A reluctant star's 'Golden' moment finally arrives
NEW YORK -- On the hipster barometer of indie-cool, French actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg is off the chart.
The elfin-faced actress is the daughter of the late French singer, songwriter, and all-around provocateur Serge Gainsbourg and British boho beauty Jane Birkin, a singer and actress in her own right. During their '60s and '70s heyday, the haute bohemian couple were simultaneously praised for their brash button-pushing and derided for their libertine excesses.
Ever since she was deemed "most promising newcomer" at the age of 15 in Claude Miller's "L'Effrontée" -- the title translates as "The Impudent One" -- Gainsbourg has been one of the biggest stars of French cinema. Now 35, the actress is fast becoming known on this side of the Pond thanks to roles in films by auteurs such as Alejandro González Iñárritu ("21 Grams") and Michel Gondry ("The Science of Sleep") . To top it off, she recently released an ethereal and melancholic album, "5:55," in which she collaborated with French-pop duo Air and former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker , among other musical all-stars.
Despite her cool quotient, Gainsbourg has never felt at ease in the limelight. But during an interview for her new film "Golden Door," which opens Friday , it's apparent that the actress is beginning to open up, even if she's still trying to locate her comfort zone when it comes to discussing personal matters. Dressed casually in slim-fitting jeans, suede cowboy boots, and a navy sweater, she's perched on her knees on the floor of her hotel suite, a cup of green tea resting on the coffee table beside her. She clasps a cigarette between her slender fingers, blithely lights it up, and takes a drag.
"When I was younger, doing interviews was a nightmare for me," says Gainsbourg. "I was very self-conscious and uncomfortable with how I looked for a long time. So I needed to put a barrier between me and other people, just to protect myself."
Gainsbourg's ambivalent relationship with fame is understandable. When she was 12, she recorded an infamous duet with dear old dad titled "Lemon Incest." It sparked an uproar in France, as did the resulting video, which showcased a shirtless Serge lying on a bed with his half-dressed daughter. A few years later, Serge penned the equally audacious album and accompanying film "Charlotte for Ever." Conservative critics once again threw a fit over the provocative lyrics. Stashed away at boarding school in Switzerland at the time, Gainsbourg says she was largely insulated from the controversies. Still, she hated facing the media for many years afterward.
"It was contradictory because I wanted the films to come out and I was very proud of [the work]," says Gainsbourg. "I got so much pleasure out of making films, being in front of a camera and being on set with the crew. I just didn't know how to deal with fame or the fact of being recognized."
She may be a reluctant star, but the spotlight is once again shining on this exotic beauty with the shy smile. She's got the new record, her first since teaming up with her father more than two decades ago. And she will appear in three high-profile films this year, including Todd Haynes's unorthodox Bob Dylan biopic "I'm Not There," James Ivory's "The City of Your Final Destination," and Italian filmmaker Emanuele Crialese's "Golden Door," a dark fable of one family's harsh and unforgiving immigration to the New World.
In the film, Salvatore (Vincenzo Amato) , a widower, decides to bring his family on a perilous journey from his small Sicilian village to America. On the harrowing Atlantic crossing, he meets an enigmatic Englishwoman, Lucy (Gainsbourg), and a strange and surprising love story unfolds. The film is rife with striking images -- a man buried in an avalanche of falling coins, characters swimming in rivers of milk -- that contrast the fantastic dreams that drove people to the New World with the troubling realities they faced both on their journeys and upon arrival at Ellis Island.
The character of Lucy, an otherworldly beauty, is shrouded in mystery. To understand Lucy's motivations and bring her to life, Gainsbourg created a dark back story for the character; as the shoot unfolded, though, the details of her past began to shift.
"I had many questions for Emanuele before starting. But he didn't really want to answer in a precise way," says Gainsbourg. "He told me to invent a past if I wanted to. But he didn't want to know anything about it. So someday , I was perceived as a prostitute, and the next day I was perceived as a queen. Though in the end, I think it doesn't really matter what sort of background she has and who she really is."
The film was shot in Buenos Aires and Sicily, and the isolation of the long shoot far from home was a challenge for the actress, as was Crialese's improvisatory way of working.
"Sometimes it was a little unnerving because you didn't know if you were going to interest Emanuele enough that day. Were you part of his vision or not?" says Gainsbourg. "In a sense, he was a real conductor. I really got the feeling of being an instrument and the pleasure of that. But it's also a weird feeling. I've never been less in control of what I was supposed to be doing."
"Actors sometimes ask [for] too much information," says Crialese, at a Manhattan hotel. "You get to a point in which you cannot rationalize everything. You just have to become the character. So I didn't want to tell [Charlotte] everything about this character. She had to find out for herself. I think it was a little frustrating for her, but it helped the film."
Gainsbourg -- who has two children with her longtime companion, actor/director Yvan Attal -- appears later this year as another enigmatic woman in "I'm Not There," the highly anticipated film from Todd Haynes, in which six different actors (including Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Cate Blanchett) portray Bob Dylan at various stages of his life. Gainsbourg plays a composite of Sarah Dylan and other female figures from Dylan's past.
"Todd didn't want me to play Sarah," says Gainsbourg. "I had to be more vague. Of course, I referred to her. But it wasn't done in a very precise way."
When it comes to her relationship with her father (who died in 1991), Gainsbourg is practically effusive. She talks about his influence on today's musicians and the renewed interest in his work. And she says that recording her album was a particularly emotional experience. Still, it couldn't have been easy growing up in the public eye, especially as the daughter of parents whose infamous 1969 duet "Je T'Aime, Moi Non Plus" culminated with the sounds of a woman in orgasm.
"They had quite a scandalous life, and [many] people talked about them negatively," she says. "It's funny, now people speak about them with such respect, it's hard to remember what I used to hear was not so nice. But that's what they wanted -- to make a lot of noise."
Gainsbourg is making her own noise these days, but she'll always credit her parents (mom Jane is still as busy as ever) for inspiring and influencing her as an artist. "They gave me a whole lifetime's worth of experience and advice. I just hope I remember everything."
