Camille Cottin, the interview: the mothers, the new film, Call my agent! and Lady Gaga

This article is published in issue 49 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 5 December 2023. To celebrate our #20changes with us, read here

The art of wearing unkempt hair gracefully is one of the best kept secrets of Parisians, and one that everyone else would like to learn. These are somewhat silly things you think when it appears on a video call Camille Cottinthe actress who infused her being Parisian into her most famous character, the entertainment agent Andréa di Call my agent!. She is that very neurotic and very charming woman who in the series lives for her job, while in Paris she leads a very intense love life. She is already famous in France as the main actress of Connassea series composed of comedy sketches, featuring Call my agent! Camille Cottin rose to international fame with roles in Killing Eve, House of Gucci (it was Paola Franchi), The Girl from Stillwater alongside Matt Damon and Murder in Venice; not to mention that the champion Phoebe Waller-Bridge wanted her as her alter ego Mouchethe French remake of his cult series, Fleabag. Today she is the protagonist of an auteur film, directed by the young Nathan Ambrosioni, which is entitled I’ll start again with myselfstory of Toni, former singer of only one hit from the nineties, and single mother of five children, who at 43 years old finds herself faced with the first abandonments of the nursery and the problem of reinventing a life (and an identity) outside of the role of mother.

I’ll start again with myself it is a film that very well tells the story of a mother’s crisis or perhaps the one that all mothers experience when their children grow up.
«In the screenplay, written by a 22-year-old boy – therefore closer to the age of the children than that of the mother – I was especially struck by the delicacy with which he talks about this woman and the precise moment in which the children stop considering her only mom, but they also see the person. Toni feels that he has to question himself again and thinks about enrolling in university, but he knows that the change will upset the family.”

Toni is also a single woman.
«I was very moved by the way in which the film talks about his loneliness, within a very large and noisy family. It is the loneliness of the parent, it is a type of universal loneliness that one feels when faced with doubts and responsibilities related to children. I find that Nathan’s approach (Ambrosioni, the director, ed) is very poetic.”

You have two children: Léon, 13, and Anna, 8. Have you ever felt trapped in the role of mother, without any space for yourself?
«I don’t, but I think the situation of mothers is still extremely difficult. Today, women work and have families, but they all experience a constant dose of guilt and a form of fear. The new models are still fragile, in our society it will always be said that children need their mother, in the collective conscience it is written that an absent father will not have the same impact on the evolutionary process of the child if the mother is not there. And even when a dad is very present, it’s still less important. Why?”.

Yes, why?
«The mother is a political issue, she belongs to society, to the community: she can be the subject of sanctions and restrictions. A bit like what happens with women’s bodies, we allow ourselves to say what a woman who has a child should be and do. Perhaps it is a problem that is not very obvious but which is incredible.”

Also because looking after children is a job with a deadline.
«Yes, the film, as Nathan says, also talks about “the planned obsolescence of motherhood”. When children grow up, many mothers have to reinvent themselves, but society has not put in place any tools to accommodate this transition.”

How are you, who is often away from home making films, affected by maternal guilt?
«Time with my children is precious, and although I obviously don’t want to agree with society that wants us at home to make food, for me it is essential to share everyday life with them. A child will never tell you: mom, this thing happened that traumatized me, I would like to talk about it with you. We need to be present and watch over them. So, in my case, even though I’m lucky enough to still be with the father of my children and share everything with him, when they propose a film to me one of the first questions is whether it will be shot in Paris or not. It is a factor to consider, because my daughter is still young and she wants me to be present.”

And the big one?
“No, he’s 13 and can’t wait for me to leave, he thinks it’s too much on him.” He laughs.

In Italy she became famous with Call my agent! Why do you like your character, Andréa so much?
«Andréa embodies a very modern type of femininity and the series never problematizes her homosexuality. She is a woman who has great power in work, she is very free in love relationships, she is intelligent, full of sense of humor, she is seductive. And then she has this very Parisian style, with those skinny jeans and flat shoes. She is someone you want to follow wherever she goes.”

Have you seen the Italian remake of the series?
«No, unfortunately not. Was it liked in Italy?”.

Yes, great reviews. The same cannot be said of House of Gucciwith the controversies that have arisen.
“I don’t know anything, tell me.”

The film has been criticized, among other things, for its stereotypical portrayal of Italians.
«It’s a film that is a saga, I liked it a lot. Lady Gaga studied Italian a lot, she spent six months in Italy to prepare, she worked a lot.”

Is it true that Lady Gaga never left Patrizia Gucci’s character on set and therefore never spoke to her?
«She was very kind, at the beginning of filming she told me that she was so focused on her work, which was her first after the film with Bradley Cooper (A star was born, ed.) that she didn’t feel like going out of character and therefore wouldn’t be very warm towards me. Then towards the end of the set she came to me and said that looking back maybe she could have done it differently. She is a very lovable and elegant person. This attitude is not so obvious among actors, she pays attention to others.”