FILM CELEBRITY OF THE DAY — JANUARY 14

MARION COTILLARD - She's French so of course she's sexy.

Photo from GoogleImages

STATISTICS: Age 37 (September 30, 1975) — 5'6", 34C-25-34

FROM IMDB (ALL):

Mini-Biography

Academy Award-winning French actress Marion Cotillard was born on September 30, 1975 in Paris to Jean-Claude Cotillard, an actor, playwright and director, and Niseema Theillaud, an actress and drama teacher. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut in the film L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse (1994). Her first prominent screen role was as "Lilly Bertineau" in Taxi (1998/I), a role which she reprised in two sequels.

In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of legendary French singer Édith Piaf in La vie en rose (2007). The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César (France's equivalent to the Oscar), a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren (Two Women (1960)). Only two male performers (Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1997) and Robert De Niro for The Godfather: Part II (1974)) have won an Oscar for solely non-English parts.

Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Public Enemies (2009), and later that year had a role in musical Nine (2009). The following year, she took on the main antagonist role in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), and in 2011 she had memorable parts in Midnight in Paris (2011) and Contagion (2011). In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Rust and Bone (2012), and re-teamed with Christopher Nolan in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). 

Trivia

Spokesperson for Greenpeace. Is also one of several actors, singers, and designers involved in "Dessins pour le climat," an album project originated by Greenpeace and Glénat, available for sale beginning April 2005 (all proceeds to go to Greenpeace).

Having won the Best Actress Oscar for La vie en rose (2007) on 24 February 2008, she has become the second French actress to do so. The other one is Simone Signoret for Room at the Top (1959). Claudette Colbert, who won in 1934 for It Happened One Night (1934), was French-born, but raised in the U.S.

Her brother Quentin works as a sculptor, living in San Francisco, California with his Irish-American wife Elaine O'Malley Cotillard, a former Dutch National Ballet dancer and fashion designer.

Her younger brother, Guillaume Cotillard, is a screenwriter and director.

She was the first leading lady to receive the best actress Oscar for a non-English speaking role since Sophia Loren in 1962 for Two Women (1960).

Is the fifth actress to win the Best Actress Oscar for portraying a female singer in a biography; the first being Luise Rainer as Anna Held in The Great Ziegfeld (1936), followed by Barbra Streisand in Funny Girl (1968), Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) and Reese Witherspoon as June Carter Cash in Walk the Line (2005).

Is one of six performers to win an Oscar playing a character that mostly spoke in a foreign language. The others are Sophia Loren, Robert De Niro, Roberto Benigni and Benicio Del Toro.

Was considered for the role of Hanna Schmitz in The Reader (2008) after Nicole Kidman dropped out due to pregnancy. However the part eventually went to Kate Winslet.

She was the first artist to win a Best Actress Oscar for a performance in the French language.

Gave birth to her son Marcel Canet, with partner Guillaume Canet, in Paris (19 May 2011).

Was six months pregnant with her son Marcel when she completed filming on Contagion (2011).

Was originally set to star in Cosmopolis (2012) but was replaced by Sarah Gadon after dropping out due to her pregnancy.

Was in consideration for the role of Ryan in Gravity (2013) but Sandra Bullock was cast instead.

Returned to work two months after giving birth to her son Marcel to begin filming The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Ranked #39 on Askmen's list of the Top 99 Most Desirable women for 2013.

Personal Quotes

I don't think you learn how to act. You learn how to use your emotions and feelings, and my first teacher was my mother and then I worked with my father , who helped me to find in myself all those emotions and how to play with the emotions.

The first thing I have to do to erase my French accent is think that it is actually possible, whereas for the moment, I think it's not. I have a lot of work.

I have a tendency to often share the point of view of the conspiracy theory.

I do like extreme characters, but I think they are extreme because they are full of passion - they are rich inside. Tina Lombardi [from A Very Long Engagement (2004)] was such a beautiful character. What I love in her is that she's not a cliché of the femme fatale. She's just a girl who loves her man and feels desperate about losing him. It's not just about revenge. She is in that huge country, searching for something. She's lost, destroyed inside.

The first English-language movie I saw might have been E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). I remember I was so into it, I cried so loud that the audience around me wanted to take me out of the theater.

When I was a little girl, I always wanted to be in a musical, an American musical. I knew Singin' in the Rain (1952) by heart.

I think that when you don't see the boundaries, you cross them without even knowing they exist in the first place.

I need to feel that for a director it's a matter of life and death; he needs to tell this story.

I adore my own life, more and more I love being myself, but I love this work of totally changing personalities, of creating something radically different from myself. I want to go profoundly into my roles. If not, what's the point?

I don't know if we have many lives of if I will be reincarnated into a next life, but I really do think that when you die, it doesn't stop.