Mélanie Laurent is a French actress, director and singer. She began her career in the role of Lisbeth in the film Un pont entre deux rives in 1999. She then played many roles, but it is in 2006 that she reveals herself, in the drama of Philippe Lioret Je vais bien, ne t'en fais pas. This performance will earn her awards, including the Romy Schneider Award and the Cesar for Best Actress. In 2009, her career takes off in Hollywood with one of the main roles in the film Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino, alongside Brad Pitt and Diane Kruger. In 2009, she played a violin soloist in the critically acclaimed film The Concert. In 2010, her performance in the play Promenade de santé earned her a nomination at the Molières in the category of Best Actress.
The same year, she launched a single and a first album. In 2011, she went behind the camera and directed her first feature film Les Adoptés. In 2013, she is in the German-Helvetic-Portuguese film A Night Train to Lisbon, she gives the line to the American actor Jake Gyllenhaal in Enemy, and is part of the main cast of the American blockbuster Elusive, alongside Mark Ruffalo. In 2014, she shared the poster of The Dream Catcher with Jennifer Connelly and Cillian Murphy, and directed her second feature film Breathe. In 2015, she co-directed the documentary Tomorrow, which will exceed one million admissions and will be awarded at the Césars. The same year, she turns in the American comedy Vue sur mer directed by Angelina Jolie, and gives the line to Audrey Tautou and Bérénice Bejo in Eternity. In 2017, she directed Galveston, her fifth feature film but the first in English, with Ben Foster and Elle Fanning.
At the same time, she launches into the comic register by sharing the poster of the film The Return of the Hero, alongside Jean Dujardin. In 2020, she directed her second feature film in English, The Nightingale, in which she reunited with Elle Fanning, who played alongside her sister Dakota Fanning for the first time. Then she goes on to direct Le Bal des folles, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Victoria Mas.
Mélanie Laurent has been involved in the fight for the climate for several years. In 2015, with the help of Cyril Dion, co-founder of the NGO Colibris, she co-wrote and directed the documentary Demain. The documentary shows characters reinventing agriculture, energy, economy, democracy and education all around the planet.
She is also involved in the fight to protect the oceans. In particular, in 2012, she doubled the documentary film The End of the Line, which denounced overfishing. She also joined the Fish Fight campaign, which fights against the discarding of fish at sea, defends artisanal fishing alongside Greenpeace and poses for the "Fishlove" operation, whose photos are exhibited at the Baudoin Lebon gallery.
© Photo: Georges Biard - CC BY SA 3.0
