Do we like them?

Do we like Léa Seydoux?

Our score: 7 out of 10. She has a clean record and has backed women who speak out, but the file is thin on LGBTQ+ and planet questions.

Seydoux was born into French film royalty: her grandfather chaired Pathé and her granduncle chaired Gaumont. She broke through in her twenties and shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes with co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos for Blue Is the Warmest Colour. She then became a Bond regular as Madeleine Swann in two films, and a staple of Wes Anderson, Cronenberg and Dune.

The Palme came with a rough shoot. A 2015 report described her experience as awful, with up to 100 takes per scene, and she agreed the film was a male fantasy, saying “It's bound to be if a man makes a film about two women.” She also said she wasn't angry with the director, but didn't regret her criticism.

In 2017 she wrote in The Guardian that Harvey Weinstein jumped on her on a sofa and tried to kiss her, and that she had to fight him off. She said the behaviour was an open secret, and Weinstein has denied all charges. Putting that in print took some nerve.

In 2024 she told The Sunday Times that President Macron's remarks backing Gérard Depardieu were “So strange. It was crazy.” Depardieu was set to stand trial over alleged sexual assaults, which he denies. At Cannes that month she said it was a wonderful thing that women were speaking out.

On the harm test, we found no words from her about trans people, migrants or the climate, so that part of the file is thin. What we did find points the right way: support for women speaking out. Her recent work runs through Anderson, Cronenberg, Villeneuve's Dune and arthouse dramas like Silent Friend and Gentle Monster, and no harmful company turned up.

Lately she is having a big year. She had two films in competition at Cannes, Gentle Monster and L'Inconnue, and she will preside over the César ceremony at the Olympia in Paris on 25 February 2027. She succeeds Camille Cottin in the role.