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Persepolis, Deneuve voices the mother of the main character, Marjane, a not old Iranian woman based on writer/codirector Marjane Satrapi.
“> EnlargeSony Pictures ClassicsOscar nominee: In Persepolis, Deneuve voices the mother of the main character, Marjane, a young Iranian woman based on writer/codirector Marjane Satrapi.
By Claudia Puig, USA TODAY BEVERLY HILLS — Catherine Deneuve, casually dressed in black jeans and T-shirt, politely asks permission, then lights up a cigarette with distinguishing trait grace.
The strikingly attractive French actress is refreshingly punctual and sans entourage for a chat in a Four Seasons hotel suite.
She is not draped in designer silks. Instead, her black cotton T-shirt proclaims the rights of journalists without borders. Still, her glamour is intact.
In from Paris to receive a career achievement tribute from the American Film Institute, the 64-year-old actress downplays her substantial body of work and iconic image.
She would rather talk about her latest starring role, a unassuming one in which her still-luminous beauty is not visible.
She lends her distinctive voice to the inventive Oscar-nominated animated film Persepolis (in French with English subtitles), which expands to more theaters Friday.
Deneuve plays the mother of the main character, who is voiced by her daughter, Chiara Mastroianni.
The young Iranian woman, Marjane, is an autobiographical character created by Marjane Satrapi, who wrote the Persepolis memoirs as graphic novels and wrote and co-directed the film.
The story of her coming of age during and after the Islamic revolution resonated for Deneuve as much in the manner that the opportunity to work with her daughter (by the late Italian player Marcello Mastroianni).
But it wasn’t the social family get-together one might expect.
“I didn’t in reality work through her,” Deneuve says, relaxed and thoughtful despite being on a tight schedule.
“We were never in the sort room since the voices were done before the drawings,” she says. “We didn’t have to sync it. We were able to read it as we wanted.”
So Deneuve recorded her lines, and Satrapi comprehend the other parts.
“The actors just recorded one by one,” Deneuve says. She and her daughter did have an opportunity to work in the like room when they recorded an English-language version of the animated film.
Gena Rowlands takes Danielle Darrieux’s place as the voice of Marjane’s grandmother, and Sean Penn has a key speaking component as Marjane’s uncle.
Speaking of mother-and-child reunions, Darrieux, who voiced the part of Deneuve’s character’s mother in Persepolis, also played Deneuve’s mother in 2002’s 8 Women.
Satrapi had very specific directions, Deneuve says, while allowing the veteran actress who began her acting career in her teens to call upon her breadth of experience. “She paid attention to everything but also gave me a lot of freedom.”
Iranian-born author/illustrator Satrapi has lived in Paris for several years, and Deneuve had met her before she was cast for the part.
“I like her very much,” Deneuve says. “I knew her work and loved all her books. I singly like her graphic black-and-white drawings and the way she uses them in a way that’s both surreal and realistic.
“I did a special issue of Vogue acting as chief editor a hardly any years ago, and I asked her to do a special drawing for it, a one-page comic strip, and it was wonderful.”
Deneuve speaks glowingly of the spirit of Satrapi’s volume and movie: “It is fresh and wistful, funny and self-mocking.”
Similar words could be used to describe Deneuve herself.
As she lights another cigarette, Deneuve notes that one of the first things she liked about Satrapi when they met was that the maker smoked as much as she did.
As a mother herself (Chiara is now 35), Deneuve tapped into some universal characteristics of parents coping with teen daughters. Her character, she says, is “concerned and understanding.”
Deneuve says she relished acting with only her voice.
“It’s a different style of acting, a bit more exaggerated and a great challenge.”
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Enlarge By Yves Herman, Reuters