In an interview with Léa Salamé on France Inter on Saturday, 3 July, Marion Cotillard opened up about the sexual harassment she suffered as an actress.
This Saturday, 3 July on France Inter, on her programme entitled “Femmes Puissantes” (Powerful Women), Léa Salamé gave the floor to Marion Cotillard. During our colleague's interview, the actress addressed the sexual harassment of which she was victim during her career. “I think there are very few actresses and even women generally who haven't been assaulted or abused in some way by men”, she said, believing that she has been able to “protect herself enough so that it hasn't gone too wrong” in her life.
An actress who was willing to “give herself” for roles
Marion Cotillard revealed that “to a certain degree”, she “didn't know how to say no”, for fear of seeing doors close, especially during “castings”. “In a work context, I was asked to do things... I had this belief that an actress is someone who surrenders and who gives herself”, she continued, referring to her relationship with former director Jean-Claude Brisseau, who was sentenced in 2005 to a one-year suspended prison term and a 15,000-euro fine for sexual harassment and assault of actresses.
“I had this strength, which I think comes from the purity and simplicity of what I received in my childhood and then the journey also that I had in the face of other violence, which was not related to the profession”, explained Guillaume Canet's companion. For her, working in film is “difficult” and “ambiguous”, given that “it is a profession where the desire of the other is almost fundamental, to allow us to express ourselves”.
Harvey Weinstein, a powerful man, full of “contempt”
During the interview with the radio host, Marion Cotillard talked about her experience working with Harvey Weinstein. “Each time I worked with him, it didn't go very well, even I respected him,” said the woman who fortunately was not sexually harassed by the producer, as were some of her colleagues. “He had a certain power and a certain contempt for some directors (...) I worked with him on films where he often disagreed with the directors, and it was very painful”, she recalled, revealing that she “knew he had a problem”, without necessarily “taking stock of what he might have done to the women he assaulted”.
Article written with the collaboration of 6Medias
