“Can you get scared by something that’s not actually here?” a director asks Léa Seydoux, portraying an actor filming a commercial before a green screen in The Beast, the unsettling new movie by French provocateur Bertrand Bonello.
That neatly summarizes the primary concern of the time-skipping story, loosely based on Henry James’s 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle but set across the past, present, and future. Seydoux and George MacKay (1917) play unrequited lovers destined to find one another through place and time, with one or the other consumed by the deep-seated terror of some strange, horrible, obliterating unknown—the titular menace.
It’s an exploration of fear, love, and the fear of love, through the lens of genre: a swooning costume drama set in 1910 Paris; a psychosexual nightmare in 2014 Los Angeles; and a serene but disturbing vision of AI stripping humanity of emotions in 2044, a mere 20 years from now. Think Past Lives meets Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with a Lynchian swerve in the final third—or, as Seydoux puts it early on, admiring a series of paintings, “Violent, psychiatric, and rather beautiful.”
The historical settings reference real-life catastrophes, and the production suffered one of its own when Gaspard Ulliel, originally starring opposite Seydoux, died in a 2022 skiing accident three months before shooting was set to begin. (MacKay was cast months later and had to learn French tout de suite.) It premiered to raves at last summer’s Venice International Film Festival, after being rejected by Cannes.
Aside from being a once-in-a-generation Gallic beauty with a name full of creamy vowels, Seydoux has become one of the most thrilling stars of the past decade, since her breakout in 2013’s Blue Is the Warmest Color. (She and costar Adèle Exarchopoulos remain the only actors to ever receive Cannes’s Palme d’Or.) Before that, she’d already been in films by Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott, and Catherine Breillat; after, she worked with Yorgos Lanthimos, Sam Mendes, Xavier Dolan, and Thomas Vinterberg and maintains the rare distinction of appearing in both James Bond and Mission Impossible franchises.
In the past three years alone, she was a standout of Wes Anderson’s ensemble in The French Dispatch and led films by David Cronenberg and Mia Hansen-Løve (the range!) before turning in a tantalizing cameo in Dune: Part Two. She also starred in video game auteur Hideo Kojima’s 2019 blockbuster Death Stranding and has been a brand ambassador for Louis Vuitton since 2016.
Seydoux recently spoke with Vogue from Paris about connecting with such an extraordinary story, why she was determined to stay with the project after Ulliel’s death, and how she copes with the many things to be frightened of today.
Vogue: There’s a lot going in this film that’s out of the ordinary. Did you recognize or connect to anything personally?
Leá Seydoux: All the characters I play are always me—I don’t think I can really play someone else. I’ve played many different characters with many different directors, but as an actor, when you tell a story, you have to make it personal. You have to talk about yourself, otherwise you can’t be sincere. It can take different forms, but it has to be very incarnated. I recognized some of my fears and my questioning, as this film has also a philosophical dimension. The fact that it was challenging appealed to me—I had to make believable the same character in three different periods, and I speak both English and French.
How did you keep your character consistent through the three very different periods?
She’s driven by the same forces and fears, even if they’re not expressed the same way. In 1910 they are completely repressed. In 2014 they are overexpressed and overwhelming. Then in 2044, they are totally suppressed. She has this desire of loving—she’s desperate to love and connect with someone.
You’ve worked with Bertrand Bonello twice before this. What attracts you to him as a director?
First, he’s a friend, and this is the first time that I’ve had a big part when working with him. I’m attracted by his intelligence and was drawn to his vision and cinematic language. Curiosity is the main thing. Acting has helped me learn things about the world and humanity. It’s like reading a book or going to a museum.
The director has noted how committed you were to making this film even after Gaspard Ulliel’s death. What made you so determined?
It’s because of Gaspard, for sure. Sometimes you get films that become a necessity—I felt I had to do it. I also had a lot of freedom to try things. Bertrand is very kind and loving, so I was in good hands. It’s always nice as an actor to feel that you are creating something with the director. With Bertrand, it was really an artistic collaboration.
You find yourself in so many different scenarios in this film, some of which are more than a little distressing. Was there one that was particularly challenging for you?
The hardest part for me was the underwater scenes because I’m very claustrophobic. But they are also the most beautiful scenes of the film. I’m also by myself most of the time in the film, which was tough. But loneliness is the subject of the film, and I was drawn to that in the script. Loneliness is one of the main hallmarks of contemporary life.
You’ve said that you don’t like to know too much about the characters you play. Why do you find this to be the right approach?
I just want to be in the moment. I have a very instinctive approach to acting. This is what I’m looking for as an actor—I want to abandon myself. I wanted to make her tangible and truthful, and for that I didn’t try to analyze too much.
You’ve had such an exciting range of work over the past few years, and the roles are so different from each other. What do you consider when assessing a role?
Making a film with a director is like having a conversation, and they all have their own languages. Cinema is a way to question the world. When I work with someone, I’m curious to know what they think. It’s as simple as that. If I feel we have a certain connection and can make a film together in a collaborative way in which the actor is almost like a co-author, that is something that I really appreciate. But there’s no premeditation—I go with the flow.
The movie can be quite unsettling at times, and fear is one of its themes. What’s something that you find unsettling today?
So many things. I’m so scared of the world, to be honest. I’m lucky to live in a country where I’m free, that is a democracy. But when I hear about what’s happening everywhere, it’s very, very scary—climate change, the environment, social media, the fact the world is becoming more divided. But I try to find some beauty, in every sense of the word. I try to surround myself with beauty—it helps me to live.
I have to ask: I saw your recent Vidéo Club episode, and one of the films you called out as formative was 1989’s Look Who’s Talking, in which Bruce Willis voices the interior monologue of a wisecracking baby. People don’t talk about this movie anymore, but it’s one of my favorites too.
[Laughs.] It disappeared completely. It’s strange.
What spoke to you about that movie?
I just love the fact that the baby was talking. It was such an amazing idea.
You just did your first comedy, which will open this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Did Look Who’s Talking influence you somehow?
It’s not really the same. You can’t really compare those. But I love comedies. We need joy and fun and to laugh. That’s a way to remain alive, to be in those pure emotions. The comedy I just did, the script was hilarious, so I can’t wait to see it. That’s what we need right now. The world is very dark—we need lightness as well.
The Beast is in theaters now.
