Oscar nod a dream come true for Marion Cotillard

Marion Cotillard said Thursday bringing the film ‘Two Days, One Night’ to the Oscars is a dream come true after she clinched a nomination for best actress - her second nod in seven years.

French-born Cotillard was nominated for her leading role in the film, directed by Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, in which she plays a mother of two who risks losing her job after a nervous breakdown.  The movie follows a stripped-down Cotillard as her character desperately tries to convince colleagues to forgo their annual bonuses so she can keep her job and support her family, over the course of two days.

Cotillard won an Oscar in 2008 for her portrayal of famed French Cabaret singer Edith Piaf in ‘La Vie en Rose.’ She spoke to AFP about her dream of seeing the movie nominated for an Academy Award, her admiration for the directors and how she feels about life in Hollywood.

Q: Receiving a second Oscar nomination for a non-English role is historic. How do you feel?

I’m struggling to absorb it, because I wasn’t expecting it at all. It’s the last thing I had imagined. After (the film) I really dreamed of taking the Dardenne brothers to the Oscars. It was the first time they were chosen to represent Belgium.

When the film wasn’t selected (in pre-selection for Oscars best foreign film), it saddened me. I no longer thought the movie would go to the Oscars, and in the end, it made it. It’s an immense joy, and it will bring it visibility. This was one of my favorite movies to film, my relationship with the brothers was something really profound, really intense and beautiful, which made it a special adventure. They make cinema that we rarely encounter. And also the subject matter - this woman who so upset me when I read the script, all this was an amazing experience.  

Q: How do you reconcile your French acting career and your Hollywood career?

Most of the time I am abroad filming movies, I spend a lot of time overseas, and then suddenly I have this urge to be back in my country, and so the combination works pretty well for now. Every time I go back to France, I love seeing the sites, seeing my friends. I love traveling, but I also love being at home (in France). In terms of Hollywood, I’ve been pleasantly surprised, I’m so happy to have the opportunity to explore more than just my culture, to be able to discover American culture with one of my first films that I did here with Michael Mann (‘Public Enemies’ in 2009), but also the Polish culture, Italian culture... It really was my dream when I became an actress to explore as far afield as possible.

Q: What do you dream of doing next and what actors inspire you?

What I would like to do today is comedy. I have spent most of my life playing the role of amazing women, but they don’t get on in life very well! (Laughs.) I’d like to take on a genre that I don’t really know, I think I have a lot of work ahead of me and it would be a real risk for me, and I like risks. Otherwise, I really admire actors who can take their careers from one genre to another easily, like Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, to find a different rhythm in dramatic comedies or in short comedies.