Eva Green

Eva Green
Eva Green as Vesper Lynd in the 2006 film of Casino Royale
Born	Eva Gaëlle Green
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)

Eva Gaëlle Green (ɛva gʁɛ̃) (born July 5, 1980) is a BAFTA award-winning French actress who has starred in such film as The Dreamers, Kingdom of Heaven, and Casino Royale.

Biography

Early life

Eva Green was born in Paris, France to a French mother and a Swedish father, and was raised in the 17th arrondissement of Paris. She attended the American School of Paris for her formal years. Her mother is actress Marlène Jobert; her father, Walter Green, is a Swedish dentist, who appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar – this was his first and only on-screen appearance. She has one sibling, a fraternal twin sister, Joy, from whom she is reportedly estranged. Green's name is pronounced /gre:n/, approximately rhyming with "wren" in Swedish; it comes from the Swedish word gren, which means (tree) branch. She studied acting in Paris for three years, followed by a ten-week polishing course at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.

Career

Theatre

Green has stated that she wanted to be an Egyptologist when she was younger, but loved theatre classes. She left school at 16; she had achieved good grades, but 'couldn't bear school any more'. Green began her professional career in 2001, when she performed in the play Jalousie En Trois Fax, playing the role of Iris – a performance that brought her critical acclaim and a nomination for Les Molières in the category Révélation Théâtrale Féminine. In 2002, she made her second stage appearance as the coquette in the play Turcaret.

Film

In 2003, Green made her feature film debut in Bernardo Bertolucci's film The Dreamers with Michael Pitt and Louis Garrel. She played the role of Isabelle. Described by Bertolucci as "so beautiful it's indecent", her performance brought her critical acclaim, as well as some notoriety for her extensive full frontal nudity. While filming The Dreamers, Green was said to have found Bertolucci manipulative, though in a creative way that wasn't pushy. In comparison to her previous stage acting, she has said that acting in front of the camera makes you its "plaything".

She played Countess Clarisse de Dreux-Soubise (Clarisse d'Etigues in the original French novel by Maurice Leblanc) in the 2004 French film, Arsène Lupin, directed by Jean-Paul Salomé and starring Romain Duris and Kristin Scott Thomas. The film received mixed reviews. In 2005, she portrayed Sibylla of Jerusalem in Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven, starring opposite Orlando Bloom as Balian, a blacksmith from medieval France.

Green was cast as "Bond girl" Vesper Lynd in the James Bond film Casino Royale with new 007 actor Daniel Craig. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph magazine she admitted that "I had reservations at the beginning thinking I'll be typecast as the Bond Girl - and after The Dreamers you have to be careful". Having turned down the chance to audition a year before shooting started and undergone a first blind audition she was flown to Prague for a second audition literally days before filming commenced. Given a new script which impressed her, she accepted the role. There were reservations on the part of the studio, concerned about her having a French accent in an English role. However, Green worked on her received pronunciation and the part was hers.

She is the fifth French actress to portray a major "Bond girl" (after Claudine Auger, Corinne Clery, Carole Bouquet, and Sophie Marceau plus the uncredited appearance of Miss World 1953, Denise Perrier in Diamonds Are Forever) and the first one born in the 1980s. As Vesper works for the British government, Green affected an English accent for the role.

Casino Royale was released in theaters worldwide on November 17, 2006. In May of 2006, Maxim named her #20 in its annual Hot 100 list.

Green has also joined the cast of New Line Cinema's His Dark Materials: Northern Lights, based on Phillip Pullman's novel, and directed by Chris Weitz. She will play Serafina Pekkala, the witch queen who guides Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) on her journey to a parallel universe. This project will reunite Green with Bond alum Daniel Craig, and will see her work with Adam Godley and Nicole Kidman, who are also in the cast.

On February 11, 2007, Green won the BAFTA Orange Rising Star award.

Roles Eva Green was considered for

Green met the director of The Constant Gardener but couldn't take the part of Tessa Quayle due to a clash with Kingdom of Heaven. She was also offered a part in Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia but again it clashed with Kingdom of Heaven, though in the event filming was postponed. Green stated she declined the part because she did not want to be type-cast as a "femme fatale" after her role in The Dreamers .

Personal life

Green speaks both French and English fluently, noticeably speaking native-like British English, and currently divides her time between her residences in Paris and London. She is currently dating the New Zealand actor Marton Csokas. They met while shooting Kingdom of Heaven, in which he played her character's husband. She previously dated French actor Yann Claassen for over four years.

Filmography

• The Dreamers (2003)
• Arsène Lupin (2004)
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
• Casino Royale (2006)
• His Dark Materials: Northern Lights (2007)
• Franklyn (2008)

Trivia

• While filming the movie The Dreamers, Eva's hair accidentally caught fire on a candle and because she acted so calmly about it, the director decided to leave it in.

External links

• Eva Green at IMDb