What is Eva Green made of?
What to do to look like a Bond girl
The Bond girl from Casino Royale, the frank Isabelle from The Dreamers, Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine - these are not all of Eva Green's iconic roles. In addition to her excellent acting, the Frenchwoman is famous for her original style. A little gothic, a little retro - relying on individuality, Eva managed to break into the list of the best dressed actresses in Hollywood. To replicate the style of this beautiful femme fatale, you only need to remember a few rules:
Gothic
“I don’t want to move to Hollywood, but I go there for meetings and auditions. After them I feel empty. Either I’m too dark, or too vamp, or too French, too whatever. Afterwards I sit and think: “What did they mean?” It seems to us that Eve cannot be “too much.” She is simply unique - in particular, due to her love for everything gothic. Tar hair (by the way, Green is actually blonde) combined with gray eyes and porcelain skin in themselves add mysticism to her appearance. Now add makeup to this: a hazy smokey eye, winged eyeliner, and on special occasions, a scarlet shade of lipstick.
Black color
Continuing the Gothic theme, it would be a crime not to talk about Eva’s love for everything black. She adds this color to almost every image and gives a simple explanation for this love: “I always feel a little uncomfortable in public, as if I were made of transparent glass, such a paradox for an actress. That's why I love bright gothic makeup so much and give preference to black on the red carpet - it creates the effect of theatricality, playing at tragedy. Theater is my element, I like this kind of acting.”
Retro
For Bernardo Bertolucci's favorite it would be too easy to dwell only on the mystical image. Another component of her style is retro in the best traditions of Marlene Dietrich. Curls, side partings in the style of the 30s and 40s, floor-length dresses - in general, classics of the golden era of Hollywood.
Velvet
“I'm French and I'm lazy - that means I smoke and don't go to the gym. I received this body from nature.” Not the most conscious approach, but “that body” still allows the actress to look perfect in her favorite velvet dresses. Take it into service, because this fabric will be more relevant than ever in the coming fall. And yet, Eva wore similar outfits long before it became a trend: apparently, it’s just in the blood of French women to look perfect, not paying attention to trends.
Prepared by Alina Pivovarova
“I’m very shy... I would like to be a silent film actress” Interview with Eva Green
Eva Green, known for her roles in The Dreamers and Casino Royale, spoke about her amazing new role in the space film Proxima.
I meet actress Eva Green on the morning of one of those strange days in March, when we have not yet fully realized the consequences of the coronavirus, when people still hug each other and then say: “Oops, sorry!” And that's exactly what happens here when Green arrives at Clifton Nurseries, an elegant garden and café next to her flat in north London. She is wearing a black knitted hat, a huge black down jacket and sunglasses.
“Let me show you something scary,” she says, showing me on her phone clips circled in red from Dean Koontz’s thriller “Eyes of Darkness,” which predicts the pandemic with chilling accuracy.
Meanwhile, Eva Green's mother, who lives in Paris and with whom the actress speaks every day, advises her not to shake hands with anyone or even leave the apartment. And yet here we are, sitting too close and ordering fresh mint tea before talking about her new film, Proxima, directed by Cesar Award-winning French screenwriter and director Alice Winokur.
In the film, Green plays French astronaut Sarah, who is preparing for a year-long mission to Mars. But despite the high-tech robotics and Matt Dillon, Proxima is not your average space movie, nor is it about distant galaxies or extraterrestrial life forms. This is a film about the Earth and the things that keep us on our planet. Sarah is not only an astronaut, she is also a single mother, her daughter Stella is played by the stunning 10-year-old actress Zelie Bulan.
“The film is about the love of a mother and daughter,” says Green. “These heroes who are going to the International Space Station and then to Mars will not be able to see Earth. It’s like self-sacrifice, like death.”
To prepare for the role, Green trained with a Russian instructor in Cologne in a very difficult program. “He was very tough, he treated me like a real astronaut. At the end he became so rude and abrupt that it became funny." She also visited cosmonaut training centers such as Star City in Kazakhstan. “This is what I liked best. I felt like I was in some kind of sacred place."
The film was, in many ways, a real departure for Greene. In "Proxima" she wears no makeup, wears overalls and deals with the problems of a working mother. It turned out to be beautiful and serious, and her performance in it is described as the best in her career.
Greene is perhaps best known to audiences for her glamorous role as Vesper Lynd in the 2006 James Bond film Casino Royale, starring Daniel Craig as 007. She was initially reluctant to audition for the role (thinking about it now, she says she "thought too much of herself" at the time, but when she read the script her mind changed. “I thought it was a very strong role. But I don't like being called a "Bond girl." My answer to that is that I’m not a Bond girl, I’m playing a character.”
But she enjoyed filming it: “It was fun filming. Barbara Broccoli is amazing and one of the best producers I have ever worked with. I wish all producers were like her: passionate, kind, caring." Green notes that there have been less pleasant filming experiences in her career. “Of course, there were many like that. Filming is hard, there’s nothing glamorous about it.”
Eva Green was born and raised with her non-identical twin Joy in Paris. Her mother, Marlene Jaubert, was a successful actress who sacrificed her career for the sake of her family and her Swedish husband Walter, who works as a dentist. Green says she had a very “Parisian bourgeois” upbringing. She attended drama school in Paris, after which she took a 10-week acting course at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London. “It was a very intensive course in a good way. But because my English was not very good, it was difficult for me when we went through Shakespeare. Often I couldn’t even understand what the teacher wanted from me,” she says.
Returning to Paris, Greene landed roles in a couple of plays, but it was a dark period in her life due to stage fright and an inability to concentrate on roles, and she even considered quitting acting. According to her, she was saved by the Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci. She was in her early twenties when she heard about an audition for Bertolucci's film. “I was obsessed with it, obsessed with Last Tango in Paris,” she says.
The audition was casual and she was soon offered a role in The Dreamers, an adaptation of Gilbert Adair's novel, sexy with hints of incest and filled with the riotous politics of 1968 Paris. “My mom told me not to do it,” Green says. “She was afraid that I was too sensitive and that Bertolucci would be very cruel to me,” she continues, citing the fact that filming Last Tango in Paris was emotionally difficult for actress Maria Schneider. “And that this experience would ruin my life. I didn’t take her seriously, for me it was the chance that I was waiting for.”
The film, released in 2003, was a critical success and not only launched Greene's career, but also did much more. “Bertolucci gave me faith in myself. He was a little angel to me." After viewing the picture, Jaubert agreed that her daughter made the right decision. But the rest of the Green family found the film's intimate scenes too shocking. “When you don't work in the film industry and you see something so sexual, you find it extremely disgusting. Even I, after watching it, was horrified. But I hate watching myself on screen anyway.”
She also hated other aspects of acting, including carpet appearances. “I remember my first time out. The release of “Dreamers” was planned. We were invited to an Armani evening, and Martin Scorsese was supposed to be sitting at my table. I told my agent: “I won’t go, I don’t even have anything to say to him!” But then Giorgio Armani pulled me aside and said, “We’ll make you a red carpet look!”
Green still doesn't like lavish events, which she says is due to a lack of self-confidence. “I'm very shy. And this is a hindrance for me. I don't do well being around a lot of people. It came from childhood, I can’t even explain the reason for this problem.”
And she had to learn to cope with it, using breathing exercises in the ladies' room to calm herself, as well as elaborate outfits (Alexander McQueen is her favorite designer) and dramatic makeup that act as armor. “Little things like this protect me. Because otherwise events like this would be something violent for me,” she explains. “It’s just that sometimes I wish that we didn’t have to talk, that we could be the stars of a little movie.”
Therein lies the central mystery that even Greene herself cannot understand: why someone so shy (but in person she is funny, thoughtful and open) would choose a profession where she has to put her emotions on public display on and off screen.
In a 2020 radio interview, Greene's mother described Harvey Weinstein's attempt to physically assault her daughter in a Paris hotel room when she was a young actress. “She managed to escape, but he threatened to destroy her career,” Jaubert said. Green never wanted to go into detail about the event, but she is happy to say that Weinstein's 23-year prison sentence was a relief. “I am grateful that justice has been served. I admire the brave women who risked so much, not only their reputations and careers, but also the pain they experienced as they relived memories of abuse, in order to keep others safe from this perpetrator. Their courage changed the world."
And Eve is now experiencing these changes in the world. The Friday before we met, she attended the French Cesar ceremony, where Roman Polanski, who was convicted of illegal sex with a minor in America in 1977 but managed to escape before the verdict took effect (and whose Eva starred in the film Based on Real Events" 2020), the award for best director was presented in absentia, which led to many spectators leaving the award.
"It's a very tense moment," Greene admits. "I've never been in a situation like this." She loves this shift of power into the hands of women in the film industry, and she loves working with female directors like Alice Winokur, creating female-centered stories like astronaut Sarah, where there is not even a hint of romance. “This is good, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” she says. “It's a radical change and it's too hard for men, they bear most of the blows. But there are also good men."
One of the best men, according to Green, is director Tim Burton, with whom she has worked on three films, most recently last year's "Dumbo." There were rumors that Greene and Burton, who has two children with ex-lover, actress Helena Bonham Carter, were romantically involved, but Greene has always denied this, maintaining that their relationship was strictly professional. “Since childhood, I dreamed of working with him. I like his world. He is a very nice person."
Greene says she doesn't currently have a partner and that her attention is now focused on her miniature schnauzer, Winston. “Winston is very smart, he is very serious and very sensitive. I can’t lie to him,” she says, showing me a photo of her pet, who looks very serious and sensitive in a bow tie. “This is how I dress it up.”
Green has lived in London since she arrived here in her twenties, found herself a British agent and quickly moved into his spare room in Primrose Hill. She loves London, but her social circle is quite international - her sister Joy lives in Italy on a vineyard with her Italian count husband and two children. “She’s not like me at all, she’s very down to earth. We are so different that in the past we hardly got along together, but now we get along very well.”
When I ask her to talk about their differences, Green hesitates before answering, “Maybe I'm a little weird? If I start talking about tarot or things like that, she'll say I'm crazy. So I don’t talk to her about such topics.”
Green became interested in tarot in 2014 while starring in the Showtime series Penny Dreadful, which was set in a Victorian occult world and also starred Josh Hartnett and Billie Piper. Greene was nominated for a Golden Globe for her performance as Vanessa Ives, a young girl prone to satanic visions and demonic possession.
“If you practice tarot properly, it can tell you about yourself. This is accelerated therapy.” She doesn't go to regular therapy, although she did when she was younger. “But if you have tools like this, you can connect with yourself.”
Her tools include regular meditation. “I am currently very infatuated with guru Teal Swan, who lives in Costa Rica. She makes meditation guides that really calm me down.” She also exercises every morning for 45 minutes, sometimes with a trainer, and uses Wim Hof's cold water therapy technique, which involves taking a daily 10-minute cold shower. “It’s all about breathing, it helps a lot when you’re stressed. It helps you get rid of everything bad.”
These techniques are active measures to combat anxiety. But Green also enjoys an evening glass of red wine (“Of course. I’m French. I’ve been drinking it every day since I was 18”), long walks, taking photographs and making collages of black and white images.
She does not have pages on social networks. “It’s very narcissistic in a bad way.” And her greatest pleasure is travel: trips to places like Namibia and Bhutan, long walks, often alone. “The first day is always quite scary, but then you feel much more connected to the surrounding area, to the people. Your feelings are more awakened."
The opportunity to travel was one of the reasons Greene accepted the role in the new adaptation of Eleanor Catton's The Luminary. The action takes place in the 1860s in New Zealand during the gold rush. The BBC Two series stars Eve Hewson, Bono's daughter, and Green plays conniving brothel owner Lydia Wells. “I like characters like that. At first you think that she is such a character, and then it turns out that she is completely different. Sure, she manipulates people, but she's not a villain. She is a very strong woman."
Lydia is also an astrologer, which also interests Green. “I really like this topic.” Her sign is Cancer and she's turning 40 in July, but there won't be a party to celebrate. “I don't celebrate birthdays. At these parties I want everyone to have a good time, so I can’t relax.” The fact that it's an anniversary worries Green even more. We talk about how with age comes maturity, wisdom and self-acceptance.
"This is true. And also with age comes the thought: “I’m getting older, what have I managed to achieve during this time? Will people still want me? This is especially true for actresses, because I always heard that once you hit 40, it becomes harder to find roles. If you are a woman, you ask yourself questions: can I remain attractive and have children? If you don't have children, will you be considered a failure? It's all cliché, but people still ask, "Don't you have kids?" And it seems to you that you are no longer a woman if you answer: “No, I don’t have children.” It's hard... And at the same time, I feel like I'm still 12, even though I'll be 40. Where did the time go?”
But she still has a plan... “I want to live on a farm. I know it seems like a fad, but I think about it a lot. Maybe in Wales, I like it there. The landscapes there are amazing. Living in the city sometimes suffocates me and there is nothing better than being connected to nature. She makes you feel whole.”
Interview for The Telegraph
Translation: Anastasia Afanasyeva
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Keywords: Read an interview with Eva Green, cinema, new releases, the film Proxima, conversation with the actress, Eyes of Darkness, Zelie Bulan, Daniel Craig, Marlene Jobert
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