Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968)[1] is a French actress. After studying drama, she began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for I've Loved You So Long (2008).
Early life
Zylberstein was born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn in Paris to an Ashkenazi JewishPolish father, Albert Zylbersztejn (born 1938), and a French Catholic mother, Liliane Chenard (born 1940). Her father is a physicist and her mother was a beautician for Dior.[2] She has a brother, Benjamin (born c. 1970). Zylberstein felt both Jewish and Christian; now she is "attracted to Buddhist rites".[3] She has practised classical dance since her childhood. After a Baccalauréat A3, she began university and studied English, but she was strongly attracted to artistic pursuits. She studied acting under Francis Huster at the Cours Florent[4][5] on the advice of Charlotte Rampling, whom Elsa Zylberstein's father met by chance on a plane, and also works with a professor at the Actors Studio.[6][7]
She has been a member of several festival juries, including the 1999 American Film Festival in Deauville, the 2010 British Film Festival in Dinard, the Beaune International Detective Film Festival (in both 2009 and 2015) and the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in 2021.
In 2020, she won the Best Acting Award for Tout nous sourit at the Alpe d'Huez Comedy Festival.[8]
In 2009, Zylberstein signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse case.[10]
^"The original blonde of Elsa Zylberstein". Interview by Paris Match. Archived from the original on 18 April 2009. Retrieved 6 March 2008. P.M. Do you speak Hebrew? E.Z. Not at all. For the film, I had to learn everything. A religious girl guided me for the texts, rituals, songs and traditions, such as the mikveh, the ritual bath of purification. My name is very strong, but I am not practicing. Raised between a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, they took me to the synagogue once a year. So I felt Jewish, and at the same time, I made a crèche for Christmas. My father was tearing his hair out. Since then, I stopped, and today I am attracted to Buddhist rites
