Breaking down actress Camille Cottin's career path post 'Call My Agent'

Get to know the captivating actress Camille Cottin, who portrayed Andréa Martel in Call My Agent! Cottin, who is well-known for her stylish and merciless performances, is talented enough to play characters other than Lady Gaga's romantic rival or alongside Matt Damon. In-person, she radiates humour and humility, prioritising her passion for her profession over celebrity despite her intense on-screen persona. Cottin's path serves as evidence of the powerful impact of her performances.

I fell in love with Andréa Martel during lockdown. At a time when even sitting on a park bench could earn you a court appearance, it was wonderfully refreshing to see a woman doing whatever she felt like, in the teeth of society’s disapproval.

The anti-heroine of Call My Agent!, a French-language comedy-drama set in a Parisian talent agency, Martel was chic, witty, and completely ruthless in pursuit of her clients’ advantage and her own pleasure. As a result, though the greats of French cinema, including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Juliette Binoche, and Jean Reno were given cameo roles as themselves, their portrayals seemed pallid compared to Martel’s swaggering confidence. It made perfect sense to learn from Camille Cottin, the actress who portrayed her so unforgettably, that she had modelled her performance on the notorious rake Don Juan—the difference being that Cottin managed to seduce the entire globe. 

Subsequently, filmmakers have scrambled to sign her up. She starred in Stillwater opposite Matt Damon, played Lady Gaga’s love rival in House of Gucci, had a recurring role in Killing Eve as the lethally elegant assassin recruiter Hélène and, most recently, appeared in Kenneth Branagh’s latest Poirot excursion, A Haunting in Venice, portraying a sinister nun-turned-housekeeper.

In person, Cottin is far less intimidating than her roles might suggest; she is funny, softly spoken and unassuming. She laughs at the idea that her new fame may be hard to cope with—"I’m not Brad Pitt! It’s nice when people come and talk to me"—and says that, until recently, neither of her children had seen any of her work. "I want to make it clear to them that fame is not the goal," she explains. "It’s finding something you like to do." How fortunate for the rest of us that what Cottin likes to do is so effortlessly compelling.

This piece originally appeared in the Dec 2023/Jan 2024 print issue of Harper's Bazaar UK. 

Feature image: @infosseriesfr, @wiseandtalented/Instagram