There were plenty of talented names missing from the list of Golden Globe nominees, but perhaps none was more deserving of a shout-out than Marion Cotillard. This year, the French actress offered up some of her best work yet with two dazzling turns. First, she played a young Polish woman willing do anything to survive in early 1920s America in **James Gray’**s lush tale The Immigrant. And now, she appears as yet another desperate woman fighting for her humanity—this time in recession-hit Belgium—in the Dardenne brothers’ new film, Two Days, One Night, which opens in the U.S. tomorrow.
In the film, Cotillard plays a woman who learns she’s about to lose her job at a solar-panel factory after taking a leave of absence due to a severe depression. The only way to avoid this is if she manages to convince her fellow coworkers to forgo their bonuses instead. The movie goes on to follow her through an all but impossible two-day campaign to save her livelihood. “When I read the Dardenne script, it resonated with something I had known had happened some time ago,” she explained a few weeks ago while in New York City to promote her movie. “It was this company in France, where a lot of people were committing suicide. And one of them left a letter explaining that being useless and feeling worthless was unbearable. It affected me very deeply.”
Her raw, understated performance has already garnered awards and had many betting on an Oscar nomination (before the Golden Globes snub). Yet after talking to Cotillard, it’s clear she isn’t one to take on a part only because it might yield a gold statue. In fact, it was her admiration for the Dardenne brothers that attracted her to the project in the first place.
“I’m a huge fan of their work,” she said. “I’ve seen all of their movies, I love them all and I think they’re two of the greatest directors alive.” Even though Cotillard is one of the most sought-out movie stars in the world, she feared the directors, whose films tend to be highly naturalistic, would never consider her for one of their films. “They usually work with Belgians or with people who have a totally different experience in movies than me,” she said. But after seeing the Dior muse play a double-amputee in Rust and Bone (which the Dardennes coproduced), the filmmaking duo seemed to have finally noticed a different side of her.
While playing desperate and depressed characters might have taken a psychological toll on some actors, Cotillard said she actually felt strangely uplifted by the experience. “I was very moved by her and she actually gave me a lot of energy and an understanding of what it is to be depressed,” she added. “I never went through a deep depression, I came close to it at one point of my life, but at that time I had already discovered my strength and I knew I was strong enough not to fall down.”
Cotillard continues to be attracted to dark, moody roles; next year she’s starring alongside Michael Fassbender in an adaptation of Macbeth. But it’s not all doom and gloom for the 39-year-old. She’ll be lending her voice to the film version of the beloved French children’s tale The Little Prince, out next October in France. Besides that, Cotillard is enjoying taking some time off between films to spend time with her partner, the French actor and filmmaker Guillaume Canet, and their son Marcel. “I used to jump in a project and change my whole world,” she said. “But today it’s different. I can’t just hop on a plane. Everyday I need to come back to my life, my son. Today, when I choose a project, I think about my family first.”
