WITH HER PIERCING GREEN EYES,
shapeshifting lady in Miss Peregrine’s
BLACK HAIR AND STATUESQUE
Home For Peculiar Children (2016);
What first attracted you to this project?
PHYSIQUE, French actress Eva Green
and a beguiling trapeze artist in
It was mostly the very powerful love
could be a superior being from
Dumbo (2019).
story between a mother and her
08
another planet. In reality, she is simply
It’s a shift of gears for her
daughter, which really moved me
a really great human. Daughter of
performance in Proxima, in which she
when I read the script. I also loved the
celebrated French actress Marlène
plays Sarah, a French astronaut about
character of Sarah, who is torn
Jobert, Green quickly made a name
to fulfil her dream of going to space. In
between her passion as an astronaut
for herself, first on the stage then on
her case, leaving the planet for a year
and her love for her daughter.
the big screen, starting with her film
also means leaving her young
And of course, the idea of playing an
debut in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The
daughter, Stella. Through the story of
astronaut was always kind of a fantasy.
Dreamers in 2003. Her eclectic and
this mother, French writer-director
international career since then has
Alice Winocour explores the dark side
established her as a world-renowned
of space travel – not the awesome
Did you always dream of going to space?
femme fatale, playing Bond girl Vesper
discoveries yet to be made among the
I really loved the fact that it was taking
Lynd in Casino Royale (2006) and the
stars, but the life, people and things
place in the world of astronauts, which
titular dame in Sin City: A Dame To Kill
that astronauts, in their exploration
is a universe I didn’t know at all. I knew
For (2014), but her otherworldly looks
of the unknown, leave behind. The
this film would give me an
have also seen her go through the
violence of pulling away from the
opportunity to discover it, but
looking glass and into the world of
Earth’s gravitational pull finds an eerie
regarding space travel, I am someone
fantasy. Few actors can appear so
echo in Sarah’s trauma at tearing away
who suffers from vertigo in everyday
convincingly witch-like or magical,
from her child, but the raw power of
life, so it isn’t something I seek out!
as Tim Burton has demonstrated in
the space rocket is also mirrored in
Actually, this film really gave me the
no fewer than three films with Green:
this mother’s drive and in her
opportunity to realise just how brave
she played a vengeful witch in
determination not to let guilt get the
astronauts are. They are like
Dark Shadows (2012); the leading
better of her.
superheroes: they’re ready to sacrifice
THE BIG
INTERVIEW
EVA GREEN The French actress heads into space for Proxima. In this exclusive interview she talks astronaut training and her fear of heights…
Interview – Elena Lazic
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14/02/2020 11:33
