and not having to use a car. Rather than continue to work on a large budget American film after Inglourious Basterds, her next role was in a small theatre piece in France. In terms of their art, Laurent compared recording artist Damien Rice and filmmaker Quentin Tarantino.

Laurent spent time in the Indonesian Rainforest's peatlands with Greenpeace activists. She is one of the Climate Ambassadors for Kofi Annan's "Tck Tck Tck Tck Tck" Campaign. She joined the campaign against overfishing at the Blue Marine Foundation, and she was chosen to be the voice-over of the French documentary Surpêche (based on the book The End of the Line) about the dangers of overfishing. She was also one of the leading figures in the French democracy, which called for a new European law lowering the level of fish discards in European waters.

Laurent made her debut on May 2011 with En t'attendance, a studio album released under the name Atmosphériques. The album, which was produced by Joel Shearer, features twelve songs, five of which are co-written and co-produced by Irish folk musician Damien Rice. According to the Belgian Albums Charts and Charts, the album debuted at number 22 and 35 on the Belgian Albums Charts and French Albums Charts respectively. Rice, a singer who lives in Woodstock, New York, and Ireland, recorded the album with Rice, who lives in Woodstock, New York, and Ireland. Laurent confessed that spending time at Rice's home in Ireland inspired her to maintain a compost pile and eat organic food.

She has openly stated that she has a husband. Mila, a girl named Mila, gave birth to her second child in 2019. She and her partner, Kevin, live in Los Angeles.

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Career

Laurent appeared in a few films early in her career. She appeared in Michel Blanc's comedy Summer Things, Jackie Chan's comedy-drama Rice Rhapsody, Jacques Audiard's drama The Beat That My Heart Skipped, and The Free French Forces' Days of Glory.

Laurent's breakthrough role came in 2006, when she played a sullen 19-year-old who longed for her missing twin brother in Philippe Lioret's Don't Worry, I'm Fine. She received the César Award for Most Promising Actress for her role. Ronnie Scheib praised Laurent and wrote that she "makes her vibrant character's downward spiral completely believable without being dulging in moody sullenness." During the same year, she and Belgian actress Jérémie Renier were rewarded in France's Romy Schneider and Jean Gabin Awards for most promising actor and actress. Laurent co-starred in the Franco-Belgian Dikkenek, a comedy directed by Olivier Van Hoofstadt that has attained a cult film over the years due to its Belgian-style humour in which she co-starred Marion Cotillard, Jérémie Renier, Jean-Luc Couchard, and Dominique Pinon. Laurent received the Étoiles d'Or for Best Female Newcomer for her role in the film.

Laurent appeared in films including Le tueur and Hidden Love in 2007. For her appearance in La Chambre des morts, she was nominated for the Lumiere Award for Best Actress. Laurent appeared in Cédric Klapisch's 2008 comedy drama in Paris, a French film about a large number of people. Laurent, Juliette Binoche, Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, and François Cluzet appear in the film as a team. The film was well received and praised for the cast's performances.

In January 2009 at the Théâtre Marigny in Paris, Laurent was scheduled to direct her first play, Mi-cuit cur pistache (the name of a dessert she particularly likes). In the Quentin Tarantino film In the Quentin Tarantino film Inglourious Basterds, she had to abandon the project after being portrayed as Shosanna Dreyfus, a Parisian who seeks revenge on Nazis. It was a French-language job for which she learned to speak English for a few scenes. The film was a huge commercial and critical hit, grossing over $321 million in theaters around the world. Several commentators lauded Laurent's performance. "Mélanie Laurent gives Inglourious Basterds its heart and soul," Kyle Buchanan of Movieline said. It's not up to the 26-year-old French actress to lead some of the world War II film's most challenging scenes as Shosanna" in the film.

Laurent may have been recognized at the 16th Screen Actors Guild Awards, according to Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, "In drawing attention to one performer, in particular, who was left out of the Best Supporting Actress category, [...] I flat-out adore this performance, and I suspect many others do too." Laurent's performance, "Laurent" is radiant and heartbreaking in a special Tarantino way, is heartbreaking. In the heat of her vaping, sexy and luminous. Putting out fire and setting it aside. It's a anthem of noirish dread and awe that Laurent, as Shosanna, has found her destiny."

Laurent said in an interview that she followed Quentin Tarantino with an adoration for him. "The French] don't see him as an autonomous king; we just see him as the best administrator, ever [from the United States]." Laurent said she knew right from the start that this was going to be a film she wanted to be in because of her Jewish family's tradition.

In addition, Laurent received multiple accolades for her portrayal of Shosanna, including the Austin Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress and Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress, as well as several others, including the Grand Prize for Best Actress and Best Actress. Laurent's first major role in an American film was highlighted in this highly awaited film, and Laurent was pushed into mainstream success in North America.

Julien Boisselier, as well as Marie Denarnaud, Mélanie Doutey, and Louise Monot would appear in the film, although short film clips were due to be shown on stage, some of which were shot at Le Baron, which Laurent used to frequent during the writing period.

Laurent appeared in The Round Up, a French film directed by Roselyne Bosch and produced by Alain Goldman, alongside Jean Reno, Sylvie Testud, and Gad Elmaleh in 2010. The film, based on the true life of a young Jewish boy, depicts the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup, the mass arrest of Jews by French police who were Nazi complicities in Paris in July 1942. The film and Laurent's performance were well-reced by the critics, with Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian describing it as "well behaved." Laurent was lauded by Newsday's John Anderson, who described her as a "inspiring nurse" in her appearance.

Putain de pluie!, Laurent's second feature film, produced by Alain Attal's Productions du Trésor, whose script she co-wrote with Morgan Perez and which she intended to direct. It was originally scheduled for filming in the spring of 2009 but it was postponed due to her appearance on Inglourious Basterds. Je t'aime, knowing that she could speak French and had already appeared in French in one of Paris's short films, performed in French, Natalie Portman's first role, but she turned down due to the script's words.

Laurent appeared in Le Concert de Radu Mihăileanu's "intellective film and a famous film" and later said she was "glad" because French people wanted to watch a classical film. "It's a role with high technological needs," Mick LaSalle of San Francisco Chronicle called it a "role with high technical demands" and she praised Laurent, saying, "the concert" marks a "historical triumph" for her, since it opens her emotional floodgates.

Both the opening and closing ceremonies of the 64th Cannes Film Festival were hosted by Laurent. Laurent teamed up with Mike Mills in 2011, a comedy drama starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer in Beginners, marking Laurent's second English-speaking role in Hollywood. Anna, an irreverent French actress, appears in Laurent's film. The film, which is loosely based on Mills' own life, depicts a father's struggle to come out of the closet at the age of 75 after the death of his wife of 45 years. Laurent's role was well-received, and the film opened to critical acclaim, and St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Calvin Wilson remarked that Laurent imbued a "soulful aura" into the role.

Laurent starred in Night Train to Lisbon, a 2013 drama film based on Bille August's novel of the same name. Laurent was "given less to do," according to Indie Wire's Jessica Kiang, but she praised her work because she "makes the majority of her truncated screen time."

Laurent appeared in Louis Leterrier's 2013 caper film Now You See Me as a French Interpol agent probing the bank robbery that has led to the bank's theft. The film was a huge commercial success grossing more than 351.7 million dollars, with mixed reviews but praise for the complete cast. Laurent's highest praise was given by Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter, who wrote, "Laurent] is responsible for the film's only discernible amount of warmth."

At the Special Presentation section of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, Laurent's next film, Enemy, directed by Denis Villeneuve, will be shown. The film, which was adapted by Javier Gullón from José Saramago's 2002 book The Double, received critical acclaim. Jake Gyllenhaal was cast in the film as two men who are physically identical but not so different in terms of personality. Laurent and Sarah Gadon co-star as the men's romantic partners.

Laurent appeared in Aloft, a 2014 drama film co-written and directed by Claudia Llosa, as Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy. At the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, the film premiered in competition. In the French dubs of the animated films, Laurent played Mary Katherine in Blue Sky Studios' Epic and Disgust in Pixar's Inside Out.

Laurent Lafitte appeared in François Favrat's French drama film Boomerang, which was based on Tatiana De Rosnay's bestseller A Secret Kept. The film, which was released on September 23, 2013 attracted raves. "Boomerang is a solid, if somewhat made whodunit that gains from a good cast and a plot that hooks you for the bulk of the running time," the Hollywood Reporter said. Laurent appeared in Léa's By the Sea, an American drama film written and directed by Jolie, before she appeared in Angelina Jolie's By the Sea. Jolie and Brad Pitt appear in the film, which was released by Universal Pictures on November 13, 2015. Laurent appeared in Chris Weitz's 2018 film Operation Finale, which revolved around the Mossad mission to capture Adolf Eichmann.

Laurent made her debut as a director with De moins en moins, a 7-minute film about a patient who "remembers less" in front of her psychiatrist. At the 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for Best Short Film. On the French television channel Canal+, she also produced X Femmes, an erotic short film that premiered on October 25, 2008.

The Adopted was her first feature film directed by her in 2011. Respire, her second film, was shown at the International Critics' Week section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival and was highly acclaimed. She co-directed Tomorrow, the 2015 documentary film that received the César Award for Best Documentary Film.

Laurent confessed to writing in an interview with Indiewire in 2014. "Writing is] especially exciting because you have everything to do and the bulk of your ideas come from the first part... you just imagine things, and you imagine actors." "Working with people I love—it's always a good human moment," she said, and it's great to hear people who are here for you and your story. It's really pretty, and it's why I love making movies."

Laurent made her English-language directorial debut in 2018 with Galveston, Nic Pizzolatto's film adaptation of Nic Pizzolatto's book of the same name. It starred Ben Foster and Elle Fanning.

In 2021, Laurent directed The Mad Woman's Ball. It was also starring her.

Laurent will produce and write The Nightingale, a Kristin Hannah book that will include Elle and Dakota Fanning.

Laurent had also confirmed that she would be producing an untitled film for Netflix.

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