

Her pretty face lights up as she talks about Spectre and, in particular, her leading man Daniel Craig – her tussles with the language adding a charm to her descriptions. She’s wearing a stripy trouser suit with pops of purple – the sort of thing only a cool French girl could get away with. It’s no longer only about action and beautiful people. 'For me, Casino Royale was really something special. I think James Bond is part of one’s education – completely international and universal – and the stories just keep getting better.

Reclining in an armchair in the suite of a sleek Central London hotel, Léa, it seems, is being playful to lighten up what has been a strenuous day of promoting Spectre.īut if fulfilling press obligations in English – a tongue she admits she isn’t yet entirely comfortable in – can feel draining, making the film was anything but. ‘Not… “a Bond Girl!”’ This is all said in a heavy accent, and with a steely look in her eye.įor a terrifying moment, I worry that I have really offended her, but then her face erupts in laughter, revealing a gap-toothed grin that calls to mind another quirky French beauty, Vanessa Paradis, and I know we are going to be OK. ‘You should ask me, “How is it to play a very interesting female character in a James Bond film?”’ she reprimands, her voice rising with each word. I make this faux pas when meeting the 30-year-old Parisian, who plays Daniel Craig’s love interest in the upcoming 007 film Spectre, and a Gallic froideur falls across the room. Whatever you do, don’t call Léa Seydoux a Bond Girl. 'My character is a doctor, not a super-action girl, so in theory I didn’t need to be that fit but I did it for myself, to be comfortable in my body,' said Léa Seydoux of her role as psychologist Dr Madeleine Swann in Spectre
