Audrey Tautou plays glamorous gold digger
PARIS (AP) - March 27, 2008 That's what makes "Priceless" a surprise: Tautou plays a
manipulative, gold-digging, label-obsessed hanger-on.
"It's not necessarily the vibe that I give off, or what I
inspire in people," Tautou told The Associated Press in an
interview at a Paris cafe. "So for me it was a fabulous
opportunity to be able to construct a character, to do a bit more
comedy, to transform myself."
In "Priceless," hitting theaters Friday in several U.S.
cities, Tautou plays Irene, a dark-haired knockout with a taste for
the high life, like luxury hotels on the Cote d'Azur and Chanel and
Azzaro evening gowns. Because of her modest means, she attaches
herself to rich older men who let her live out her fantasy of being
rich.
Her scheme goes smoothly until she somehow mistakes a timid
hotel waiter named Jean (standup comic Gad Elmaleh) for a
millionaire and, after a night of cocktails with paper umbrellas,
goes to bed with him. He falls for her, and finds himself a sugar
mama so he can stay in her high-flying world. Irene does everything
she can to get rid of Jean, like emptying out his bank account on
shopping sprees.
Director Pierre Salvadori, who conceived the movie for Tautou -
hanging her picture on the wall while he worked on the script -
said he needed an actress who could make Irene's nastiness somehow
palatable.
"I felt like (Tautou) could save the character," he said.
"She's so tough, mean and manipulative, and if she's not played by
someone with humor, fantasy and poetry, the character will
immediately be hated."
While this isn't Tautou's first bad-girl role (she played a
stalker in "He Loves Me ... He Loves Me Not") Tautou, who made
her name playing the gamine do-gooder in "Amelie," says she
didn't take on "Priceless" out of a wish to play against type.
"I've never chosen a role in that way - I've never tried to
have an image, to create one, to preserve it," the 31-year-old
Tautou said. "I take pleasure in getting into different
adventures, with different people that - and this may be
egotistical - will bring me something new."
Part of the fun of "Priceless" was the fancy gowns. Tautou
spends the movie strutting around in skimpy designer dresses and
strappy stilettos. Though she'll play fashionista Coco Chanel in
her next film, still in development, she's more into comfortable
clothes in real life. To the interview, Tautou wore a gray cotton
shift, a fluffy back cardigan and not a trace of visible makeup.
"I'm not someone who tries to play up my femininity, that's not
really in my nature," she said. "Something I discovered playing
this role, wearing outfits I never wore before, was that I could
also be a kind of object of desire and of male fantasy, and that's
not something that has ever crossed my mind."
Tautou - who comes off as down-to-earth and yes, sweet -
sprinkled the interview with hints of her modesty. When she learned
she would be co-starring with Elmaleh, a major star in France,
Tautou said she worried she "couldn't hold a candle to him" and
his comic talent.
She also said that, while she's open to doing more American
films after "The Da Vinci Code," she doesn't really see why
Hollywood directors would seek her out.
"I'm not at all against the idea of doing a movie in English
again," Tautou said. "The only thing I don't feel capable of
doing is going off to conquer Hollywood. I don't think I have the
strength for it, and I don't feel the desire ... And I really don't
see why someone would say, hey, I'm going to go hire that little
French girl from (the provincial town of) Montlucon, who has almost
never set foot in Los Angeles."