- "Tautou" redirects here. For the song by Brand New, see Deja Entendu.
Audrey Tautou (IPA: [oˈd̪ʁe t̪oˈt̪u];
, born August 9, 1978) is a French film actress, known to worldwide audiences for playing the title character
in the award-winning French film Amélie (2001, Le
Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain) and also Sophie Neveu in The Da Vinci Code (2006).
Biography
Early life
Tautou was born in Beaumont in the Puy-de-Dôme
département of Auvergne, and was
raised in Montluçon in the nearby Allier, still in Auvergne.
Her father is a dental surgeon and her mother is a teacher. She has a younger brother and two
younger sisters. She has always been, and remains today, absolutely fascinated with monkeys. Her childhood hero was
Dian Fossey, the primatologist, and she wanted to
follow in her hero's footsteps. Even now, many of her trips and voyages abroad are influenced by her passions for monkeys and
gorillas. In fact, after the premiere of the film Amélie (for
which she received phenomenal amounts of paparazzi and press coverage) she travelled to the
jungles of Indonesia to help with the preservation of a monkey sanctuary. Many may have claimed that she left France because of all the media attention that she was
unwillingly receiving, while others say it was fuelled by her passions for the animals. Tautou showed an interest for comedy at
an early age and started her acting lessons at the Cours Florent. This theatrical
institution is highly prestigious and she is one of several famous actors to have passed through
its doors (others including Muriel Robin, Daniel Auteuil
and Guillaume Canet). It is said that she almost didn't actually go through with the
Cours Florent course, because when she was living up in Paris, she was living on the same road as a model agency
and mistook all the models walking past her home to be the average Parisian woman. This
apparently made her feel immediately insecure, but nonetheless, she continued the course and came out at the end and went on to
star in some of French cinema's biggest and most famous films.
Career
Tautou has said that Meryl Streep, Paul Newman,
Juliette Lewis, Jodie Foster and Julianne Moore are her acting idols. In 1998, Tautou participated in a Star
Search-like competition sponsored by [[Canal+]] called "Jeunes Premiers" (The Young Debut) and won Best Young Actress at
the 9th Béziers Festival of Young Actors. Then, she came to the attention of Tonie
Marshall, who gave her a role in the César-winning Venus Beauty Institute (1999, aka Vénus beauté
(institut)). In 2000 , she won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti as her country's
most promising young film actress.
Already well-known in France for her work in Venus Beauty Institute, in 2001 Tautou rose to international fame for her
performance as the eccentric Amélie in the romantic French comedy Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie
Poulain. In June 2004 she was invited to join the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).[1] She accepted the invitation and is still a member as of
September 1, 2006.
In 2005, Tautou worked in her first full Hollywood production,
opposite Tom Hanks, in the film version of Dan Brown's
best-selling novel The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and released in May 2006. She acted alongside Gad Elmaleh in
Pierre Salvadori's Hors de prix, released December
13, 2006. Tautou says she still considers France her base, and plans to pursue a career
predominantly there rather than crossing over to the United States. As she told Stevie
Wong of The Straits Times, "I am, at the end of the day, a French actress. I am
not saying I will never shoot an English-language movie again, but my home, my community, my career is rooted in France. I would
never move to Los Angeles".[2]
Tautou starred with Guillaume Canet (best known outside of France for his role in the
film adaptation of The Beach) in Claude
Berri's French-language Ensemble, c'est tout in 2007.
Personal life
Her favourite authors are Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde
and Paul Auster, and her favourite poets are Charles
Baudelaire and Tristan Tzara. Tautou's favourite music composers are
Ravel, Mozart and Frédéric Chopin.
Tautou takes pictures of each reporter who interviews her and keeps them in a
scrapbook. Tautou has said that "Everyone [outside France] thinks I have an ethnic origin",
though she is actually "100-percent French". In France, many consider her as the "typical Occitan Auvergnate".[3] She was brought up attending church, though she has now stated that she is "not
officially" a Catholic.[4]
The Brand New song 'Tautou', from the album Déjà
Entendu is named after her.
Filmography
- Ensemble, c'est tout - Camille (2007)
- (English title: Hunting And Gathering)
- (English title: Priceless)
- (English title: The Russian Dolls)
- (English title: A Very Long Engagement)
- Nowhere to Go But Up - Val Chipzik (2003)
- (aka Happy End (Movie))
- (English title: Not on the Lips)
- Les Marins perdus - Lalla (2003)
- (English title: Lost Seamen)
- (aka Pot Luck - UK)
- (aka Euro Pudding - International: English title)
- (aka The Spanish Apartment - USA)
- (English title: He Loves Me... He Loves Me Not)
- (English title: God Is Great, I'm Not)
- (aka Amélie - International: English title - USA)
- (aka Amelie from Montmartre - International: English title)
- (aka The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain - USA: literal English title)
- (aka Happenstance - UK and USA)
- (aka Amelie 2 - Hong Kong: English title)
- (aka The Beating of the Butterfly's Wings - International: English title)
- Le Libertin - Julie d'Holbach (2000) (English title: The Libertine)
- Voyous voyelles - Anne-Sophie (2000)
- (aka Bad Girls - Australia: TV title)
- (aka The Little Grifters - USA: cable TV
title)
- (aka Pretty Devils - USA: new title)
- Épouse-moi - Marie-Ange (2000) (English title: Marry Me)
- Triste à mourir - Caro (1999)
- Vénus beauté (institut) - Marie (1999)
- (aka Venus Beauty Institute - USA: literal English title)
- (aka Venus Beauty Salon - UK)
- - Blandine Piancet (1999) (TV)
- La Vieille barrière - La jeune fille du quartier (1998)
- - Comédienne 1 (1998)
- Chaos technique - Lisa (1998) (TV)
- Bébés boum - Elsa (1998) (TV)
- La Vérité est un vilain défaut - La standardiste (1997) (TV)
- Coeur de cible (1996) (TV)
Awards and nominations
References
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External links
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- Audrey Tautou 
