She is starring in a new French film, by Mona Achache (“Les Gazelles”) and Marion Cotillard tells our colleagues at Marie Claire this November 8, 2023, about the upheaval that was the filming of this film. And for good reason, this film which explores a complicated mother-daughter relationship is a “mirror” which asks a lot of questions about what it means to be a mother.
“Your beautiful words to your child no longer have value”
For Marion Cotillard, who had two children with Guillaume Canet, Marcel, 13, and Louise, 6, introspection obviously took place. To our colleagues, she confided: “I often say to myself: children don’t do what their parents ask them to do, they do what their parents do“. And to cite a conversation she had with her fellow actress, the British Kate Winslet, with whom she shared the poster for “Contagion”in 2011, and which she will find on the poster of “Lee”shortly.
With the one she admires, and who is also the mother of 3 older children – Mia, 23, Joe, 19, and Bear, 9, (born from her three marriages to Jim Threapleton, Sam Mendes, and Edward Abel Smith), Marion Cotillard learned a lot. She reveals about her friend: “She was judged a lot on her looks, received all kinds of negative judgments. So we were discussing the relationship with bodies, the way others see them… and the fact that, if you tell your children: ‘Don’t let yourself be influenced by others, you are magnificent just the way you are’, and that at the same time, you spend your time denigrating yourself, that you don’t think you are enough like this or like that… then your nice words to your child no longer have any value“.
“Break the chain of transmission”
This is why the French star concluded: “On the other hand, if you are free, if you accept yourself, which is not always easy, of course… this mirror is more powerful, because it is an example that they will follow.”. And for good reason, she also says elsewhere in the interview: “Children see everything that is not shown. They feel everything that is not said… What is left unsaid always rubs off. The question is how do we face our fears… in order to break the chain of transmission.
F.A.