Eva Green. “I will never be socially comfortable, that seems crazy for an actress.”

Advertising exercise is not his cup of tea. Eva Green plays the game as a release Three musketeers Milady, but the meeting will take place over the phone. The stranger and the other person’s gaze interfere with his speech. Also, when he rises from his London base, there is an uneasiness that is reinforced by the adjectives that stick to his skin. Strange. gothic Elusive. Cruel:

His filmography, marked by Tim Burton’s dreamy tales (Dark Shadows, Miss Peregrine and Peculiar Children, Dumbo), fantasy fiction (At the crossroads of worlds Golden Compass, Penny Dreadful…) or Hollywood blockbusters, was responsible for making subscribing an actress to cinematography a cinematic conundrum. But during the conversation, barriers come down and reality imposes itself. Eva Green is more shy than old-fashioned vamp, more sophisticated than confident, more sensitive than wild, more earthy than lunar. “I’m always looking for fulfillment and inner peace, but I’m gradually learning to break out of my nebula,” he tells us.

Cinema is his ally to escape from his shackles. In Proxima, By Alice Winokur, for example, she played an astronaut torn between her dream of space and her life as a mother. An everyday, modern, grounded role that distanced him from his creature image. “I’d love to play more characters like that, women we can relate to. Today, when a script starts with the word “mysterious and fatal,” I just want to shut it down right away…with a few exceptions. “Among them, The Three Musketeers : Milady which he accepted for the legend of Dumas, the fun adventures, his partners, led by his accomplice Vincent Cassel, and the chance to be part of French heritage. “Besides looks bastard which always amuses me, Milady has an extra soul in this adaptation that the other versions lacked. It takes on greater significance in this sequel.” It is enough to use his palette and give ideas to French producers and directors. Eva Green would like to film more in her native language, but her Hollywood CV has given her an elusive je ne sais quoi. “Wrong. My image has never really matched my reality,” he concludes after this discussion, during which prejudices are shattered.

Reinventing a myth

“Milady is a symbolic figure. I am reading The Three Musketeers when I was a kid and saw the screen adaptations. I was struck by Lana Turner’s interpretation in 1948, but the character, as suggested to me, is more warlike, more modern. She is a femme fatale, mysterious and manipulative. When I was approached for the role, I was reluctant at first. people tend to put me in this box. It was only when I discovered that he had more flesh and cracks that I allowed myself to be seduced. She has reasons to be this badass anti-heroine, and it’s her flaws that made me enjoy her as an actress. I also like the idea that she doesn’t depend on any man and doesn’t care about social conventions. I really recognize myself in it.”

Beyond its borders

“I like extreme roles and characters that we think men can play, like the female soldier I just played dirty angels By Martin Campbell. The background characters, the foils of the male stars, I’ve always avoided them. I like the physical roles that are more often associated with the masculine. I have been doing sports since childhood, but cinema makes me go beyond my limits. I also find these roles very funny. For Milady, I practiced fencing and fighting with stuntmen and experts. I also appreciate their patience because I can be very clumsy… But the biggest challenge was riding. I am very afraid of horses, I have fallen several times in my life, and this animal seems extremely unpredictable to me. I no longer believe in the man who whispers in horses’ ears. Above all, I believe that the animal does what it wants. But thanks to stuntman Mario Luraski’s teams, I had fun doing a triple gallop. Only cinema makes me go against my nature.”

I find it very toxic to show your personal life, for example posting photos with your fiance on social media. We look smart when the story ends.

Eva Green

Find inspiration

“Since I was a stuck-up young girl, I fantasized about very strong heroines, the opposite of me, and young premiere scores didn’t interest me. I loved the intense characters and actors. John Malkovich dangerous relationship whose poster I had posted in my room. Isabel Ajani Adele H. ; Cate Blanchett Elizabeth ; Leonardo DiCaprio Romeo + Juliet,which I went to the cinema to see seventeen times. I must have already been aware that I had to move towards this kind of partition to free myself. At drama school, I was given powerful roles that helped me bring out everything that was blocked inside me.”

Seek pleasure

“When a director tells me, ‘Don’t act, be yourself,’ it’s very cruel. If I’m an actress, it’s to hide behind roles. At the same time, this work is very paradoxical. I do it to escape my personality, but it’s important to know yourself well to play the character, because we use our experience, our own feelings. I try never to think too much. for me, the pleasure of “playing” like a child prevails. When I was little, I used to put on shows in the living room, dress up, apply makeup with a trowel, put on a show. Sometimes actors forget this childish joy. For me, that’s what I try to find in every project.”

Back to reality

“I’m quite a loner, I like to be in nature to refocus and think. Since Covid, cities have been stressing me out, even though London, where I live, has much bigger green spaces than Paris. I often go on holiday to Normandy in the Alps and I am always looking for my farm in Ireland to raise alpacas; it’s my project. In the chaos of our world, we must use violence every day to stay focused, to keep a little hope, not to go crazy; I find my balance in nature. It brings me the peace I need and anchors me in a reality that my work sometimes disconnects me from. Its importance gradually increased. Growing up, connecting with nature wasn’t really a theme at home. However, I remember my mother (Marlène Jobert, editor’s note ) in ecstasy, looking at the sky, and I, next to him, completely indifferent. But I must have absorbed something unconsciously, like my sister who makes wine in Tuscany, cultivates her organic vegetable garden… Today I have become the girl who cries in front of the landscape…”.

Live in good company

“I’m crazy about my dogs. I get so crazy about it that it scares me sometimes. This is my little family. I take them everywhere, it’s quite organized, but I can’t live without them. They sometimes help me create a connection, bring life, warmth, comfort. They calm me down. They understand everything, they entertain me, they make me think about something other than me. My dogs are pieces of my soul.”

My dogs are pieces of my soul

Eva Green

Work out the mystery

“I find it very toxic to show your private life, for example, posting photos with your fiance online. We look smart when the story ends. Not only is it nobody’s business, but it kills the mystery of the actor. Then it is difficult for the viewer or the director to imagine you in another life, on the screen with another partner… And post photos of your children who did not ask for anything and who can later tell you to scold: ! My networks only serve me to share things I like, talk about projects, or… “disguise” my dogs as lobsters. And then this work sufficiently nourishes our self-love; there is no need to add to it.”

Calculate

“I recently had dinner with Louis Garrel and we reminiscedThe Innocents – The Dreamers,By Bertolucci, 2003, one of the most beautiful shoots I’ve ever seen. An intense, almost utopian experience with a harmonious team. After the film, I told myself that no one would offer me any more roles. After every shooting, I say to myself: I can’t believe that I have twenty years of cinema behind me. Nothing is ever taken for granted in this profession and I am happy with the progress I have made. I just regret not filming more in French. I am interested in so many filmmakers here. Thomas Cayley, whose bold and poetic spirit I loved Animal kingdom Justin Triet, Rebecca Zlotowski, Cedric Kahn, Celine Ciamma… in the United States, The strangenessby Yorgos Lanthimos (Favorite, editor’s note ) fascinates me. I like directors with unique worlds.”

Curb your difference

“Playing lives different from your own can be accelerated therapy. This sometimes gives you the tools to grow in your own life. I’m still very wild, but it’s incomparable to when I was a kid or a teenager. My shyness was really making me suffer. I had friends, but speaking in public, working in a group, and facing the unknown were tough challenges. Today I pretend to be better. Maybe the advantage of work. But that is not a miracle either. I will never be socially comfortable. This seems crazy for an actress whose job is to show off, and it would obviously be more beneficial for my career to be more involved in social events or, for example, fashion shows. But I have to deal with who I am. I am very sensitive, sometimes I feel everything too intensely, I don’t always know how to protect myself. Facing this reality has been beneficial for me. By refusing to admit your mistakes, you lose your footing.”

Embrace your duality

“They call me mysterious. I don’t think I am like that. i just have a hard time visualizing it. Perhaps paternal Swedish heritage? I carry a kind of Nordic reticence that limits who I am inside. Because I also have a passionate temperament stemming from my mother’s Spanish roots. I blow hot and cold. I’m probably a paradox.”

The Three Musketeers : Milady ,By Martin Bourboulon. Released on December 13, 2023.