CANNES DISPATCH
Photographs by GREG WILLIAMS
Interview by JANE CROWTHER
Camille Cottin calls the particular bewilderment of a film festival ‘the vortex at Cannes,’ when Hollywood Authentic sits down with her at the JW Marriott on the Croisette, which is teeming with delegates and film fans. ‘Here, time is no more!’ she jokes, ‘Everything is completely changed – all perception of reality – when you’re here. You take big cars to go about 10 metres. You no longer talk in distance, it’s just ‘Majestic to Martinez’. Night is day, day is night. You talk about money as if you’re talking about love…’ Cottin has arrived in Cannes ahead of walking the red carpet of the premiere of Guillaume Canet and Marion Cotillard’s Karma alongside her fictional ASK agency team from global TV phenomenon Call My Agent!, to announce that the feature film of the show is arriving on Netflix in September. The show was a success in France before becoming a belated global hit and nearly six years after the final season, will return with George Clooney, Vincent Macaigne and Laetitia Casta playing themselves.
Fans of the show will remember discussion of the Cannes Film Festival in season two, when the whole agency wanted to attend such an important event, so it’s only fitting that the team should kick off their promotion in this storied place. ‘The show is about our industry, so I think it makes sense. And also, there’s going to be something a bit meta, regarding the script, the fact that we’re here. We’ve added a piece to the puzzle, I would say. I don’t want to spoil things…’ she says. What we do know is that Cottin’s spiky character, Andréa Martel, will be directing her own movie in the film, so perhaps Andréa will be climbing the famous red steps herself? ‘Of course, when you direct a film, being at Cannes is something that I suppose every director dreams of,’ she teases.
She’s not giving plot or guest appearances away, but the actor will discuss why the team is returning to the ASK offices after the show finished. ‘I think it came from a deep attachment to the characters and the relationship between them. There’s something quite generous and tender to that show regarding the humour, regarding the perception of our contemporaries in the industry. And I think it was the desire to continue this communication with the fans. The funny thing is that when we stopped filming and COVID happened, that’s when people outside France discovered it. So it’s maybe about bringing it back to the present.’ With its insider, meta comedy the show has spawned international remakes and, some might say, inspired The Studio. Not bad for a project that Cottin admits wasn’t an immediate hit. ‘Even in France, they didn’t want it at the beginning, because they thought it was too niche.’ She hasn’t watched the other versions of the show, but thinks that her character is such an intriguing creation that it translates across language and culture (though Andréa’s queerness was changed to heterosexual in the Turkish version).
‘It was great the way she didn’t try to be loved. I think it’s incredible, not only for the gay community, but as a woman, being completely free from the perception of others, and from the need to seduce or to be loved or to be approved. It’s something that is terribly cathartic and empowering and juicy to watch. And she’s absolutely not nice, which is quite funny. You could hate her, but she has a lot of integrity. That’s why she’s not a toxic person – because she is what she says she is, and she does what she says.’
Though she’d been a success in France, the role gave Cottin access to a wider range of work, and she’s since appeared in Stillwater with Matt Damon, then Allied, A Haunting in Venice and Golda. ‘That was something I dreamed of,’ she says of expanding her canvas. ‘I spent five years in London when I was a teenager, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Spain. I have this desire to work in other cultures. Working in a foreign language with another culture – it really turns me on. It excites me. I find it thrilling and exciting and interesting. I would be sad if I had to stay in one place, in one surrounding, in my four walls.’ She enjoys the discipline of acting in another language, she says. ‘Normally when you act, you really focus on how you feel, rather than how it sounds. When you’re acting you hope to lose your awareness of how it looks and how it sounds, and you’re just going through the beauty of how it feels. That’s the thing we’re all searching for. But in another language you have to have that awareness. You have to be aware of the shape of your tongue, your mouth. There are certain sounds that after some time you will not be able to imitate, because it has a certain shape…’ She smiles. ‘I’ve got the French mouth.’
She will be using her Mother tongue in the upcoming sumptuous French adaptation of Les Misérables.‘I think we have now, in our French industry, lots of appetite for putting on screen some of our best classics. And obviously it’s fun, because when I was cheeky to the director, he said, ‘Victor Hugo, what a showrunner’.’ She’s also filmed Edward Berger’s The Riders with Brad Pitt. ‘I loved working with Edward Berger. He gives you a lot of freedom, and at the same time he’s very precise. And even though he’s focused on what he does, he’s warm. And Brad is so kind.’ Now she’s worked with Pitt, Damon and, with the new Call My Agent! film, Clooney, it feels like she’s working her way through the Ocean’s 11 team. She laughs. ‘I’m desperately in need of Julia,’ she says before she disappears back into the vortex of the Croisette…
Call My Agent! The Movie arrives on Netflix 10 September 2026
