French Cinema: Profile of Actress Audrey Fleurot

First published: March 29, 2018 by France Today Editors

From edited-out extra to GQ Woman of the Year, France’s fieriest star has had quite the stellar rise – no thanks to her distinctive looks

You don’t want to mess with the actress who took Woody Allen to task. “Hang on a minute,” we hear you huff. “Audrey Fleurot never so much as rolled up a Gauloise in one of his films.” You wouldn’t be wrong – and therein lies the rub. She was edited out of Midnight in Paris in 2011. It seems the fiery redhead made quite the faux pas on set by daring to march up to Mr Allen to bid him good day, unaware the legendary director is never to be accosted (especially by peripheral cast). Then she got the chop in the final cut; and did not keep the slight to herself. The jury is still out on whether the two incidents are connected.

This minor hiccup did little to hamper her thriving TV career and may have gone some way to endear her just a tad further to the public. After all, she was hailed Woman of the Year 2016 by GQ. One thing is certain, the assured comédienne is as single- minded and outspoken as her on-screen alter-egos. From an unscrupulous criminal lawyer in hit series Spiral, to her turn as a lapsed résistante meted out with a shaved head for sleeping with the enemy in Un Village Français, she is partial to fiercely independent and sympathetically neurotic characters.

We know what you’re thinking: with her femme fatale charms and cascading red mane she must have had her pick of meaty roles from the word go. Not so. Refusing to be typecast as tongue-tied wallflowers or token eye-candy (as beauties are wont to be) she had to contend with years of walk-in stints before graduating to fleshed-out parts in a flurry of TV shows, seemingly overnight. At one time she starred simultaneously in three series, hogging three back-to-back nightly slots each week.

The ubiquitous face of prime-time telly eventually clinched her breakthrough film role in the award-winning Intouchables alongside Omar Sy. While she now has the adoring French public tightly wrapped around her finger – and some Brits too thanks to the cross-Channel success of Spiral – she is tipped for Stateside glory with her upcoming Netflix series, Safe, created by crime master Harlan Coben and fronted by Michael C. Hall. Now, that’s what you call having the last laugh…

10-Second CV: A screen star’s life in one take

Name: Audrey Fleurot

Born: July 6, 1977 in Mantes-la-Jolie

Early career: She caught her first TV break as the Lady of the Lake in popular sketch-show Kaamelott, before being cast as Hortense Larcher in acclaimed period drama, and one of France’s longest-running shows, Un Village Français.

I know the face… She plays indomitable and unpredictable criminal lawyer Joséphine Karlsson in hit crime series Spiral. And she starred alongside France’s acting golden boy Omar Sy in box office corker and award-winning dramedy Intouchables.

Where will we see her next? She is poised to star as Zoe, an elusive school teacher, alongside Broadway royalty and Dexter star Michael C. Hall in Harlan Coben’s gritty eight-part thriller, Safe, on Netflix. Watch this space!

C’est pas vrai! She underwent three months of intensive wrestling training to play down-on- her-luck cashier-turned-WWE fighter Jessica in the movie Les Reines du Ring back in 2013. She is also a keen tango dancer.