Lea Seydoux plays an artist involved with a teenager in the Cannes film festival winner, “Blue Is the Warmest Color.”
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Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Blue is the Warmest Color” walked off with two trophies at this year’s Cannes film festival: the Palme d’Or and a special award for its two lead actresses, Adele Exarchopoulos and Lea Seydoux. An already accomplished actress who has appeared in “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol,” “Midnight in Paris” and “Sister,” Seydoux plays a blue-haired artist who engages in a passionate love affair withExarchopoulos’ allegedly straight teenager. The film has been talked about as much for its quality as for its graphic sex scenes, which had been reported by some as being real. Seydoux corrected this assumption.
Emma is a very powerful character. Were you a little bit nervous when you read the script?
No, because I was full of admiration for Abdellatif Kechiche before we’d even met. He’s one of the biggest French directors and I’ve always been intrigued by his filmmaking technique. Once you jump aboard one of his projects, you know you’re going to have to give it your all — because what Abdel is after is reality, truth.
How did you and Adele Exarchopoulos get the chemistry going?
It’s not something you can work on. It’s either there or it’s not. And with Adele, it just happened. And with Abdellatif, our rapport is marvelous.
Do you need to have a blind trust in a director in order to give so much of yourself?
Yes. Well, I don’t know. It’s more of a question of desire.
The movie features several unsimulated sex scenes…
[interrupting] Be careful: They are simulated. We were wearing prosthesis. Come on, you saw the scenes! But it was only a small protection, it doesn’t really change much.
Do you feel that you took your character as far as she could go?
I don’t know what that means, “going as far as you can go.” I just feel like I am part of a beautiful object.
