Birthday:
5 July 1980, Paris, France
Height:
5' 6" (1.68 m)
Biography
Eva Green was born Eva Gaëlle Green on July 5, 1980,
in Paris, France. She has a non-identical twin sister. Her father, named
Walter Green, is a Swedish dentist who once appeared in the 1966 film
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966). Her mother, named Marlène Jobert, is an
Algerian-born (during the time Algeria was part of France) French
actress who retired from acting and became a writer of children's books.
Young Eva Green left French school at 17. She switched to English in
Ramsgate, Kent, and went to the American School in France for one year.
She studied acting at Saint Paul Drama School in Paris for three years,
then had a 10-week polishing course at the Weber Douglas Academy of
dramatic Art in London. She also studied directing at the Tisch School
of Arts at New York University.
She returned to Paris as an
accomplished young actress, and played on stage in several theater
productions: "La Jalousie en Trois Fax" and "Turcaret". There she caught
the eye of director Bernardo Bertolucci. Green followed a
recommendation to work on her English. She studied for two months with
an English coach before doing The Dreamers (2003) with Bernardo
Bertolucci. During their work Bertolucci described Green as being "so
beautiful it's indecent." Green won critical acclaim for her role in The
Dreamers (2003). She also attracted a great deal of attention from male
audiences for her full frontal nudity in several scenes of the film.
Besides her work as an actress Green also composed original music and
recorded several sound tracks for the film score.
After The
Dreamers Green's career ascended to the level where she revealed more of
her multifaceted acting talent. She played the love interest of cult
French gentleman stealer Arsène Lupin (2004) opposite Romain Duris. In
2005 she co-starred opposite Orlando Bloom and Liam Neeson in Kingdom of
Heaven (2005) produced and directed by Ridley Scott. The film became a
blockbuster in the US and worldwide and brought her a wider
international exposure. She turned down the femme fatale role in The
Black Dahlia that went to Hilary Swank because she didn't want to end up
always typecast as a femme fatale after her role in The Dreamers.
Instead, Eva Green accepted the prestigious role of Vesper Lynd, one of
three Bond girls, opposite Daniel Craig in Casino Royale (2006) and
became the 5th French actress to play a James Bond girl after Claudine
Auger in Thunderball (1965), Corinne Cléry in Moonraker (1979), Carole
Bouquet in For Your Eyes Only (1981) and Sophie Marceau in The World is
not enough (1999).
Since her school years Green has been a
cosmopolitan multilingual and multicultural person. Yet, since her
father always lived in France with them and her mother, she and her twin
sister can't speak Swedish. She developed a wide scope of interests
beyond her acting profession and became an aspiring art connoisseur and
an avid museum visitor. Her other activities outside of acting include
playing and composing music, cooking at home, walking her terrier, and
collecting art. She currently shares time between her two residencies,
one is in Paris, France, and one in London, England
Eva Green was born in Paris, two minutes earlier than her twin sister, Joy (Johanne).[3] Green is the daughter of French actress Marlène Jobert and French-Swedish dentist Walter Green. Through her father, Green is the great-granddaughter of French composer Paul Le Flem.[4] Her mother, a pied-noir, was born in Algeria. Green's mother is Jewish.[5][6][7] Green was raised without religion;[8] she has said "I feel like a citizen of the world. Life and cinema don't have borders."[9] She grew up in the 17th arrondissement of Paris where she attended the American School of Paris.[1] Green has described her family as "bourgeois",[10] and has said that her sister is very different from her.[11] Green is a natural dark blonde; she has dyed her hair black since she was 15 years old.[12][13] French-Swedish actress Marika Green is her aunt. The 1980s pop-star Elsa Lunghini is her first cousin, through their mothers.[14][15]
Green was raised in France, attended and graduated from the American University of Paris, an English-speaking institution,[12] and also spent time between Ramsgate, London and Ireland.[16] Green was quiet in school,[11] and developed an interest in Egyptology when she visited the Louvre at age seven.[17] At age 14, after seeing Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H., Green decided to become an actress. Her mother initially feared that an acting career would be too much for her sensitive daughter, but later came to support young Eva's ambitions.[16]
In 2002, Green had her film debut, when director Bernardo Bertolucci cast her in the role of Isabelle in The Dreamers (2003), which involved her in extensive full frontal nude scenes and graphic sex scenes. Green told The Guardian that her agent and her parents begged her not to take the role, concerned that the film would cause her career to "have the same destiny as Maria Schneider",[22] and because of Schneider's traumatic experience during the filming of Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris.[16] Green said that with Bertolucci's guidance she felt comfortable during the filming of the nude and sex scenes,[23] but was embarrassed when her family saw the film.[16] Her performance was well-received, with some comparing her to Liv Tyler.[19] Green expressed surprise when a minute was cut from the film for the American market, stating, "[T]here is so much violence, both on the streets and on the screen. They think nothing of it. Yet I think they are frightened by sex."[16] Green's next film after The Dreamers was Arsène Lupin (2004), in which she portrayed Lupin's love interest, a light-hearted role she enjoyed, although she has stated that she generally prefers more complex characters.[21]
Green at the 2007 BAFTAs.
Her performance in The Dreamers led to Ridley Scott casting Green in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), a film about the Crusades where she played Sibylla of Jerusalem. Green performed six screen tests, and was hired with only a week before principal photography began.[1]
Green found the atmosphere of coming onto a film so late tense and
exciting, and also liked the film's ambiguity in approaching its subject
matter.[20] To her disappointment, much of her screen time was cut.[1] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com
praised her performance: "She doesn't quite know what to do with her
character's stilted dialogue, but she carries herself so regally that
you barely notice."[24] Nev Pierce of the BBC, however, called her character "limp".[25] Green was satisfied when her character's complex subplot was restored in the director's cut.[26] Total Film noted the new scenes completed her performance: "In the theatrical cut, Princess Sibylla sleeps with Balian
and then, more or less, loses her mind. Now we understand why. Not only
does Sibylla have a young son, but when she realizes he's afflicted
with leprosy just like her brother Baldwin, she decides to take his life shortly after he's been crowned king."[27]
Green was considered for parts in The Constant Gardener (a role that went to Rachel Weisz) and The Black Dahlia.[16] She was cast at the last minute in the role of Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006).[17] Green was approached in mid-2005 but turned it down.[26] Principal photography was already underway, and director Martin Campbell noted casting the role was difficult because "we didn't have the final script and a Bond girl always had the connotation of tits 'n' ass." Campbell saw Green's performance in the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven,[28] and approached Green again. She read the script, and found the character of Vesper far deeper than most Bond girls.[26] Green's performance was well received: Entertainment Weekly called her the fourth best Bond girl of all time;[29] IGN named her the best femme fatale, stating "This is the girl that broke – and therefore made – James Bond";[30] and she won a BAFTA and an Empire award for her performance. Both awards were voted for by the British public.[31]
Green portrayed the witch Serafina Pekkala in the 2007 film adaptation of The Golden Compass (which, coincidentally, also starred Casino Royale's Daniel Craig, although they did not have any scenes together). She found it difficult being flown on a harness because of her fear of heights, which led her to refuse to reshoot a scene on her last day of filming.[13] Green hoped the religious themes of the book would be preserved,[26] but references to Catholicism were removed from the film.[32] Green next appeared in Franklyn, as Emilia,[33] a schizophrenic woman[34] whose multiple personalities are split between tormented artist (which Green compared to real-life figures Sophie Calle and Tracey Emin)[35] and another, which she described as, "full of life, very witty, big sense of humor".[34] She also filmed Cracks, the directorial debut of Jordan Scott, Ridley Scott's daughter, where she plays a mysterious teacher at a girls' school named Miss G, who falls in love with one of her pupils.[13] In March 2009, she appeared in Womb, where she plays a woman who clones her dead boyfriend. It is a collaboration between actor Matt Smith and director Benedek Fliegauf.[36]
She was considered for the role eventually played by Cécile de France in Un Secret (2007).[37] Additionally, she was initially approached for the female lead in Lars von Trier's controversial film Antichrist (2009). According to Trier, Green was positive about appearing in the film, but her agents refused to allow her. The unsuccessful casting attempt took two months of the film's pre-production process. Anglo-French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg was subsequently cast in the role.[38] Green later told she got along well with Trier, "but then we started talking about nudity and sex and so on. It got a bit too far... It was my dream to work with him, but it’s a shame it was on that film that it nearly happened. I’m sure I would have been trashed doing that film".[39]
Green starred in the first season of Starz's series, Camelot, as the sorceress Morgan le Fay.[40] Green stated, "This is such an iconic story and you have 10 episodes to explore a character. It's not a girlfriend role that you could have in a movie. It's a real ballsy character. She has some guts."[41] In 2012, Green played a vengeful witch Angelique Bouchard who curses Johnny Depp's character into a vampire in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.
Green has expressed interest in returning to the theatre.[23] She says she has no plans to work in Hollywood because, "The problem with Hollywood is that the studios are super powerful, they have far more power than the directors. My ambition at this moment is just to find a good script."[43] She added that in Hollywood she would probably get typecast as a femme fatale.[13]
In 2007, Green was voted the 6th sexiest movie star of all-time by Empire magazine.[44] Empire also listed her character, Vesper Lynd as the 9th sexiest female character in cinema history.[45] In 2011, Los Angeles Times Magazine listed Green at No. 18 for their 50 most beautiful women in film.[46] In 2012 she was listed no.57 in AfterEllen Hot 100.[47] In April 2012, Shalom Life ranked her Number 2 on its list of “the 50 most talented, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous Jewish women in the world."[48]
Green was raised in France, attended and graduated from the American University of Paris, an English-speaking institution,[12] and also spent time between Ramsgate, London and Ireland.[16] Green was quiet in school,[11] and developed an interest in Egyptology when she visited the Louvre at age seven.[17] At age 14, after seeing Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H., Green decided to become an actress. Her mother initially feared that an acting career would be too much for her sensitive daughter, but later came to support young Eva's ambitions.[16]
Career
Between 1997-2000, Green studied at St. Paul Drama School in Paris,[18] and then spent 10 weeks at Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London.[1] Green also trained at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts in New York City,[19] before she returned to Paris, where she performed in several plays.[16] Green stated that in drama school, "I always picked the really evil roles. It's a great way to deal with your everyday emotions."[20] Green appeared on stage in Jalousie en Trois Fax (2001) for which she was nominated for a Molière Award.[21] She also appeared in Turcaret (2002).In 2002, Green had her film debut, when director Bernardo Bertolucci cast her in the role of Isabelle in The Dreamers (2003), which involved her in extensive full frontal nude scenes and graphic sex scenes. Green told The Guardian that her agent and her parents begged her not to take the role, concerned that the film would cause her career to "have the same destiny as Maria Schneider",[22] and because of Schneider's traumatic experience during the filming of Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris.[16] Green said that with Bertolucci's guidance she felt comfortable during the filming of the nude and sex scenes,[23] but was embarrassed when her family saw the film.[16] Her performance was well-received, with some comparing her to Liv Tyler.[19] Green expressed surprise when a minute was cut from the film for the American market, stating, "[T]here is so much violence, both on the streets and on the screen. They think nothing of it. Yet I think they are frightened by sex."[16] Green's next film after The Dreamers was Arsène Lupin (2004), in which she portrayed Lupin's love interest, a light-hearted role she enjoyed, although she has stated that she generally prefers more complex characters.[21]
Green was considered for parts in The Constant Gardener (a role that went to Rachel Weisz) and The Black Dahlia.[16] She was cast at the last minute in the role of Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006).[17] Green was approached in mid-2005 but turned it down.[26] Principal photography was already underway, and director Martin Campbell noted casting the role was difficult because "we didn't have the final script and a Bond girl always had the connotation of tits 'n' ass." Campbell saw Green's performance in the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven,[28] and approached Green again. She read the script, and found the character of Vesper far deeper than most Bond girls.[26] Green's performance was well received: Entertainment Weekly called her the fourth best Bond girl of all time;[29] IGN named her the best femme fatale, stating "This is the girl that broke – and therefore made – James Bond";[30] and she won a BAFTA and an Empire award for her performance. Both awards were voted for by the British public.[31]
Green portrayed the witch Serafina Pekkala in the 2007 film adaptation of The Golden Compass (which, coincidentally, also starred Casino Royale's Daniel Craig, although they did not have any scenes together). She found it difficult being flown on a harness because of her fear of heights, which led her to refuse to reshoot a scene on her last day of filming.[13] Green hoped the religious themes of the book would be preserved,[26] but references to Catholicism were removed from the film.[32] Green next appeared in Franklyn, as Emilia,[33] a schizophrenic woman[34] whose multiple personalities are split between tormented artist (which Green compared to real-life figures Sophie Calle and Tracey Emin)[35] and another, which she described as, "full of life, very witty, big sense of humor".[34] She also filmed Cracks, the directorial debut of Jordan Scott, Ridley Scott's daughter, where she plays a mysterious teacher at a girls' school named Miss G, who falls in love with one of her pupils.[13] In March 2009, she appeared in Womb, where she plays a woman who clones her dead boyfriend. It is a collaboration between actor Matt Smith and director Benedek Fliegauf.[36]
She was considered for the role eventually played by Cécile de France in Un Secret (2007).[37] Additionally, she was initially approached for the female lead in Lars von Trier's controversial film Antichrist (2009). According to Trier, Green was positive about appearing in the film, but her agents refused to allow her. The unsuccessful casting attempt took two months of the film's pre-production process. Anglo-French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg was subsequently cast in the role.[38] Green later told she got along well with Trier, "but then we started talking about nudity and sex and so on. It got a bit too far... It was my dream to work with him, but it’s a shame it was on that film that it nearly happened. I’m sure I would have been trashed doing that film".[39]
Green starred in the first season of Starz's series, Camelot, as the sorceress Morgan le Fay.[40] Green stated, "This is such an iconic story and you have 10 episodes to explore a character. It's not a girlfriend role that you could have in a movie. It's a real ballsy character. She has some guts."[41] In 2012, Green played a vengeful witch Angelique Bouchard who curses Johnny Depp's character into a vampire in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows.
Modeling
In addition to her acting career, Green has modeled for Breil, Emporio Armani, Lancôme, Heineken,[17] and Christian Dior SA's "Midnight Poison" perfume, in an advert directed by Wong Kar-wai.[12]Personal life
Green considers herself nerdy:[17] "When people first meet me, they find me very cold. I keep myself at a distance, and I think that's why I'm so drawn to acting. It allows me to wear a mask."[3][17][8] Green supports UNICEF.[8][13] She dated New Zealand actor Marton Csokas after meeting him on the set of Kingdom of Heaven, but the couple announced their split in 2009.[42]Green has expressed interest in returning to the theatre.[23] She says she has no plans to work in Hollywood because, "The problem with Hollywood is that the studios are super powerful, they have far more power than the directors. My ambition at this moment is just to find a good script."[43] She added that in Hollywood she would probably get typecast as a femme fatale.[13]
In 2007, Green was voted the 6th sexiest movie star of all-time by Empire magazine.[44] Empire also listed her character, Vesper Lynd as the 9th sexiest female character in cinema history.[45] In 2011, Los Angeles Times Magazine listed Green at No. 18 for their 50 most beautiful women in film.[46] In 2012 she was listed no.57 in AfterEllen Hot 100.[47] In April 2012, Shalom Life ranked her Number 2 on its list of “the 50 most talented, intelligent, funny, and gorgeous Jewish women in the world."[48]
Filmography
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