< Previous The FASHION 90 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9002/11/2020 01:42:58 PM The FASHION 91 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 This page: Dress, Dhs37,000; Belt, Dhs11,000, Chanel. Opposite: Top, Dhs5,600; Bag, POA, Chanel Beauty note: Warm up your complexion with Chanel’s Les Beiges Healthy Glow Bronzing Cream in Soleil Tan Bronze Universel, and peachy Rouge Coco in Adrienne on the lips HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9102/11/2020 01:43:09 PM The FASHION 92 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 “For time to stop, I found something of a relief. I felt really connected to the rest of the world. No FOMO any more!” Life on board the Greenpeace ship was “deep and intense… rich with talking. But we saw a decreasing population of penguins, and plastics in a place where no man goes, so that was very disturbing. The whole trip, from pole to pole, was to try to open the public’s eyes to what could happen if we don’t set rules for these places. We were there to draw attention to this project.” Marion sighs. “And I came back and then it was just a couple of weeks to a completely different crisis.” Cotillard already knew more about the potential impact of a global pandemic than many of us, having starred in the eerily prescient 2011 fi lm Contagion. “When they wrote the script, they worked with scientists and the WHO, so it was very accurate,” she says. “But we never really listen, and then we try to cure it [when it’s too late]. We maybe need to think about the way we look at disasters. And of course, climate change is one of the biggest challenges that we are going to face if we don’t do anything.” Her commitment to environmental causes is of long standing: she has cited her Breton grandmother as an early inspiration – “When she cooked, she wouldn’t waste anything. And my parents always raised me to believe that the most important thing was respect. Respect the place you live, be aware of the impact that you have.” In 2010, Cotillard made a series of fi lms about the destruction of the rainforests by logging companies, and the following year, campaigned against the construction of the Belo Monte hydroelectric dam in Brazil. Then, in 2013, she protested against Russia’s detention of 30 Greenpeace activists by staging a caged demonstration outside the Louvre. She is painfully aware that having a fi lm career is scarcely eco-friendly, given all the travel it entails. “That’s why Audrey Hepburn gave up acting,” she once said. But now it seems Cotillard has found a way to unite her disparate passions with her latest project, Bigger Than Us, a documentary she has herself produced to highlight the efforts of young activists around the world. “There’s an amazing young woman who works on forced marriage, another who works with migrants, and the activist who links all the others is from Bali and has managed to ban plastic bags there. Then we have a guy in Brazil who created a newspaper in the favelas…” She describes the fi lm as “so deep, so brilliant, so moving and so inspiring. It’s really beautiful to see what young people can do,” she says. “If I had seen this when I was a kid, it would have given me so much energy to stand for what I believe is right.” Not that she regrets her choice of career (well, how could she?). “I have a lot of friends who are activists,” she says, “but I couldn’t dedicate my life to fi ghting. I’m so impressed by the people who fi ght every day to raise awareness, to open people’s eyes, to stand for causes. But I would be too sad. I need to be creative.” That need is bred in her genes, as the daughter of an actress and a director. “I was just fascinated by my parents’ life,” she says. “There was a lot of energy in the house, and then I started to have my own experience of acting. Right away I felt it was something that was really strong in me. The fi rst time was in a summer camp. I did this play at the end, and I felt something that shook me. I was playing an old housekeeper and the reaction of the audience, people laughing, and then coming up to me afterwards… That was the fi rst time I felt it would be my life.” She describes herself as a sensitive, ‘strange’ child; she was drawn to imaginary stories and used to play at being Greta Garbo in her bedroom. “I really thought, when I was a kid, that I would never be happy with myself, because I hated myself so much,” she says frankly. “I was more than shy, I was socially disturbed. I didn’t understand human beings’ behaviour… I think that’s why I became an actress, because I needed to understand.” She attended the Conservatoire d’Art Dramatique d’Orléans, where her father taught. “The fi rst year was horrible,” she says. “And then I began to meet people who I was able to open up to, and I started to change a little.” For the past 13 years, Cotillard has been in a relationship with Guillaume Canet, who starred in The Beach, and directed as well as acted in the acclaimed thriller Tell No One. They have two children, Marcel, who is nine, and three-year-old Louise, with whom they quarantined in the family home in the South of France. “I found this period very interesting,” muses Cotillard. “For everybody to be locked down, and for time to stop, I found something of a relief. I felt really connected to the rest of the world, and I think many human beings felt that way.” She smiles mischievously. “No FOMO any more! But I also had a lot of thoughts about the world, about what’s going on socially and environmentally,” she adds. Had the coronavirus crisis not intervened, she would have been travelling for work. “I had this movie that was supposed to go to Cannes and didn’t, so I had extra time off, which I really appreciated. I did a lot of cooking, I spent almost my whole time with the kids. It was amazing, it was a gift, that was the positive side of it.” In the past, she says, she felt it was “weird to be happy in such a dark and tumultuous world. There was always something in my mind saying, don’t be too happy. But this year I thought, no, you have to allow yourself to send out this positive energy… it’s good, and it’s not only good for you. I can see it around in the people I share the happiness with. It’s about the bliss of just being alive.” Cotillard turned 45 at the end of September and says she enjoys getting older “in my inner self… the experience of living and being more and more aware of myself, my relationships and the world”. Physically, though, it is a different matter. “I have to be honest, it’s disturbing,” she confesses. “As an actor, you see yourself very close up, you see the changes, and I’m not enjoying it. This is going to be a work of acceptance… but it’s the way it is.” I stare at the screen, trying in vain to spot a line in her smooth skin, a shadow under her eyes; but as befi ts a true icon, her allure is timeless. ■ HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9202/11/2020 01:43:16 PM The FASHION 93 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 Jumpsuit, Dhs16,500; Necklace, Dhs3,325; Sunglasses, POA; Bag (on table), Dhs10,790, Chanel HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9302/11/2020 01:43:25 PM The FASHION 94 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 Earrings, Dhs1,890, Chanel BEAUTY NOTE: Catch someone’s eye by defi ning yours with Le Liner de Chanel in Noir Profond HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9402/11/2020 01:43:32 PM The FASHION 95 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9502/11/2020 01:43:42 PM The FASHION 96 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 This page: Blouse, Dhs26,600; Trousers, Dhs15,815; Belt, Dhs5,700, Chanel. Opposite: Coat, Dhs51,250; Earrings, Dhs1,890, Chanel. Hair by Wendy Iles at Art List Paris, using Iles Formula Hair Care. Make-up by Lucia Pica at Art Partner, using Chanel Eau de Teint and Palette Essentielle. Manicure by Charlène Coquard. Set design by Maureen Coleman. On-set production by Anne Dahlquist at JN Productions. Marion Cotillard is an ambassador for Chanel HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9602/11/2020 01:43:50 PM The FASHION 97 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 HBA_151_084to097_MarionCotillard_11398011.indd 9702/11/2020 01:43:57 PMCREDIT HERE The FASHION 98 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 Tackle icy chills with luxurious ease in oversized knits and quilted skiwear, whilst embracing monochromes, metallics and modern brights Photography by LUIS MONTEIRO Styling by PETRA WIEBE GL A C I A L CH E M IS T R Y HBA_151_098to111_GlaciarLuis_11407156.indd 9802/11/2020 01:46:27 PMCREDIT HERE The FASHION 99 HarpersBazaarArabia.com November 2020 The FASHION Coat, Dhs12,150; Trousers, POA, both Issey Miyake. Turtleneck, Dhs850, Wolford. Boots, Dhs1,430, Bogner HBA_151_098to111_GlaciarLuis_11407156.indd 9902/11/2020 01:46:37 PMNext >