Born on 1 July 1985,[9][10] Seydoux is the daughter of businessman Henri Seydoux and Valérie Schlumberger. She was born in Passy, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and grew up in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement.[11] She had a strict Protestant upbringing,[12] but she is not religious.[13] Seydoux is one of seven children. She has three older half-siblings (Marine Bramly, Noémie Saglio and Ondine Saglio) from her mother's first marriage, an older sister, stylist Camille Seydoux from her parents' marriage, and a further two paternal half-brothers, Ismaël Seydoux and Omer Seydoux, from her father's marriage to model Farida Khelfa.[14]
Seydoux's parents are both partly of Alsatian descent. Her father is a great-grandson of businessman and inventor Marcel Schlumberger, while her mother is a granddaughter of Marcel's brother, Maurice Schlumberger.[15][16] The family name came to exist in 1902,[17] when Seydoux's great-great-grandfather Charles-Louis-Auguste-Jacques Seydoux (1870–1929) married Mathilde, daughter of Languedoc aristocrat François Fornier de Clausonne de Lédenon, whose family held the titles of Baron de Lédenon and seigneur de Clausonne, de Laugnac et de la Bastide d'Albe.[17][18][19][20][21] The Seydoux family is widely known in France and influential in the movie industry. Her grandfather, Jérôme Seydoux, is the chairman of Pathé;[22] her granduncle, Nicolas Seydoux, is the chairman of Gaumont Film Company;[22] her other granduncle, Michel Seydoux, also a cinema producer, is the chairman of the Lille-based football club Lille OSC; and her father is the founder and CEO of the French wireless company Parrot.[23] She has stated that her family initially took no interest in her film career and did not help her, and that she and her influential grandfather were not close.[23][24][25] As a child, she had no desire to act. She instead wanted to be an opera singer,[13][26] studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris.[27]
Seydoux's parents divorced when she was three years old and they were often away,[24] her mother in Africa and her father on business, which, combined with her large family, meant that she "felt lost in the crowd... I was very lonely as a kid. Really I always had the feeling I was an orphan."[23] Through her family involvement in media and entertainment, Seydoux grew up acquainted with prominent artists such as photographer Nan Goldin, musicians Lou Reed and Mick Jagger and footwear designer Christian Louboutin.[23] For six years, Seydoux went to summer camp in the United States, at the behest of her father, who wanted her to learn to speak English.[28][29]
"My grandfather Jérôme has never felt the slightest interest in my career. [My family] have never lifted a finger to help me. Nor have I asked for anything, ever."
—Seydoux dismissing suggestions that her family connections have helped her career[30]
Her mother Valérie Schlumberger is a former actress-turned-philanthropist and the founder of the boutique Compagnie d'Afrique du Sénégal et de l'Afrique de l'ouest (CSAO), which promotes the work of African artists. Seydoux once worked as a model for their jewellery line Jokko. Schlumberger, who lived in Senegal as a teenager, is also the founder of the charitable organisations Association pour le Sénégal et l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ASAO) and Empire des enfants, a centre for homeless children in Dakar, of which Seydoux is the "godmother".[13][23]
Seydoux describes her youthful self as short-haired, slightly dishevelled, and widely viewed as a bit strange: "People liked me, but I always felt like a misfit."[12] Still concerned for her shyness in adulthood, Seydoux has admitted to having had an anxiety crisis during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.[31]
Career
2005–2007: Career beginnings
Seydoux says that as a child she wanted to become an opera singer, studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris, but eventually her shyness compelled her to drop the idea.[32][33] It was not until the age of eighteen that she decided to become an actress.[34] One of her close friends was an actor, and Seydoux has said: "I found his life wonderful, I thought, 'Oh my God, you can travel, you're free, you can do what you want, you're the boss.'"[28][35] She fell in love with an actor and decided to become an actress to impress him.[28] Years later, she revealed that this actor is her longtime friend, Louis Garrel.[36] She took acting classes at French drama school Les Enfants Terribles,[22] having Jean-Bernard Feitussi as her close friend and mentor[37], and in 2007 she took further training at New York's Actors Studio with Corinne Blue.
In 2005, Seydoux appeared in the music video for Raphaël's single, "Ne partons pas fâchés". The following year, Seydoux played her first major screen role as one of the main characters in Sylvie Ayme's Girlfriends (Mes copines). She starred in Nicolas Klotz's short film La Consolation, which was exhibited at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.[38]
In these years, she also did her first work as a model for American Apparel, posing for their Pantytime campaign,[39] and had a role in the films 13 French Street and The Last Mistress.[32]
Seydoux appeared alongside Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz in Yorgos Lanthimos's English-language debut The Lobster (2015), in which she played the ruthless leader of a group of rebels, the loners, who live in the woods. The film had its premiere at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Jury Prize.[64] She also appears as Madeleine Swann, the Bond girl in the 2015 film Spectre, the 24th James Bond film.[5] Seydoux was cast in Valérie Donzelli's Marguerite & Julien[65], but dropped out before shooting, being replaced by Anaïs Demoustier. In 2022, Seydoux remembered the occasion, saying that she was against the fact that Donzelli seemed to approve the incestuous relationship between the two main roles, "she wanted to do a film where even you can fall in love with your biological brother. I was like, 'No.'"[66]
In 2023, Seydoux dropped out of two projects she was cast in 2022: David Cronenberg's The Shrouds,[96] being replaced by Diane Kruger[97] and Audrey Diwan's Emmanuelle,[98] being replaced by Noémie Merlant.[99] A year later, Seydoux said that the reason she dropped out of The Shrouds was because she wanted to have some time for herself, adding: "I loved working with David Cronenberg. I love him. I'm a huge fan, but then I thought, first of all, I was a bit tired. I wanted to have a break".[100]
In January 2024, Seydoux revealed in an interview with Télérama that she had recently completed two weeks of filming for an unannounced new film by Quentin Dupieux, then titled À notre beau métier (To Our Beautiful Profession), which would also star Louis Garrel, Raphaël Quenard and Vincent Lindon. Seydoux read the script in one sitting and quickly accepted the role out of admiration for Dupieux, who she described as an "extraordinary filmmaker" whose style of humour "hides an increasingly social depth, through imperfect and clumsy characters". She described the film as a mise en abyme about "actors who play in a lousy film" and confront their characters and lines, and appraised it as "crazy" and "very, very funny".[101] Production for the film was kept fully secret from beginning to end.[102]The Second Act was selected to be the opening film at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere out-of-competition on 14 May 2024. It was released theatrically in France on the same day by Diaphana Distribution[103] and a box-office hit with nearly 500 thousand spectators, that being Dupieux's biggest success.[104]
In March 2024, it was announced that Seydoux would reunite for the second time with Ildiko Enyedi in Silent Friend. In the film, she will play a scientist named Alice, opposite Tony Leung.[105] Filming took place in Marburg, from April to May.[106] Also in March 2024, it was announced that Seydoux would reunite with Arnaud Desplechin for the third time, as she signed on to star in The Thing That Hurts, alongside Golshifteh Farahani, John Turturro and Jason Schwartzman.[107]
In April 2024, it was announced that Seydoux will star opposite of Josh O'Connor in Luca Guadagnino's Separate Rooms, an adaptation of the 1989 novel Camera separate by Pier Vittorio Tondelli.[108] In May 2024, Seydoux signed on to star in The Unknown,[109] the next film by Arthur Harari. Also in May 2024, the french magazine Le Monde revealed that Seydoux will star in Leos Carax's next project. [110]
Seydoux has modelled for numerous magazines and brands, but sees herself "always as an actress",[27] not as a model.[26][112] She participated in the Levi's television advert "Dangerous Liaison", and has been seen in several photo editorials, including for Vogue Paris, American Vogue, Numéro, L'Officiel, CRASH, Another Magazine and W magazine. She fronted the 2013 campaign for South Korean-based but French-inspired jewellery line Didier Dubot and appeared in Rag & Bone's Fall 2013 campaign with Michael Pitt.[113][114]
Seydoux's godfather is famous footwear designer, Christian Louboutin.[119] When Seydoux was 12 years-old, Louboutin gave her her first pair of high heels.[120] Seydoux used to have an Instagram account, but deleted it[121] and considers herself against social media in general, which she believes "kills the mystery".[122]
Seydoux lives in Paris.[123] Since 2013, Seydoux was in a relationship with André Meyer.[124] In September 2016, Seydoux announced that she and Meyer were expecting their first child.[125][126] On 18 January 2017, she gave birth to a son, George.[127] In 2020, Seydoux admitted that she was terrified before the birth of her first son, saying: "I was afraid to meet the person I knew I would love more than anything in the world." Later, she stated that "the love I have for my son is beyond anything I have ever known".[128][129]
When asked about questioning her own sexuality while shooting Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Seydoux said: "Of course I did [question my sexuality]. Me as a person, as a human being... It's not nothing, making those scenes. Of course I question myself. But I did not have any revelations".[130]
Seydoux defines herself as an extremely sensitive person.[132] Seydoux has expressed a preference for defining herself by the term "actor" rather than "actress", saying: "I really don't feel like an actress, I feel like an actor".[133]
Seydoux has repeatedly her contentment in being an international actress, and also finding easier to be a woman on screen in Europe[138], saying: "My strength is that I’m able to travel and adapt. I have more freedom because I'm a European actress, which suits me. I'm not trying to be popular, I'm just trying to enjoy myself."[139] "I would be sad to be only a French actress, only doing films in France. And I would've been sad to be an actress in Hollywood. I think that the system in America is really difficult because you have to be desirable all the time. You're not allowed to age, which is something that is quite scary. You have to stay young forever. It's like an injunction. And it's just a lie. In France, they have more indulgence with women. I'm not thinking, 'Fuck, this is going to stop'. I want to age in front of the camera".[140][141]
Seydoux was supposed to star in Bertrand Bonello's The Beast alongside her friend and former co-star, Gaspard Ulliel, who died in a skiing accident in January 2022, shortly before filming the movie. Seydoux attended Ulliel's funeral at the Church of Saint-Eustache in Paris, on 27 January 2022.[143][144]
In 2024, Seydoux reminded about the kind voice message that Ulliel left her not long before he died, saying: "The last message I had from him, the last time I heard his voice, was after 'France,' this film I did with Bruno Dumont. He just left me a message on my WhatsApp, an audio message, and he was telling me how much he liked the film. He was like, 'I'm not saying that because we are going to work together. I just wanted to tell you I was very impressed.' It was a very, very kind message. Even me, I was like, he's too nice. That's the last thing we shared".[145] Also in 2024, Louis Garrel shared that he and Seydoux called each other immediately when they both knew Ulliel had been in an accident.[146]
During an interview to Les Inrockuptibles in 2024, Seydoux admitted that she wanted to become an actor because of her long-time friend, Louis Garrel. She said: "Louis is the one who made me want to act! I was very young, 18 years-old. I was coming out of a very troubled teenagehood, and I didn't really know what I was going to do with my life. I met Louis, and it was like I saw myself in him. He suddenly embodied something that I could envision myself in. Yet we're very different, Louis and I, but strangely he kindled in me a desire for cinema to which I had never had access before. I had never seen him in a movie, he was a student at the Conservatoire, and I had this vague desire to become an actress, so I was doing casting calls for projects I wasn't actually interested in... I stalked him a little, I wanted to talk to him, but he was quite distant... I was annoying him, I think... He was a bit arrogant at the time".[147]
In June 2024, Seydoux signed a petition addressed to French President Emmanuel Macron demanding that France officially recognize the State of Palestine.[148]
^ abDictionnaire des Familles Françaises Anciennes ou Notables à la fin du XIXe siècle, vol. 19, For-Fyo, Gustave Chaix d'Est-Ange, Évreux, 1927, p. 14
^Statistique Morale de la France, ou Biographie par départemens, Antoine Andraud, Moreau Rosier, 1829, p. 58
^Grand Armorial de France, vol. 4, Henri Jougla de Morenas, Frankelve, 1975, p. 37
^Les André: une famille nîmoise protestante, 1600–1800, Virginie Lehideux-Vernimmen, C. Lacour, 1992, p. 38
^Dictionnaire des Familles Françaises Anciennes ou Notables à la fin du XIXe siècle, vol. 11, For-Gau, Gustave Chaix d'Est-Ange, Éditions Vendôme, 1983
^ abRapold, Nicolas (8 October 2021). "Bonding With Léa Seydoux". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 5 November 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
^ abcSeydoux, Léa (October 2012). "Five Minutes With Lea Seydoux". W Magazine (Interview). Interviewed by Vanessa Lawrence. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2014.