Léa Seydoux "I See Cinema As A Global Language”

French actor Léa Seydoux is making her mark in Hollywood, all while maintaining a diverse filmography and humble approach

- By James Mottram

In a suite in Paris’ Hotel du Collectionneur, Léa Seydoux is quietly unpacking her extraordinary career. Since bursting onto screens well over a decade ago, this talented, elegant actor has graced everything from Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest

Hotel and The French Dispatch to James Bond films Spectre and No Time to Die, playing Madeleine Swann, the woman who captured the heart of Daniel Craig’s 007. “I feel very happy,” she shrugs. “I just go with the flow.” If this sounds laissez-faire, Seydoux is not someone who takes her position of privilege for granted. “I have to pinch myself,” she admits.

It’s an understandable sentiment. While many French stars don’t conquer the international film circuit, the 37-year-old Seydoux is a rare exception. Even before her international breakthrough, 2013’s intense samesex love story Blue Is the Warmest Colour, she’d landed small roles for big directors like Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Ridley Scott (Robin Hood) and Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris). She even featured opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol, the megastar requesting her personally and casting her without an audition.