His Maori tattoos, his missed meeting with Alfred Hitchcock. 10 things you didn’t know about Catherine Deneuve

He can play absolutely anything, loves to do splits and still amaze his audience. after Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Donkey skin Or The Young Ladies of RochefortThis time, Catherine Deneuve took on the role of former First Lady Bernadette Chirac in the drama. Cargo, currently in theaters. Later we will discover him under the eyes of Gustave Kervern and Benoît Delepin in a new comedy called: Dada. This Friday, October 22, Arte is airing a documentary to celebrate its 80th anniversary Catherine Deneuve in her image, directed by Claire Labory. Way to revisit this absolute star’s journey. But while the actress has apparently shown her 1,001 faces on screen, other parts of her life remain largely unknown. A look back at the hidden side of a French icon.

He would prefer to keep the Dorléac name

Catherine Deneuve was born on October 22, 1943, in the 17th arrondissement of Paris, as Catherine Dorleac. His parents come from the stage. Maurice Dorleac is an actor and his mother René Deneuve, known as René Somonot, is an actress. While her older sister, Françoise Dorleac, who died in a car accident on June 26, 1967, kept her father’s surname to start her film career, Catherine chose her mother’s surname. end of September in connection with the film’s release CargoThe actress explained this choice in the “Beau geste” show of France 2. According to her, changing her name was a way to distinguish herself from her sister. “My mother said that. Because, for the movie The young ladies of Rochefort, He said. “We can’t say Dorleak and Dorleak.” But hey, it’s true that I took my mother’s maiden name, but I prefer my name Dorleac.”

He speaks quickly because of his family background

Catherine Deneuve has built her image in film on her own style of elegance and self-expression, fast but sharp. “Arte” documentary film, Catherine Deneuve in her imagepulled out of the drawers an old interview with the director Jean-Paul Rapeno, who directed it in 2010. The good life 1966, where he returns to their first meeting. “He told me. “You must forgive me for one thing, and that is that I speak very fast, perhaps too fast, and it may embarrass you.” According to him, the initial reason can be summarized as follows. “She was from a family of four girls, and in this family the fastest speaker was the best listener (…) Then: he talked to this stream that was his and that ended up being my movie stream. “She set the stage for the actresses that followed.”

He has a Maori turtle tattooed on the back of his neck.

If she embodies French elegance, Catherine Deneuve also succumbed to the fashion of tattoos that were made during her stay in Polynesia. The actress has two. The first, drawn along his neck, represents the Maori turtle, a symbol of strength and protection in Polynesian culture. The second, placed on the front of the leg, which she often accentuates with pumps, also reflects a tribal motif, the meaning of which no one knows.

Roman Polanski convinced her to pose naked in one Playboy

We owe this cover to Roman Polanski. In 1965, the director took the actress under the camera for his film repulsion. To promote his feature film, he convinces the actress to pose naked on the cover of a magazine Playboy, founded by Hugh Hefner. The photographer who will capture her is none other than David Bailey, her future husband. In 2018, the program “Complement d’investigation” met the artist and asked him about his meeting with Catherine Deneuve. “When I saw him, I said: “She’s too small for me.” Because I only dated top models… But he said: “No, you were made for each other.” He offered me to take a picture of him Playboy. That’s how I met Catherine. (…) And Polanski was right, he continues. He was very French, very bourgeois. And I am very politically incorrect. And the mix of the two contrasts worked well…”

She hates selfies

Someone who didn’t grow up with a cell phone as a third hand seems to have a “horror” of selfies, which are commonly requested by fans today. “Everybody wants to do these horrible things called selfies,” he saidAFP: On a visit to Bombay in 2014, I think it’s terrible, a selfie. I wonder what they do with it later.”

He likes to sing alone in the street

Clara Luciani and Catherine Deneuve met in November 2022 during an interview. Inrocktables. the translator of The grenadeundisputed fan of the musical THE: The Young Ladies of Rochefort, always dreamed of meeting his idol. When asked, “Do you sing in life?”, Catherine Deneuve then confided that she sang so much that it annoyed her daughter. “One day I was taking a taxi, and the driver, when I was about to get off, said to me: “. It amused me a lot. I also hum on the street, alone, or even accompanied… It always annoys my daughter, who is embarrassed.”

He doubled over The Young Ladies of Rochefort And Donkey skin

Although there is no doubt about her talent as a singer, the actress was dubbed on the set by Michelle Legrand. In fact, it is not his voice that we hear The Young Ladies of Rochefort and on and on Donkey skinbut Anne Germaine, the French voice of many Walt Disney cartoons, who died in 2016.

He was a Havana smoker

Cigarettes were never taboo for him. Although she hasn’t touched a cigarette since her stroke in 2019, Catherine Deneuve has been smoking up to several packs a day in Havana for a long time. “Katherine, thanks to you I started smoking again and I can never thank you enough for that. He smokes so much it’s like he’s eating a small macaroon, so it makes you want to stop eating and smoking. How good he smokes,” Jonathan Cohen joked on the set of Ian Barthes in 2020.

He almost starred with Alfred Hitchcock

This is called a missed appointment. If Catherine Deneuve has played a number of roles in the French film industry, Hollywood has also sought her out. In 1968, at the age of barely 25, he was discovered Meyerling, Terence Young’s drama, or April Fools alongside Jack Lemmon. After commercial failures, the actress exited, returning to her first love in France. Before contacting a certain Alfred Hitchcock to star in his next spy movie. It’s the 1970s, and the director of Cold Sweat wants Catherine Deneuve to star in a feature film called: Short night. Robert Redford, Steve McQueen, Clint Eastwood and Sean Connery are said to be in the cast. Unfortunately, the long-delayed project will never see the light of day. “That’s one of my regrets (…) I could imagine myself in Hitchcock’s world,” the actress admitted in a 2010 interview. The Express .

He has a great sense of respect

The anecdote comes to us from Pierre Lescure, Catherine Deneuve’s companion of eight years. In his memoirs In BabaPublished in 2012, the journalist and businessman returned to the relationship with the translator Beautiful day, praising his courage in all situations. One day, while the couple was sitting in a Parisian tea room, two elderly ladies, sitting further away, severely criticized Pierre Lescure’s figure, mocking his “Jewish nose”. Leaving the establishment, the actress, one can easily imagine, walked in front of their table before calmly replying. In this case, he’s a Bourbon and you’re the one.”