Ludivine Sagnier
Template:Short description Template:Infobox person Ludivine Sagnier (born 3 July 1979)<ref name=enc>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> is a French actress, known to international audiences for the films Swimming Pool and Peter Pan (both 2003), and the Netflix series Lupin (2021–present). She has also appeared in the English-language series The Young Pope (2016) and The Serpent Queen (2022–2024).
Sagnier has been nominated for the César Award for Best Supporting Actress three times, for her performances in 8 Women (2002), Swimming Pool, and A Secret (2007).
Early life
Sagnier was born on 3 July 1979<ref name=enc/> in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, in the département of Yvelines, France, and grew up in Sèvres.<ref name=Lawrence>Template:Cite web</ref> Her mother is a retired secretary and her father is a professor of English at the University of Paris.<ref name=Tang>Template:Cite news</ref> She has one sister, Delphine.<ref name=Tang/> As a child, Sagnier underwent abdominal surgery to remove a benign tumor from her intestine, resulting in a surgical scar on her abdomen.<ref name=psychologies>Template:Cite web</ref> Following this surgery, she also fell ill with meningitis, from which she recovered.<ref name=psychologies/>
Sagnier studied piano at a young age but disliked performing music, and instead opted to take acting classes with her parents' permission.<ref name=psychologies/> Commenting on this, she said: "My only desire was to escape classical music. In my family, everyone is a musician. I took piano lessons and I hated this instrument. To escape it and music theory, I asked to take acting classes. It was during one of them that I was noticed for a casting. And I was accepted. It then took me years to understand that this was the profession I wanted to pursue."<ref name=psychologies/>
Career
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1989–2003
She made her film debut at the age of nine in Les Maris, les Femmes, les Amants (1989), directed by Pascal Thomas, and had other minor roles in the early 1990s, including an appearance in Cyrano de Bergerac with Gerard Depardieu.
Sagnier's career began in earnest in adulthood, as she gained commercial and critical success for her performances in three films directed by François Ozon: Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000), 8 Women (2002), and Swimming Pool (2003). 8 Women was awarded acting prizes for Sagnier and her seven co-stars collectively.
In Swimming Pool, a psychological thriller, she starred alongside Charlotte Rampling. Sagnier received significant international media attention for performing several nude scenes in the film, having previously also done so in Water Drops on Burning Rocks;<ref name=tinkham>Template:Cite web</ref> she would later express disappointment that this led directors in the United States to attempt to typecast her in sexually explicit roles.<ref name=clarke/> Nonetheless her work in Swimming Pool earned her several accolades, including a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the César Awards. Also in 2003, Sagnier played Tinker Bell in P.J. Hogan's live-action adaptation of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. Initially, she had been brought in to provide inspiration to the film's visual effects department for a CGI model that was being created for the character, but she impressed the production team with her performance and was cast in the role.<ref name=tinkham/>
2004–2020
Despite being primed for a lucrative international career in the wake of Swimming Pool and Peter Pan, Sagnier chose to focus primarily on French cinema, stating that she felt uncomfortable with the competitive nature of the Hollywood film industry.<ref name=clarke>Template:Cite web</ref> She subsequently appeared in French films including Love Songs (2007), A Secret (2007), which garnered her another César nomination for Best Supporting Actress, and Mesrine (2008). 2011 saw her return to international work with a role in the biographical drama The Devil's Double. In 2016, she appeared alongside Jude Law in the Paolo Sorrentino-directed miniseries The Young Pope, later reprising her role in the follow-up series The New Pope (2020).
2021–present
Since 2021 Sagnier has starred in the Netflix-produced crime thriller series Lupin as Claire Laurent, the estranged wife of protagonist Assane Diop (Omar Sy) and the mother to their son Raoul, whom she is raising alone. Loosely based on the Arsène Lupin stories written by Maurice Leblanc, the show became an international hit, and has been regarded as one of Netflix' most successful series in a language other than English.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Sagnier's performance as Claire has received praise from critics, with Robert Lloyd of the Los Angeles Times writing that "like Sy, [she] brings a lot of soul to her part ... and the two actors have great chemistry."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Following the success of Lupin, Sagnier was cast in several English-language historical dramas. In the STARZ series The Serpent Queen (2022–2024), about the life and rise to power of Catherine de' Medici, she portrayed Catherine's rival Diane de Poitiers. Sagnier said that she was drawn to the role of Diane because she was interested in playing an antagonist, something she had seldom done in her career prior to then.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She also made an appearance as Thérésa Tallien in Ridley Scott's biopic Napoleon (2023), though her performance was cut from the theatrical version of the film,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and played composer Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy in the Apple TV+ miniseries Franklin (2024), about Benjamin Franklin's expedition to France during the time of the American Revolutionary War.
In 2024, Sagnier featured in the film adaptation of Nicolas Mathieu's novel And Their Children After Them, and reunited with François Ozon after a two-decade hiatus in their creative relationship for When Fall Is Coming. That same year she was nominated for a Molière Award for her performance in Le Consentement, a one-woman play based on the memoir of the same name by Vanessa Springora.
Personal life
Sagnier gave birth to a daughter in 2005, with her then boyfriend, actor Nicolas Duvauchelle.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> She is in a relationship with her partner, director Kim Chapiron, with whom she has two daughters.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In a 2019 podcast interview with journalist Frédéric Taddeï, Sagnier stated that the politician she admired most was left-wing former Minister of Justice of France Christiane Taubira.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2024, she was one of 230 artists who signed a petition calling on president Emmanuel Macron to officially recognize the state of Palestine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Since 2020, Sagnier has developed and taught an acting course at the École Kourtrajmé. The school, founded in 2018 by director Ladj Ly in his native Montfermeil, provides training to students from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds who are interested in pursuing careers in the dramatic arts and the film industry.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Les Maris, les Femmes, les Amants | Élodie | Pascal Thomas | |
| I Want to Go Home | La petite fille de la place du village | Alain Resnais | ||
| 1990 | Le pont du silence | La petite fille | Martine Bureau | short film |
| Cyrano de Bergerac | The little sister | Jean-Paul Rappeneau | ||
| 1999 | Mon frère | Sophie | Matthias Fégyvères | short film |
| Le ciel, les oiseaux,... et ta mère! | dance girl #1 | Djamel Bensalah | ||
| Rembrandt | Cornelia van Rijn | Charles Matton | ||
| Children of the Century | Hermine de Musset | Diane Kurys | ||
| Acide animé | Anna | Guillaume Bréaud | short film | |
| 2000 | Water Drops on Burning Rocks | Anna | François Ozon | |
| Bon plan | Clémentine | Jérôme Lévy | ||
| 2001 | Un jeu d'enfants | Daphnée | Laurent Tuel | |
| My Wife Is an Actress | Géraldine | Yvan Attal | ||
| 2002 | 8 Women | Catherine | François Ozon | |
| Les frères Hélias | Victoire | Frédy Busso | short film | |
| 2003 | Petites coupures | Nathalie | Pascal Bonitzer | |
| La légende de Parva | Lula | Jean Cubaud | voice role | |
| Swimming Pool | Julie | François Ozon | ||
| La Petite Lili | Lili | Claude Miller | ||
| Peter Pan | Tinker Bell | P. J. Hogan | ||
| 2005 | Une aventure | Gabrielle | Xavier Giannoli | |
| Foon | La reine du bal de l'an dernier | Les Quiches | ||
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Claire | Alfonso Cuarón | segment: "Parc Monceau" |
| French California | Helène | Jacques Fieschi | ||
| Toothache | Anna | Ian Simpson | ||
| Coup de sang | La serveuse | Jean Marbœuf | ||
| 2007 | Molière | Célimène | Laurent Tirard | |
| Love Songs | Julie Pommeraye | Christophe Honoré | ||
| A Girl Cut in Two | Gabrielle Aurore Deneige | Claude Chabrol | ||
| A Secret | Hannah Golda Stirn/Grinberg | Claude Miller | ||
| 2008 | Mesrine | Sylvia Jeanjacquot | Jean-François Richet | |
| 2010 | Lily Sometimes | Lily Dreyer | Fabienne Berthaud | |
| Love Crime | Isabelle Guérin | Alain Corneau | ||
| 2011 | The Devil's Double | Sarrab | Lee Tamahori | |
| Beloved | young Madeleine | Christophe Honoré | ||
| A Monster in Paris | Maud | Bibo Bergeron | voice role | |
| 2013 | Love Is in the Air | Julie | Alexandre Castagnetti | |
| 2014 | Lou! Journal infime | the mother | Julien Neel | |
| Tristesse Club | Chloé | Vincent Mariette | ||
| 2015 | Through the Air | Delphine Cavelle | Fred Grivois | |
| 2018 | Lola & Her Brothers | Lola Esnard | Jean-Paul Rouve | |
| Rémi sans famille | Madame Barberin | Antoine Blossier | ||
| 2019 | Fourmi | Chloé | Julien Rappeneau | |
| Un monde plus grand | Louise | Fabienne Berthaud | ||
| The Truth | Anna | Hirokazu Kore-eda | ||
| La Forêt de mon père | Carole | Vero Cratzborn | ||
| 2021 | Les Méchants | Virginie Arioule | Mouloud Achour, Dominique Baumard | |
| The Hive | Alice | Christophe Hermans | ||
| Adieu Paris | Michael's daughter | Édouard Baer | ||
| 2023 | Napoleon | Theresa Cabarrus | Ridley Scott | director's cut only |
| 2024 | And Their Children After Them | Hélène Casati | Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma | |
| When Fall Is Coming | Valérie Tessier | François Ozon | Her fourth film with Ozon | |
| 2025 | Mika ex Machina | herself | Deborah Saïag, Mika Tard | |
| Template:Pending | Après | Kirill Serebrennikov |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | La famille Fontaine | Anne-Sophie | |
| Vacances au purgatoire | Sophie | TV movie | |
| 1996 | Le secret d'Iris | Mylène | TV movie |
| 1998 | Meurtres sans risque | Virginie Gallais | TV movie |
| À nous deux la vie | Charlotte | TV movie | |
| Passion interdite | Estelle | TV movie | |
| 1999 | Mission protection rapprochée | Melinda Moores | |
| 2000 | La banquise | Anna Kowalski | TV movie |
| Des monstres a l'état pur | Ginnie | TV short | |
| 2002 | Marie Marmaille | Marie | TV movie |
| Napoléon | Hortense de Beauharnais | miniseries | |
| Navarro | Vanessa Berger | ||
| 2016 | The Young Pope | Esther Aubry | miniseries |
| 2020 | The New Pope | miniseries | |
| 2021–present | Lupin | Claire Laurent | Netflix series |
| 2022–2024 | The Serpent Queen | Diane de Poitiers | Starz series |
| 2024 | Franklin | Anne Louise Brillon de Jouy | Apple TV+ miniseries |
Theatre
| Year | Title | Role | Author | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022; 2024 | Le Consentement | multiple | Vanessa Springora | Sébastien Davis |
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Template:European Film Award for Best Actress Template:Cannes Film Festival Revelation Award
- Living people
- 20th-century French actresses
- 21st-century French actresses
- Best Actress European Film Award winners
- French child actresses
- French film actresses
- French television actresses
- People from Yvelines
- Actresses from Île-de-France
- French stage actresses
- 1979 births
- Chopard Trophy for Female Revelation winners