‘Da Vinci’ has left its mark on Tautou
Audrey Tautou knew she was getting into the biggest film of her career. She did not know she was getting into one of the biggest – and most debated – of her generation.
The French star, best known previously for the title role in the romantic charmer “Amelie,” was never one to seek Hollywood success. But it has found her with a co-starring role opposite Tom Hanks in “The Da Vinci Code.”
“I knew that it would be big, of course, because of the success of the book,” Tautou says.
What caught her by surprise was the media frenzy after director Ron Howard cast her as French police cryptologist Sophie Neveu.
“I was really not expecting that reaction, but two days after Ron called me, it was on every cover of the newspapers,” said Tautou, 27. “I knew that it would be a huge movie, but when I did the audition, I was not aware of the expectation of it.”
While she’s one of the hottest young actresses in France, Tautou had not figured she had much chance of landing the role of Sophie.
“They called me almost at the end of casting. They had seen many actresses before me and I thought that they would never call me because I was too young, too little, you know?” she says.
Like millions of others, Tautou had read Dan Brown‘s “The Da Vinci Code” early on, devouring it while on a vacation. Tautou had a Catholic school education but says her religious beliefs now are “lazy. I have faith, but it’s not focused on the Bible.”
So the theories the book spins about the origins of Christianity – and particularly the notion that Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene may have been married and had a child – did not bother Tautou the way it did many Christians.
“I think it’s just a few little people, very radical, who speak very loudly,” she says of the story’s critics. “Each time you make a movie about religion, there’s a controversy, because even if we are in countries where there is supposed to be freedom of expression, for some radical people it’s a condition that you can be free to speak about everything except religion.
“I think this movie can’t offend anybody. Nobody, it’s impossible. It’s a fiction, and when you see the movie, obviously it’s a fiction and it’s obvious that it’s meant to be entertaining.”
Life after “The Da Vinci Code” will be much the same as it was before, Tautou said. She has completed a comedy and is shooting a drama, both done in her home country, where her career will remain centered.
“I want to keep working in France, of course, but I could be interested by doing another English movie,” Tautou said. “But I won’t do just anything. I don’t forget that I’m a French actress, so there’s not a lot of interesting parts for a French actress in those movies.
“It’s not as if I was an American and had the opportunity to be in ‘Da Vinci Code,’ and now it could bring thousands of things. I really had a great experience, and I’m very happy with that.”
The birthday bunch
Comedian Al Franken is 55. Actor Mr. T is 54. Actor Judge Reinhold is 49. Actress Fairuza Balk (“The Waterboy”) is 32. Actress Sarah Ramos (“American Dreams”) is 15.