AUDREY TAUTOU
Name: Audrey Tautou
Born: 9 August 1978 Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Audrey Tautou (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).
Tautou was born 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.
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).
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".
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, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anna Gavalda.
Name: Audrey Tautou
Born: 9 August 1978 Beaumont, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Audrey Tautou (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).
Tautou was born 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.
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).
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".
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, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Anna Gavalda.