Lea Seydoux, new Bond girl, hates gadgets
Actress said she chose the profession to ensure she would be looked after
Lea Seydoux, the latest Bond girl, became an actress because she could not handle the stresses of modern life, she has revealed.
The 30-year-old, who plays Dr Madeleine Swann in the forthcoming 007 movie Spectre, said she chose the profession to ensure she would be looked after and could avoid having to deal with everyday pressures. “I don’t like modernity,” she said. “I don’t have television or the internet at home. The internet scares me. I can’t drive a car. That is why I do this job. This is why I became an actress — so that people will take care of me.
“To be an actress is a refuge. You are taken everywhere, stay in wonderful hotels, everyone looks after you.”
Seydoux, the 10th French actress to play a Bond girl, is relatively unknown in this country but a household name in France, hailing from a background steeped in cinema. Her grandfather, Jerome Seydoux, is the chairman of Pathe films and her great-uncle Nicolas Seydoux is chairman of the Gaumont Film Company. Her mother, Valerie Schlumberger, is a former actress and her father, Henri Seydoux, founded the French technology company Parrot.
Since making her film debut in 2006, she has starred in Hollywood movies including Inglourious Basterds, Robin Hood and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. In 2013, she won the Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or prize for her role in Blue Is The Warmest Colour.
Seydoux told Vogue magazine that her character in Spectre was not a typical Bond girl. “I don’t mind the cliche of the Bond girl,” she said. “But Madeleine, she is very different. And to choose me as a Bond girl, it’s a choice. A statement. I’m not the typical James Bond girl.”
Seydoux recently revealed that her character marked a departure from the traditional Bond girl and was 007’s equal. “She doesn’t need Bond,” she said. “She’s not impressed.”
Spectre releases in the UAE on November 5.
