Biography
Mélanie Laurent first gained widespread recognition through her appearance in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, yet she also launched a parallel recording career in the manner of compatriots Charlotte Gainsbourg, Catherine Deneuve, and Brigitte Bardot. Born in Paris’s ninth arrondissement in 1983 to a mother who worked as a ballerina and a father employed as a voice-over artist, she was spotted by Gérard Depardieu during the filming of Asterix and Obelix; he subsequently gave her a role in the 1999 feature The Bridge, which he co-directed. Subsequent parts in Rice Rhapsody, The Beat My Heart Skipped, and Days of Glory preceded her Cesar Award for Most Promising Newcomer, earned for portraying Lili in Philippe Lloret’s Je Vais Bien, Ne T’en Fais Pas. She simultaneously made her first foray behind the camera with the short De Moins en Moins. Both achievements drew the interest of Tarantino, who chose her to play the cinema operator Shosanna Dreyfus, responsible for eliminating Nazis, in his provocative World War II reinterpretation. While she performed as a violinist in the classical-music comedy Le Concert, Laurent began recording her debut album in Woodstock, only to abandon those sessions once her manager facilitated a meeting with Damien Rice. The Irish singer-songwriter produced five tracks and contributed vocals to two of them, with Joel Shearer of Pedestrian handling production on the remaining selections for the album En T’Attendant, issued by Atmospheriques in 2011. That same year she featured in the clip for Martin Solveig’s “Initial S.H.E.,” secured her first significant English-language part in Mike Mills’ Beginners, and was named Mistress of Ceremony for the Cannes Film Festival.
Albums
