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Léa Seydoux is back as a Bond girl: Here's seven things to know about her

The Local France
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Léa Seydoux is back as a Bond girl: Here's seven things to know about her
France's Léa Seydoux is the latest 'Bond girl'. Photo: AFP

French actress Léa Seydoux will be returning as Bond girl Dr Madeleine Swann in the upcoming film, producers have confirmed. Here's seven things to know about an actress who made her name in an steamy lesbian love movie.

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1. Family in the right places

Seydoux is well connected within the movie industry. She is the grandaughter of Jérome Seydoux, who is the chairman of French cinema giant Pathé, and her great uncle is Nicolas Seydoux who chairs another French film group Gaumont. But despite the roots in the film world, the 30-year-old has repeatedly insisted she has never been given any leg-ups by her family.

 

2. Failed opera singer

Seydoux wanted to be an opera singer as a child and studied music at the Conservatoire de Paris. She still loves music, but gave up on her opera dreams because she said she didn’t have enough talent.

3. Palme d'Or success

The actress is one of only three women who have been awarded the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

She was awarded the gong in 2013 along with co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos for their performances in the lesbian love film Blue is the Warmest Colour along with the movie's director Abdellatif Kechiche.

The only other woman to have received the prize is Jane Campion.

4. From lesbian icon to villain

Although best known for her role as a blue-haired lesbian in Blue is the Warmest Colour, Seydoux last year stirred more than a little controversy for suggesting in an interview with a magazine that gay women were not as beautiful as straight women.  Seydoux was featured in the August issue of French Grazia, the women’s fashion and gossip magazine, and gave a lengthy interview, during which she made controversial comments about lesbians and female beauty.

While speaking about her own self-image, Seydoux said the following:

“There have been moments where I’ve found myself pretty and sexy, but there are times when I find myself much less beautiful – a bit of a lesbian, you could say (laughs).”

The actress did immediately try to qualify her remarks by adding: "I’m not saying that lesbians aren’t beautiful," but the damage was done.

5. Topless for French men's magazine

When ‘Lui’, the legendary French lads' mag of the 1970s - France’s answer to Playboy - made an audacious return to the shelves last year, the comeback edition's cover-girl was of course Léa Seydoux, who was photographed in several soft porn poses.

6. Dream birthday guests

Seydoux once said that her dream birthday party guests would be: Frierich Nietzsche, Michael Jackson, Charlie Chaplin, Maria Callas and Serge Gainsbourg. 

7. Grand Central and Grand Budapest

Seydoux has of course been in other movies other than Blue is the Warmest Colour. In Grand Central, she starred as a married woman who has an affair with a man who works at a nuclear power station, played by Tahar Rahim.

She also featured in American director Wes Anderson's latest film 'The Grand Budapest Hotel,' along with Ralph Fiennes and Jude Law.

SEE ALSO: From an icon for lesbians to a 'homophobic' villain

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