PARIS | Laure Calamy was introduced to the public a few years ago with her role as a loving secretary in the popular French series Call my agent. At 47, the actress is fully enjoying this late success, multiplying her appearances in cinema. Encounter.
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We saw her opposite Suzanne Clément in the thriller The Origin of Evil, which was released in early January. She is defending the title role in the film Annie Colère, which opens next Friday. She will also star in the dramatic comedy Les Cyclades, which is expected in cinemas in the province at the end of March.
You will have understood: Laure Calamy will be very present on our big screens this year. In seven years, this actress from the theater world has become one of the most sought-after actresses in French cinema.
“It used to be the boys first. Now there are the old premieres!” joked the actress, who met in Paris last month as part of the Rendez-vous d’Unifrance.
“I can only be happy about everything that happens to me. Success that comes late is a phenomenon we’ve seen many times in men at one point. Actors like Jean Rochefort and Jean-Pierre Marielle entered the cinema in their forties. Back then it was less common for actresses, but now I feel like something is opening up for women.
A dedicated role
With her passion and boundless energy, Laure Calamy has often excelled in comedy. But her social and political commitment sometimes pushes her to take on more dramatic roles. This is what happened with Annie Colère, director Blandine Lenoir’s (Aurore) new film, which focuses on the actions of the Movement for Freedom of Abortion and Contraception (MLAC), which helped change the abortion law in France in the mid-1970s.
Laure Calamy embodies the character of Annie, a worker mother of two who accidentally becomes pregnant. Not wanting a third child, she appealed to the MLAC, a group of women who practice clandestine abortions. Well received by the movement, Annie decides to join her fight to get the abortion law passed.
“As a blandine [Lenoir] When I was approached to tell me about this project, I was immediately drawn to the idea of highlighting MLAC’s actions, which I had already heard about from my mother, says Laure Calamy.
“In a way, I felt like I was telling a slightly distant story about my mother’s life. She was well aware of this reality, being a nurse herself at the time. There were interesting conversations between her and me. She told me that the nurses helped each other during the abortion with needles and penicillin injections to prevent infection. You can’t imagine what hell it was like for these young women who wanted to live their sexuality freely and who had to live with that sword of Damocles that kept falling on their heads on a regular basis.
Aside from being seduced by the film’s subject, Laure Calamy really had a crush on the character of Annie, a more humble and internalized role than the one she’s used to playing in cinema.
“She’s a woman who has undoubtedly lived her life without questioning herself deeply about certain things and followed the path that seemed preordained for her, which was to get married and have children,” she says.
“But by meeting the MLAC activists, she will finally gain confidence and allow herself to become a thinking mind. And I like that. The characters I like the most are the ones that are on the move and developing. I found that very beautiful and moving in Annie Colère’s.
♦ The Movie Annie Zorn hits theaters on February 10th.