From cinema to television, Julie Gayet has become an essential figure with the French. At the start of his career, the French star was however destined for another path. Interviewed by Pascal Nègre on the airwaves of RFM in June 2022, she revealed that she wanted to be an opera singer during her young years.
“It was while singing that I realized that I wanted to play even more and be completely. I had the impression that when I was singing, then it was lyrical singing, it’s true that it was still more particular, but I had the impression that I was pretending to be sad”, she declared, quoted by the site of Gala.fr. “But no, I want to cry, I want to collapse, to scream”.
If she abandons her vocation as an opera singer to turn to comedy, Julie Gayet wants to refine her acting as a teenager. Trained at Tania Balachova’s theatre-school, at the Fratellini circus school, she also studied art history, cinema and psychology at the Sorbonne-Nouvelle. It was in the 1990s that she took her first steps in a cult series, before landing her first roles in the cinema. After 30 years of career, Planet has chosen to return to its roles in 5 memorable fictions.
In 1992, Julie Gayet made her first appearance on television in First Kisses, the sitcom signed AB Productions. A small incursion where we see the actress for a few seconds in a cult scene. “I shot a scene, once in First Kisses. And it was pretty cool because I was coming in, I was slapping the boys and I was coming out. And I had paid my stamp! “, had fun the actress committed to the women’s cause at the microphone of RTL.
In 1995, Les Cents et Une Nuit de Simon Cinéma, directed by Agnès Varda, was released. The filmmaker offered Julie Gayet her first leading role in her film where she plays Camille Miralis. The opportunity for the young actress to appear on the screen with stars like Michel Piccoli, Fanny Ardant or Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Julie Gayet returned to the cinema in 1996 in Select Hôtel, directed by Laurent Bouhnik, in the role of Nathalie. A dramatic film for which she won the Romy-Schneider prize the following year, and the prize for best European actress at the Brussels European film festival.
In the feature film 8 times up, directed by Xabi Molia, the French actress plays the role of Elsa in the cinema. In 2009, Julie Gayet will be awarded the prize for best actress at the Tokyo International Film Festival.
In 2014, Julie Gayet appeared in the cult film Quai d’Orsay where she played Valérie Dumontheil, one of the advisers to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, with Thierry Lhermitte. For her interpretation, the actress will be nominated at the César ceremony in the best supporting actress category.