Charlotte Gainsbourg
| Occupation: | Actor |
| Born: | July 21, 1971 |
| Birthplace: | London, U.K |
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About
A British-French actress and singer, Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg made her musical debut at the age of 12. She then made her acting debut with the movie Paroles et musique in 1984 and went on to win the Cesar Award and the Cannes Film Festival Best Actress Award. Gainsbourg has collaborated with the acclaimed director Lars von Trier in several movies.
Early Life
Gainsbourg was born to singer and English actress Jane Birkin and French singer-songwriter and actor Serge Gainsbourg. Born at the time when her parents were constantly under the eye of the media after they made a sexually explicit song video Je t'aime... moi non plus. Owing to her parents' fame, Charlotte's childhood was widely publicized. She attended the private school, Ecole Active Billingue Jeannine Manuel, in Paris and was later enrolled in the College Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland.
Raised in Paris along with her half sister, Kate Berry, Charlotte's first language is French. However, she is also fluent in English. Gainsbourg has a younger brother Lucien Goldberg from her father's relationship with the famous French model, actress, and singer, Caroline Paulus, who is better known by her stage name, Bambou.
After her parents split in 1980, Charlotte's mother got into a relationship with the director Jacques Doillon and the couple gave birth to her half-sister, Lou Doillon. After the split, her father turned to alcoholism and eventually passed away due to a heart attack in 1991.
Personal Life
Gainsbourg has been in a relationship with the French-Israeli actor and director, Yvan Attal, who she met on the sets of the film, Aux yeux du monde, in 1991. Attal had publicly proposed Gainsbourg on 19th June 2013. However, in spite of being together for many years the couple is not married. Gainsbourg attributes her decision to the fact that her parents were never married. The couple has three children Ben (born in 1997), Alice (born in 2002), and Joe (born in 2011).
Movie Career
Most of Charlotte's family members work in the film industry – her maternal grandmother Judy Campbell was an actress, her uncle Andrew Birkin is a screenwriter, and her cousin, Sophie Hunter, is a theater and opera director – even so, she was never inclined towards movies. It was her mother who insisted her to act and so a young Charlotte made her acting debut with the movie Paroles et musique (1984). A couple of years later, Charlotte starred in the movie L'effrontee (1986) and won the Cesar award for her performance. She also appeared in the highly controversial movie, Charlotte for Ever (1986), which portrayed incestuous desires of a father towards his daughter. The movie was directed by Charlotte's father, Serge, and he also acted in the movie portraying the role of her father.
In 1988, she along with her mother starred in the movie Kung Fu Master. Five years later, Charlotte made her English debut in the movie The Clement Garden, which was written and directed by Andrew Birkin, her uncle. She soon made her stage debut in 1994 with Oleanna, a two-character play by David Mamet. Two years later she was cast in the lead role in the movie Jane Eyre, which received a positive response at the box office.
Continuing with her success, Charlotte went on to win another Cesar award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie La Buche (2000). Further, she went on to star in movies such as the highly acclaimed, 21 Grams (2003) directed by Alejandro G. Inarrittu, The Science of Sleep (2006) directed by Michel Gondry, and in the Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There (2007) directed by Todd Haynes.
In 2009 she teamed up with Lars von Trier and appeared in the experimental horror movie, Antichrist. The movie premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and Gainsbourg went on the win the Best Actress Award at the event. The film, however, was highly controversial with the critics applauding the artistic beauty of Lars von Trier but criticized the movie's substantive merit. This was first of Lars von Trier's unofficially named 'depression trilogy'. Gainsbourg later collaborated with Lars von Trier for the movies Melancholia (2011), and Nymphomaniac (2013), completing the trilogy. Both the movies received great international recognition and rave reviews. The movie Nymphomaniac portrays the life of a sex addict and when asked about the role, Gainsbourg said, "The sex scenes weren't so hard. For me, it was all the masochistic scenes. Those were embarrassing and, yes, a little humiliating." Charlotte also recorded a cover version of the song, Hey Joe, for the soundtrack of her movie Nymphomaniac (2013).
In 2012, Charlotte was a part of the jury for the Berlin International Film Festival, and also appeared in the movie Confession of a Child of the Century, starring alongside the English musician Pete Doherty. In 2016, Charlotte appeared in the movie Independence Day: Resurgence, a much anticipated sequel to the blockbuster movie, Independence Day released in 1996.
Independent Projects as a Singer
Two years priors to the release of her controversial movie, Charlotte for Ever (1986), in 1984 Charlotte released the song 'Lemon Incest'. Ironically, the song had incestuous lyrics depicting a paedophilic relationship between a father and a daughter. The song was sung by Charlotte and her father. A naïve Charlotte, who was just 13 at that time, later confessed that she was unaware of the gravity of the controversy surrounding the song. Two years later, she went on to release her debut album Charlotte for Ever.
In 2000, Gainsbourg was also featured on one of Madonna's music albums, Music. The track, What it feels like for a girl, featured a lengthy spoken intro by Gainsbourg which was already used in her film, The Clement Garden (1993).
It was only after a gap of 20 years that Charlotte released her second album, 5:55, in 2006, which reached the top of the French charts and also received a platinum status. Later, Charlotte revealed that she wasn't able to concentrate much on her singing after her father's death in 1991 and was too reluctant to explore it.
Three years later, she released her second album IRM. Charlotte later said that she was influenced by her experiences while shooting for the movie Antichrist (2009) and to the head injury she sustained in 2007 during which she had to do an MRI scan. Charlotte commented saying, “When I was inside that machine, it was an escape to think about music. It's rhythm. It was very chaotic.“
In 2010, her song, Heaven Can Wait, was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week, while one of her songs, Trick Pony, appeared at the beginning of Grey's Anatomy episode 'Perfect Little Accident'. A year later she released a double album Stage Whisper, which consisted a collection of unreleased songs from her album IRM and a few live tracks.
Early Life
Gainsbourg was born to singer and English actress Jane Birkin and French singer-songwriter and actor Serge Gainsbourg. Born at the time when her parents were constantly under the eye of the media after they made a sexually explicit song video Je t'aime... moi non plus. Owing to her parents' fame, Charlotte's childhood was widely publicized. She attended the private school, Ecole Active Billingue Jeannine Manuel, in Paris and was later enrolled in the College Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland.
Raised in Paris along with her half sister, Kate Berry, Charlotte's first language is French. However, she is also fluent in English. Gainsbourg has a younger brother Lucien Goldberg from her father's relationship with the famous French model, actress, and singer, Caroline Paulus, who is better known by her stage name, Bambou.
After her parents split in 1980, Charlotte's mother got into a relationship with the director Jacques Doillon and the couple gave birth to her half-sister, Lou Doillon. After the split, her father turned to alcoholism and eventually passed away due to a heart attack in 1991.
Personal Life
Gainsbourg has been in a relationship with the French-Israeli actor and director, Yvan Attal, who she met on the sets of the film, Aux yeux du monde, in 1991. Attal had publicly proposed Gainsbourg on 19th June 2013. However, in spite of being together for many years the couple is not married. Gainsbourg attributes her decision to the fact that her parents were never married. The couple has three children Ben (born in 1997), Alice (born in 2002), and Joe (born in 2011).
Movie Career
Most of Charlotte's family members work in the film industry – her maternal grandmother Judy Campbell was an actress, her uncle Andrew Birkin is a screenwriter, and her cousin, Sophie Hunter, is a theater and opera director – even so, she was never inclined towards movies. It was her mother who insisted her to act and so a young Charlotte made her acting debut with the movie Paroles et musique (1984). A couple of years later, Charlotte starred in the movie L'effrontee (1986) and won the Cesar award for her performance. She also appeared in the highly controversial movie, Charlotte for Ever (1986), which portrayed incestuous desires of a father towards his daughter. The movie was directed by Charlotte's father, Serge, and he also acted in the movie portraying the role of her father.
In 1988, she along with her mother starred in the movie Kung Fu Master. Five years later, Charlotte made her English debut in the movie The Clement Garden, which was written and directed by Andrew Birkin, her uncle. She soon made her stage debut in 1994 with Oleanna, a two-character play by David Mamet. Two years later she was cast in the lead role in the movie Jane Eyre, which received a positive response at the box office.
Continuing with her success, Charlotte went on to win another Cesar award for Best Supporting Actress for the movie La Buche (2000). Further, she went on to star in movies such as the highly acclaimed, 21 Grams (2003) directed by Alejandro G. Inarrittu, The Science of Sleep (2006) directed by Michel Gondry, and in the Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There (2007) directed by Todd Haynes.
In 2009 she teamed up with Lars von Trier and appeared in the experimental horror movie, Antichrist. The movie premiered at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and Gainsbourg went on the win the Best Actress Award at the event. The film, however, was highly controversial with the critics applauding the artistic beauty of Lars von Trier but criticized the movie's substantive merit. This was first of Lars von Trier's unofficially named 'depression trilogy'. Gainsbourg later collaborated with Lars von Trier for the movies Melancholia (2011), and Nymphomaniac (2013), completing the trilogy. Both the movies received great international recognition and rave reviews. The movie Nymphomaniac portrays the life of a sex addict and when asked about the role, Gainsbourg said, "The sex scenes weren't so hard. For me, it was all the masochistic scenes. Those were embarrassing and, yes, a little humiliating." Charlotte also recorded a cover version of the song, Hey Joe, for the soundtrack of her movie Nymphomaniac (2013).
In 2012, Charlotte was a part of the jury for the Berlin International Film Festival, and also appeared in the movie Confession of a Child of the Century, starring alongside the English musician Pete Doherty. In 2016, Charlotte appeared in the movie Independence Day: Resurgence, a much anticipated sequel to the blockbuster movie, Independence Day released in 1996.
Independent Projects as a Singer
Two years priors to the release of her controversial movie, Charlotte for Ever (1986), in 1984 Charlotte released the song 'Lemon Incest'. Ironically, the song had incestuous lyrics depicting a paedophilic relationship between a father and a daughter. The song was sung by Charlotte and her father. A naïve Charlotte, who was just 13 at that time, later confessed that she was unaware of the gravity of the controversy surrounding the song. Two years later, she went on to release her debut album Charlotte for Ever.
In 2000, Gainsbourg was also featured on one of Madonna's music albums, Music. The track, What it feels like for a girl, featured a lengthy spoken intro by Gainsbourg which was already used in her film, The Clement Garden (1993).
It was only after a gap of 20 years that Charlotte released her second album, 5:55, in 2006, which reached the top of the French charts and also received a platinum status. Later, Charlotte revealed that she wasn't able to concentrate much on her singing after her father's death in 1991 and was too reluctant to explore it.
Three years later, she released her second album IRM. Charlotte later said that she was influenced by her experiences while shooting for the movie Antichrist (2009) and to the head injury she sustained in 2007 during which she had to do an MRI scan. Charlotte commented saying, “When I was inside that machine, it was an escape to think about music. It's rhythm. It was very chaotic.“
In 2010, her song, Heaven Can Wait, was chosen as the Starbucks iTunes Pick of the Week, while one of her songs, Trick Pony, appeared at the beginning of Grey's Anatomy episode 'Perfect Little Accident'. A year later she released a double album Stage Whisper, which consisted a collection of unreleased songs from her album IRM and a few live tracks.
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