Sophie Marceau does not work on herself at all. She does not make a career and does not build an image. She is natural. Even her pseudonym – Marceau – arose ingenuously, as flowers sprout. The girl from a working-class family changed her unprepossessing surname Maupu to the name of a beautiful street that branched off from the Parisian Place des Stars.
However, neither the pseudonym nor early success forced Sophie to fight for a stellar career at any cost. At the age of seventeen, she intrepidly terminated the contract with the largest film company: she fell in love with director Andrzej Zulawski and left for Poland with him, having hardly paid the producers a huge penalty.
Today, Marceau remains the same – feeling, loving, real. Fame and beauty did not turn her head. And when, when walking along the red carpet of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, the strap of Sophie’s dress falls off, inadvertently exposing her chest, not a single journalist will say that the actress herself set everything up for the sake of personal PR. Sophie Marceau exists outside the PR system. “To live, I need to see how the seasons change, it rains, the sun shines. And one more thing – to go to the pool with Vincent, my son. To formulate a creed of such wise simplicity, others would have to live to a ripe old age.
She came to the interview without makeup, kept herself simple, without antics. Saying goodbye – and our conversation ended a little earlier – Sophie smiled broadly: “That’s good – I’ll still have time to pick up the youngest from kindergarten!”
Briefly and clearly
How do you discharge in stressful moments?
I do gymnastics.
The main property of your nature?
Realism. That is optimism.
Your character?
Uncertain. There are too many things in my head, and this makes it difficult to make the right decisions.
What is your main wish?
Always be happy with your age.
The main advantage of a woman?
Femininity.
What makes you laugh?
Men. And the way they laugh at themselves.
What human quality is most valuable to you?
Humility. For the artist, this is the only way to approach grace.
What disgusts you?
Vulgarity.
What do you want to learn?
See your way.
Psychologies: You became famous with the release of the movie “Boom” – then you were not even 14 years old. Was it nice?
CM.: No. Real hard labor. I was a timid, withdrawn child and suddenly found myself in the center of everyone’s attention, criticism. First of all, your family. For me it was unbearable. I remember, as a child, I looked at the monuments and thought: “How terrible it must be to stand in front of everyone like that.” And so I myself became a living statue, left to all the winds. Now I’m used to it. I know that I live in plain sight, that they can recognize me everywhere. But I still blush when I see myself on the covers. In addition, any of my words look so categorical on them! “I don’t like chicory!” – and suddenly some chicory acquires incredible significance. I’ve made terrible mistakes in public because my emotions were overflowing.
Mistakes can be cute too… Your walk up the Cannes stairs last year will be remembered for a long time. The shot of the halter revealing the bust seems to be the most popular on the internet.
CM.: Yeah! It happens! But I’m actually very shy. I suffer when I have to shoot naked, and I am completely happy if I manage to arrange everything in such a way as to stay in clothes. But in Cannes, it was as if an angel flew over and pulled off my strap. I then thought that people reacted just fine, and I decided: “That’s good, they are not fed up yet.” And then I saw how these photos with the breasts out were pasted all over Paris, including in front of the school where my son studies. What was just cute turned into shamelessness. And now I feel like I’m naked in the middle of the street.
At the age of 13 you said goodbye to your childhood, and at 17 you met the director Andrzej Zulawski…
CM.: Yes, directly seduction of a minor! (Laughs.) We met at a dinner with some friends. Andrzej had just arrived in France from Poland and was somewhat lost. And I was confused because I had to lead a completely adult life and neither my father nor my mother could help me with anything … Andrzej talked about himself, then fell silent: it seemed to him that he was abusing the attention of an unfamiliar girl … But I was interested, I was afraid that I will not hear the continuation. And then I broke the contract with the Gaumont studio: I had to work there, but I wanted to … live and feel. They gave me a huge penalty – a million francs. Now I understand that they did not wish me harm. They just didn’t want to lose me, and now I even appreciate it. But then I went with Andrzej to Warsaw and slammed all the money I had earned before to pay off. It was impossible to borrow anything in the bank: according to the law, I was still considered a child, and I needed very “adult” money. Such a disaster.
Are you growing up too soon?
CM.: Everything in my life happened too soon. And in general it’s not bad.
Not bad? Are you sure?
CM.: Well then it’s bad! (Laughs.) Everyone has their own “bag of grief” behind them. But I try to get only the good out of it. Since it is not possible to get rid of him, you have to move with him. And I drag him like the Fool in a deck of Tarot cards – you know, they still draw him with such a knot … So, with this knot of his, with his troubles and everything else, he goes everywhere. He is always moving forward!
Do you regret anything?
CM.: I can’t stand it when people talk about their youth: “We went with friends, went out for three days and three nights …” I want to cry from these stories: I never learned what it means to be carefree. I became an adult without going through all the natural phases of growing up, so many of my childhood problems remained unresolved. It turns out that my childhood was stolen by cinema. And you can’t figure it out. The hardest thing is to deal with what was not in your life.
From an ordinary working-class family, you ended up in a completely different world – the world of cinema. Would you like to keep some of the family values?
CM.: Yes, honesty, respect for a job well done. But there were a lot of things that I wanted to get rid of. Strict obedience within the hierarchy, excessive obedience. I needed to break the rules and rebel. The soul of an artist is formed when a person is burned.
At 17, you met a 40-year-old man. How did his experience help you?
CM.: This allowed me to grow up earlier, but in a sense I remained a child. I was always “little”, I was taken care of. All eighteen years. All the years of our marriage… It gives you a feeling of reliability, calmness, but when one day you find yourself alone with yourself, you begin to understand what was previously hidden in the depths of your soul.
Can you say that you know yourself better today?
CM.: When I pass by a mirror, I always look into it. Not to fix your hair, but just to calm down: “Are you okay? Then it’s all right.” Although… who exactly is speaking when I say the word “I”? My genes, my family history, my unconscious? I often have to give interviews, and when they end (although I’m being honest with you), I ask myself: “Are you sure about what you just said? Is this really true?
Have you ever thought about seeing a psychologist?
CM.: Acting is great therapy. Instead of suffering yourself, you make someone else suffer for you. Also, I write a lot. When I sit down to write, I remember a lot of different things, they make me ask myself questions, and I realize what I still need to figure out. It is vitally important not to focus on your thoughts, not to drive them in the usual circle, to give vent to emotions, fears.
You have two children: Vincent, Zulawski’s son, half-Polish, and Juliette, half-American. It’s somewhat unusual, isn’t it?
CM.: Yes, indeed, it is strange when the son is a Pole, and the daughter is an American. But the most amazing thing is that I have always had the opportunity to live with foreigners … In fact, I feel like “my own” everywhere.
Where do you feel at home?
CM.: I don’t know. I watched one show on TV. There, celebrities were invited to visit the place that they consider their real home. I thought then: “If I had been asked about it, I would not have been able to do it. There is no such place.” Maybe somewhere in the desert… I grew up in Paris, lived in Poland for more than ten years, learned Polish… But the house is still not a point on the ground…
Are your kids aware of how famous you are?
CM.: My daughter is still small, but my son already understands. He’s ten. I would be glad to take him away from here to grow up in another environment, in some country where he will not be someone else’s son. In appearance, he is sensible about all this, but go and find out what is going on in his subconscious there. My son has not seen any of my films yet. But he sees me on posters, in newspapers and magazines. I want what he sees to be like what he knows about me. I think so far it works. He only thinks that I am more beautiful in the photographs than at home in the morning …
Do you manage to be a good actress and a good mother at the same time?
CM.: It is not simple. But I do not feel guilty, because I can choose for myself what is a priority for me. I can say to myself: “I haven’t been working for three months.” In any case, since the moment to have children will always be inopportune for a film actress, it means that every moment is always the same. Fortunately, women have the ability to do many different things at the same time and still feel like a mother.
What new things did your relationship with your second husband bring you?
CM.: This is a life in which we kind of stand on the same line, the life of a couple of adults. Quieter… I’m successful as an actress, Jim (Lamley. – E.M.) succeeds as a film producer. One balances the other. In our couple, each makes his own career, but at the same time both of our worlds enrich each other.
You often break up because of work. Is it bad for living together or do you like it?
CM.: It’s not bad. It’s not-bad. You just need to make sure that distance does not become a habit. Living alone is selfishness, and if you get used to it, then it is difficult to adapt again to the world of another person.
You will soon be forty. What is it like to be aware?
CM.: And I say to myself: “That’s great, I’m not forty yet!” 40 is a beautiful figure, but… it is still the beginning of the end. At 40 people at the top, at the very peak. And then it starts to slowly go down. The descent is a trap, because in the beginning everything goes very well. The man says to himself: “That’s nice, no more climbing this damn hill.” That is, when you start to go down, you feel great, but some time passes, and you would prefer to go up again. However, life is such a thing that it is no longer possible to go back.
Do you know how to enjoy life?
CM.: I try to consider, save, understand this strange thing – life. Feel the light. I don’t like night, I love day. What is disgusting about death is that there is no more light. Darkness is terrible!.. We have somehow soared to metaphysical heights… It’s good, it rarely happens. Do you think that you can deal with everything that I have told you here? ..
Private bussiness
1966 Sophie Maupu was born on November 17 in Paris. Father is a truck driver, mother is a saleswoman.
1980 Changes his name, starring in the teen drama “Boom” by Claude Pinoto.
1983 Receives the César Award in the Hope category for Best Actress in Boom 2. Meets her future husband, Polish film director Andrzej Zulawski.
1986 Release of Certitude (“Conviction”), the first album of the singer Marceau.
1991 For his stage debut, he receives the Molière theater award.
1992 Joins the charitable organization “Rainbow”, which helps sick children fulfill their wishes.
1994 Shooting for Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, Marceau’s first Hollywood project.
1995 Birth of Vincent, son of Andrzej Zulawski.
1996 The role of Anna Karenina in the American-Russian adaptation of the novel by Leo Tolstoy. Acquaintance with her second husband, American producer Jim Lamley.
1997 The release of “The Liar”, an autobiographical novel by the writer Marceau.
1999 The World Is Not Enough is the 19th Bond film, starring Marceau as the Bond Girl.
2002 Feature-length film directed by Marceau “Talk to me about love.” Best Director Award at the Montreal Film Festival. Birth of Juliette, daughter of American producer Jim Lamley.
2006 As a director, Sophie Marceau is directing her second feature film, Trivial, which is due out later this year.