Marvel Marceau right at home in French film Sophie Marceau leapt into our consciousness in Braveheart when she played the feisty French princess who falls pregnant to Mel Gibson's kilted freedom fighter William Wallace.
Marceau followed up the multi-Oscar winner by playing a Bond girl in The World is Not Enough, adding her name to the list of European babes who give class and exoticism to the long-running franchise.
So what happened to Sophie Marceau? How did such a lovely and accomplished performer who had been working in film since she was a teenager disappear in the wake of two blockbuster movies?
The simple answer is that she returned home as she continued working in one of the world's most vibrant film industries, becoming one of the country's most beloved actresses.
In fact, Marceau's star shines so brightly in Europe that three of her biggest recent hits have been snapped up by Hollywood for English-
language makeovers.
The classy romantic thriller Anthony Zimmer became The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie; the teen comedy LOL (Laughing Out Loud) has been remade with Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus taking over as the battling mother and daughter; and now The Age of Reason, about a hard-driving businesswoman who receives a letter from her childhood self, is in development.
Meeting Marceau in Paris late last year, it wasn't hard to see why she's a genuine box-office star and full-wattage personality as opposed to cooler, serious types such as Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert. (Julia Roberts may be the best comparison.)
Slender, still stunningly beautiful at the age of 44 (she could pass for a woman decades younger) and effortlessly earthy and charming, Marceau is as far removed from the chilly, suit-wearing executive embarrassed by her rural upbringing she plays in The Age of Reason.
However, Marceau admitted that, like her character in the movie, she had to put some distance between her working-class upbringing - her father was a truck driver - if she wanted to succeed as an actress.
"That is the feeling I had. I don't now if it was real, truthful or necessary but for me I really felt I had to put my past on the side if I was going to make it," explained Marceau in impeccable, lightly accented English.
"And then I went back to it because you cannot forget who you are or where you come from whether you like it or not."
Marceau's character in The Age of Reason, which is on this week at the French Film Festival, forces her young self to leave behind the rich fantasy world she built up while growing up in the countryside in order to succeed in the dog-eat-dog world of French corporate life.
"Margaret (her character) had a very difficult choice to make when she was young - that if she keeps on believing in her fantasies that life is beautiful, nothing is going to happen. She needs to be more lucid and concrete about life."
Marceau also made a life-changing decision very young when, at the age of 16 and in the wake of her 1980s smash hit teen comedy La Boum, she bought out her contract with Gaumont Film Company that would have shackled her for years. It cost her a million francs.
Marceau said that back then she had no idea how the system worked, whether she should have a lawyer or an agent (she had neither), and was moved to sever ties with the Gaumont organisation. "I had nobody to advise me. The only thing I was attached to was my freedom. I felt I was being manipulated and I thought 'I cannot do that'. I would rather have gone to jail than to sacrifice my freedom," said Marceau. And, despite all of his tabloid travails, Marceau still has great empathy for Mel Gibson, whom she remembers as a wonderfully impassioned director and, despite being a little crazy, he was liked by everyone. "He is full of contradictions and boiling all time," Marceau said, "but I still like him very much."
Marceau followed up the multi-Oscar winner by playing a Bond girl in The World is Not Enough, adding her name to the list of European babes who give class and exoticism to the long-running franchise.
So what happened to Sophie Marceau? How did such a lovely and accomplished performer who had been working in film since she was a teenager disappear in the wake of two blockbuster movies?
The simple answer is that she returned home as she continued working in one of the world's most vibrant film industries, becoming one of the country's most beloved actresses.
In fact, Marceau's star shines so brightly in Europe that three of her biggest recent hits have been snapped up by Hollywood for English-
language makeovers.
The classy romantic thriller Anthony Zimmer became The Tourist starring Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie; the teen comedy LOL (Laughing Out Loud) has been remade with Demi Moore and Miley Cyrus taking over as the battling mother and daughter; and now The Age of Reason, about a hard-driving businesswoman who receives a letter from her childhood self, is in development.
Meeting Marceau in Paris late last year, it wasn't hard to see why she's a genuine box-office star and full-wattage personality as opposed to cooler, serious types such as Juliette Binoche and Isabelle Huppert. (Julia Roberts may be the best comparison.)
Slender, still stunningly beautiful at the age of 44 (she could pass for a woman decades younger) and effortlessly earthy and charming, Marceau is as far removed from the chilly, suit-wearing executive embarrassed by her rural upbringing she plays in The Age of Reason.
However, Marceau admitted that, like her character in the movie, she had to put some distance between her working-class upbringing - her father was a truck driver - if she wanted to succeed as an actress.
"That is the feeling I had. I don't now if it was real, truthful or necessary but for me I really felt I had to put my past on the side if I was going to make it," explained Marceau in impeccable, lightly accented English.
"And then I went back to it because you cannot forget who you are or where you come from whether you like it or not."
Marceau's character in The Age of Reason, which is on this week at the French Film Festival, forces her young self to leave behind the rich fantasy world she built up while growing up in the countryside in order to succeed in the dog-eat-dog world of French corporate life.
"Margaret (her character) had a very difficult choice to make when she was young - that if she keeps on believing in her fantasies that life is beautiful, nothing is going to happen. She needs to be more lucid and concrete about life."
Marceau also made a life-changing decision very young when, at the age of 16 and in the wake of her 1980s smash hit teen comedy La Boum, she bought out her contract with Gaumont Film Company that would have shackled her for years. It cost her a million francs.
Marceau said that back then she had no idea how the system worked, whether she should have a lawyer or an agent (she had neither), and was moved to sever ties with the Gaumont organisation. "I had nobody to advise me. The only thing I was attached to was my freedom. I felt I was being manipulated and I thought 'I cannot do that'. I would rather have gone to jail than to sacrifice my freedom," said Marceau. And, despite all of his tabloid travails, Marceau still has great empathy for Mel Gibson, whom she remembers as a wonderfully impassioned director and, despite being a little crazy, he was liked by everyone. "He is full of contradictions and boiling all time," Marceau said, "but I still like him very much."
