I’d asked the 47-year-old about the comedy series that made her famous in her native country, the name of which I’m valiantly trying not to butcher. In it she cut her teeth playing Parisian meanies, which was perfect preparation for Andréa Martel, the swaggering and hilariously icy celebrity wrangler in Call My Agent!, who made her globally famous. Connasse, she says, typically gave her fellow Frenchies a particular idea of her.
But you have ‘con’ and you have ‘connasse’, and ‘con’ literally means ‘c***’.” I practically spit out my drink. Someone with no consideration for others.” It was a hidden camera show, which saw Cottin behaving obnoxiously towards unsuspecting members of the public. She notoriously attempted to climb the gates of Kensington Palace to woo Prince Harry for the film version of the show – though, contrary to popular belief, she didn’t actually spend two nights in a London jail as punishment.
An arrest and a firm talking to, though? Anyway, the show’s backers knew Connasse would create waves early into its development, and asked Cottin if she’d prefer them to change the title. Because people will call you ‘connasse’.
But I didn’t think anyone would really watch it.” Cut to its release, and Connasse’s backers were proven correct. People still watch it here in France, so I’ll always hear a little ‘c***’ from time to time.” I genuinely thought I would never work again. But then Call My Agent! started being binged, and that encouraged the producers to think, OK – why did we end this?
Cottin is great fun, like a glamorous socialite with a mouth like a sailor. She’s at home in Paris, her hair shampoo-ad glossy and her schedule all over the shop. She’s been juggling promotion for three separate projects at once: a film adaptation of Les Misérables, a film version of Call My Agent! on Netflix, and a brilliant coming-of-age comedy called Just an Illusion that this week arrives in UK and Irish cinemas.
Life is nicely chaotic, as proven when her 11-year-old daughter wanders into Cottin’s room to try to borrow the iPad she’s speaking to me on. (Funnily enough, a similar thing happened the last time Cottin was in the pages of The Independent, which might suggest her daughter just really, really dislikes us.) Just an Illusion finds Cottin in mum mode on-screen, playing the restless mother to Vincent, an 11-year-old boy growing up in the suburbs of Paris in the late Eighties. Vincent, as played by the bright newcomer Simon Boublil, pines for a classmate, hilariously discovers blue movies with his friends, and starts asking all of the big questions in life. But it’s a journey of self-actualisation that is mirrored in his parents, too.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
