Léa Seydoux felt invisible growing up, which is hard to believe when you see her onscreen now. She’s the type of magnetic performer that you can’t take your eyes off. And at the Telluride Film Festival, the French actress is featured in three high-profile films that couldn’t be more different—but what remains consistent is Seydoux’s transfixing work onscreen.
The Unknown, which first debuted at Cannes, is a dark, unsettling body-swap thriller; Alpha Gang is pretty much at the other end of the spectrum, a broad, silly alien-invasion comedy; and finally Gentle Monster, also a Cannes debut, is a harrowing tale about a woman whose husband is accused of child pornography.
“I like films that are a bit crazy, I would say,” Seydoux says when we meet at the festival on Friday. She’s casually seated on a couch, soft-spoken, and sometimes pausing to search for the right words in English.
The Unknown
“Crazy” for Seydoux means bold, out of the box, and challenging. And she delivers no matter how wild of a character or a premise. Seydoux first broke out with the Palme d’Or winning Blue Is the Warmest Colour in 2013, before starring as Bond girl Madeleine Swann in Spectre (2015) and No Time to Die (2021). She’s continued to work in both French and Hollywood films, including Saint Laurent, The Lobster, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch, and Dune: Part Two.
But despite a prolific career, Seydoux admits she never quite felt like an actor, until she shot four films in the span of one year. She went to film The Unknown just two months after having her second child, then jumped to Alpha Gang the day after she wrapped, and then had a couple months before filming Gentle Monster, and then finally filmed The Masque of the Red Death, an A24 movie in which she stars opposite Mikey Madison.
She talks with Vanity Fair about her very busy year, her perspective on fame, and why acting makes her feel like she finally exists.
Vanity Fair: Did you find it hard to switch between roles?
Léa Seydoux: Of course it’s not easy. When I play a role, I’m not like, “I’m possessed.” I’m not this kind of actor. I really try to be fully in it when I’m doing something. What was difficult is that of course I didn’t have the time to prepare as much as I would have liked to, because I think that when you arrive prepared, it’s always better. And sometimes I didn’t have the time really to prepare.
Does it feel different for you to act in French versus English?
Yes and no. In Gentle Monster, I also speak German. And it’s something that I find exciting. It’s a constraint, but for me it’s interesting to be able to act in different languages. For example, in Gentle Monster, I’m French. I speak English, but I’m French. So I kept my French accent, but I did another film that is not out yet, I have my French accent, but I did it more like British and that was fun too.
What language do you dream in?
In French. No, sometimes I can have a few lines in English, but I’m French and I dream in French.
Did you feel ready to go back to work for The Unknown two months after having a baby?
Not ready, no.
Did you have the baby with you?
No, because I wanted to breastfeed. I mean, I breastfed for two months and a half, and then I had to stop because it was too difficult. You can’t be breastfeeding and then be focused.
Was it hard to be in that headspace in Gentle Monster, which is a very dark story?
it wasn’t hard because she’s more like reacting. It’s more about her. It’s always like reacting to the situation. It makes it even more like the fact that it’s a secret and that it’s something that she keeps for herself. I love characters that have a secret. There is something that they are unable to express. I love to express things without words.
It’s such a wide variety of films. How would you describe what you’re gravitating toward?
I like films that are a bit crazy, I would say. For example, Alpha Gang, I like the humor, it’s surrealist, and there is a tenderness. Gentle Monster, it was really the part. I think when I read it, I had a very strong empathy for the character. And The Unknown, it was more like something metaphysical and philosophical. I like abstraction. It’s also because I felt that I’m different women. I have different layers and I like to explore all my layers.
What’s your perspective on the fame part of being an actor?
It’s funny because I feel that there is a part of me that really doesn’t give a shit about it. It’s not very elegant to say “give a shit,” but it’s true. There is something where this whole circus— I do it because it’s part of the job, but I’m not taking any pleasure. I mean, it’s funny how when I see actor and actresses, mostly, so obsessed about their image, I’m the total opposite. Of course, I want to feel beautiful in a dress when I’m presenting a film, but it’s something that I don’t care about. For me, it’s more important to be good in a film than to have the best dress on the red carpet. And now I feel that it has become such a big thing. And I just want to feel good in my own skin.
Do you feel good in your own skin?
Yes, I feel quite good in my own skin. Of course, I’m like, “Maybe I should work out a bit more.” But I don’t want to put my energy into this.
I think it’s gotten a bit worse with the popularity of the GLP-1s.
I don’t know how they do it because, what, they don’t eat? It’s just like they starve themselves? And for me, it’s not even beautiful to be super skinny.
Alpha Gang
You had a lot of anxiety growing up. What was the turning point? How did it get better?
It didn’t get better. [Laughs.] Like 24 hours ago, I was so anxious. I was like, “I cannot take this plane. I cannot go on this plane.” Because I have my two [year-old], he’s not even two, he’s 21 months, and he’s very, very attached to me now. The age where he’s like, “Mommy, mommy, mommy.” And I was like, “I can’t leave him.” And I was so, so anxious, so I took a lot of Xanax. At the same time, I was trying to tell myself, “let’s be positive. You have three films. It’s amazing you will show that.”
I can be very anxious. But at the same time, I love my job. And I love also to be out of my comfort zone because then I always feel that I need to be in survival mode. It’s how I work, maybe it comes from my childhood. I’m in this thing where I need to save my character’s skin.
But that must be a little tiring.
Exhausting. Exhausting. But sometimes I’m really exhausted about being too sensitive, I think. And when I have very strong panic attacks, I’m raw.
Where do you feel most comfortable?
I really did this job to exist. I think. Because I’ve had this strange feeling as a kid—I really felt that I was transparent.
Because people didn’t pay attention to you?
Yes, I think so. I was a very shy kid, and so when I decided to become an actor, then it was a way to exist also in the sense that your image is printed and you have then the proof of your existence in a way because. And I think that it was also the reason why I’ve decided to do this job.
How have you grown over this past year of so much work?
What I’ve noticed is that I really feel that acting is really my thing. So I’m happy because I have a purpose in life.
You didn’t feel that before this?
I didn’t know because when I started to act, I never wanted to be an actor. It’s really something that I did because I was like, “I need to do something of my life.” I felt so chaotic and out of the world. And actually, with the panic attacks, it helped me because it gave me a purpose. I was like, “Yeah, I want to do this.”
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