Marion Cotillard

**Marion Cotillard** is a French actress. She portrays Sylvie Bolo on Apple TV+'s *Extrapolations*.

## Background

Cotillard is an academy award-winning actress, who was raised in Orléans, France. She made her acting debut as a child with a role in one of her father's plays. She studied drama at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Orléans. After small appearances and performances in theater, Cotillard had occasional and minor roles in TV series such as *Highlander* (1992) and *Extrême limite* (1994), but her career as a film actress began in the mid-1990s. While still a teenager, Cotillard made her cinema debut at the age of 18 in the film *L'histoire du garçon qui voulait qu'on l'embrasse* (1994), and had small but noticeable roles in films such as Arnaud Desplechin's *My Sex Life...or How I Got Into an Argument* (1996) and Coline Serreau's comedy *The Green Planet* (1996).

In 1996, she had her first lead role in the TV film *Chloé* (1996), playing the title role of a teenage runaway who is forced into prostitution. Cotillard co-starred opposite Anna Karina, the muse of the Nouvelle Vague.

In 1997, she won her first film award at the Festival Rencontres Cinématographiques d'Istres in France, for her performance as the young imprisoned Nathalie in the short film *Affaire classée* (1997). Her first prominent screen role was Lilly Bertineau in Gérard Pirès's box-office hit *Taxi* (1998), a role which she reprised in two sequels: *Taxi 2* (2000) and *Taxi 3* (2003), this role earned her first César award nomination (France's equivalent to the Oscar) for Most Promising Actress in 1999.

In 1999, Cotillard starred as Julie Bonzon in the Swiss war drama *War in the Highlands* (1998). For her performance in the film, she won the Best Actress award at the Autrans Film Festival in France. In 2001, Marion starred in *Pretty Things* (2001) as the twin sisters Marie and Lucie, and was nominated for her second César award for Most Promising Actress.

Cotillard's breakthrough in France came in 2003, when she starred in Yann Samuell's dark romantic comedy *Love Me If You Dare* (2003), in which she played Sophie Kowalsky, the daughter of Polish immigrants who lives a love-hate relationship with her childhood friend. The film was a box-office hit in France, became a cult film abroad and led Cotillard to bigger projects.

Her first Hollywood movie was Tim Burton's *Big Fish* (2003), in which she played Joséphine, the wife of William Bloom (played by Billy Crudup). A few years later, Marion starred in Ridley Scott's *A Good Year* (2006) playing Fanny Chenal, a French café owner who falls in love with Russell Crowe's character. In 2004, she won the Chopard Thophy of Female Revelation at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Cotillard won the César award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance of Tina Lombardi in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's *A Very Long Engagement* (2004).

In 2007, Cotillard received international recognition for her iconic portrayal of Édith Piaf in *La Vie En Rose* (2007). The fact that she can sing also helped Cotillard land the role of "Piaf", although most of the singing in the film is that of Piaf's. The role won Cotillard the Academy Award for Best Actress along with a César, a Lumière Award, a BAFTA Award, and a Golden Globe. That made her only the second actress to win an acting Oscar performing in a language other than English next to Sophia Loren (*Two Women* (1960)). Cotillard has worked much more frequently in English-language movies following her Academy Award recognition. In 2009, she acted opposite Johnny Depp in Michael Mann's *Public Enemies* (2009), and later that year played Luisa Contini in Rob Marshall's musical *Nine* (2009) and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance. The following year, she took on the main antagonist role, Mal, in Christopher Nolan's *Inception* (2010), and in 2011 she had memorable parts in *Midnight in Paris* (2011) and *Contagion* (2011) and reteamed with Christopher Nolan in *The Dark Knight Rises* (2012).

In 2011 and 2012 respectively, Cotillard appeared on the top of Le Figaro's list of the highest paid actors in France, it was the first time in nine years that a female topped the list. Cotillard was also the highest paid foreign actress in Hollywood. In 2012, Cotillard received wide-spread critical acclaim for her role as the legless orca trainer Stéphanie in *Rust and Bone* (2012). She had her first leading role in an American movie in 2013, in James Gray's *The Immigrant* (2013), in which she played Ewa Cybulska, a Polish immigrant who wants to experience the American dream. In 2014, Cotillard played Sandra in the Belgian film *Two Days, One Night* (2014) by the Dardenne brothers. In 2015, she played Lady Macbeth opposite Michael Fassbender in Justin Kurzel's *Macbeth* (2015) and voiced two animated movies: *The Little Prince* (2015) in which she voiced The Rose, and *April and the Extraordinary World* (2015), in which she voiced the lead role, Avril. In 2016, her credits include Nicole Garcia's *From the Land of the Moon* (2016), Xavier Dolan's *It's Only the End of the World* (2016), Justin Kurzel's *Assassin's Creed* (2016), in which she worked again with her Macbeth co-star Michael Fassbender; and Robert Zemeckis's *Allied* (2016), with Brad Pitt.

## External links

* Marion Cotillard at the Internet Movie Database
* Marion Cotillard (@marioncotillard) on Instagram
* Marion Cotillard on Wikipedia

## References

1. ↑ The Divine Marion Cotillard - WSJ
2. ↑ Before They Were Stars: Marion Cotillard Gives Birth on “Highlander: The Series” - The Back Row
3. ↑ Today’s New Release: CHLOE (UNCUT) - Big Star.tv