Léa Hélène Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne (French: (listen); born 1 July 1985) is a French actor. Known for her roles in both French cinema and in Hollywood she has received various accolades including five César Award nominations, the Cannes Film Festival's Trophée Chopard in 2009, as well as a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2014. In 2016, Seydoux was honoured with the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters. In 2022, the French government made her an Officer of the Legion of Honour.
She began her acting career with her film debut in Girlfriends (2006) with early roles in The Last Mistress (2007) and On War (2008). She won acclaim for her French roles in The Beautiful Person (2008), Belle Épine (2010), and Farewell, My Queen (2012). During this time she expanded her career appearing in minor roles in high-profile Hollywood films, including Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), Ridley Scott's Robin Hood (2010), Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris (2011) and the action film Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011).
Her breakthrough role came with the controversial and acclaimed film Blue Is the Warmest Colour (2013) for which she received the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival along with her co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos. She received the Lumières Award for Best Actress for the film Grand Central (2014). She gained international attention for her role as Bond girl Madeleine Swann in Spectre (2015), and No Time to Die (2021).
She has appeared in the Wes Anderson films The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The French Dispatch (2021). Other notable roles include Beauty and the Beast (2014), Saint Laurent (2014). The Lobster (2015), France (2021), Crimes of the Future (2022), and One Fine Morning (2022).
Seydoux is also known for her work as a model. She has been showcased in Vogue Paris, American Vogue, L'Officiel, Another Magazine and W magazine among others. Since 2016, she has been a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton.
Early life
Born on 1 July 1985, Seydoux is the daughter of businessman Henri Jérôme Seydoux-Fornier de Clausonne and Valérie Schlumberger. She was born in Passy, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and grew up in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in the 6th arrondissement. She had a strict Protestant upbringing, but she is not religious. Seydoux is one of seven children. She has three older half-siblings (Marine Bramly, Noé Saglio and Ondine Saglio) from her mother's first marriage, an older sister, stylist Camille Seydoux from her parents' marriage, and a further two paternal half-brothers, Ismaël Seydoux and Omer Seydoux, from her father's marriage to model Farida Khelfa.
Seydoux's parents are both partly of Alsatian descent. Her father is a great-grandson of businessman and inventor Marcel Schlumberger, while her mother is a granddaughter of Marcel's brother, Maurice Schlumberger. The family name came to exist in 1902, when Seydoux's great-great-grandfather Charles-Louis-Auguste-Jacques Seydoux (1870–1929) married Mathilde, daughter of Languedoc aristocrat François Fornier de Clausonne de Lédenon, whose family held the titles of Baron de Lédenon and seigneur de Clausonne, de Laugnac et de la Bastide d'Albe. The Seydoux family is widely known in France and influential in the movie industry. Her grandfather, Jérôme Seydoux, is the chairman of Pathé; her granduncle, Nicolas Seydoux, is the chairman of Gaumont Film Company; her other granduncle, Michel Seydoux, also a cinema producer, is the chairman of the Lille-based football club Lille OSC; and her father is the founder and CEO of the French wireless company Parrot. She has stated that her family initially took no interest in her film career and did not help her, and that she and her influential grandfather were not close. As a child, she had no desire to act. She instead wanted to be an opera singer, studying music at the Conservatoire de Paris.
Seydoux's parents divorced when she was three years old and they were often away, her mother in Africa and her father on business, which, combined with her large family, meant that she "felt lost in the crowd... I was very lonely as a kid. Really I always had the feeling I was an orphan." Through her family involvement in media and entertainment, Seydoux grew up acquainted with prominent artists such as photographer Nan Goldin, musicians Lou Reed and Mick Jagger and footwear designer Christian Louboutin. For six years, Seydoux went to summer camp in the United States, at the behest of her father, who wanted her to learn to speak English.
"My grandfather Jérôme has never felt the slightest interest in my career. have never lifted a finger to help me. Nor have I asked for anything, ever."
—Seydoux dismissing suggestions that her family connections have helped her career
Her mother Valérie Schlumberger is a former actress-turned-philanthropist and the founder of the boutique Compagnie d'Afrique du Sénégal et de l'Afrique de l'ouest (CSAO), which promotes the work of African artists. Seydoux once worked as a model for their jewellery line Jokko. Schlumberger, who lived in Senegal as a teenager, is also the founder of the charitable organisations Association pour le Sénégal et l'Afrique de l'Ouest (ASAO) and Empire des enfants, a centre for homeless children in Dakar, of which Seydoux is the "godmother".
Seydoux describes her youthful self as short-haired, slightly dishevelled, and widely viewed as a bit strange: "People liked me, but I always felt like a misfit." Still concerned for her shyness in adulthood, Seydoux has admitted to having had an anxiety crisis during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.
