Marion Cotillard is interviewed by her 'Nine' costar Nicole Kidman in the new issue of 'Interview' magazine. She also does a photo shoot in which she wears no pants.
In the interview, Nicole sets Marion up for smug rejoinders with questions such as "How did this become your passion, this desire to protect the Earth?" Marion reveals that she connected with the natives of Congo on a recent trip by looking in their eyes, it feels organic for her to play bass guitar, and she would love to enter a lion's dreams. Here is an excerpt from their exchange:
KIDMAN: I remember everyone on the set said the same thing about you. I know Rob [Marshall] said it on Nine: that you're otherworldly, that it seems like you come from another planet--and I mean that in the most beautiful way. And yet you are the most Earth-based of all of us. That's a very strange paradox. You have this fairy quality, like you're flitting through trees and stars, and then at the same time, you're really grounded. It's very hypnotic . . . You don't have to respond to that. I'll say that!
COTILLARD: [laughs] I think the Earth and everything around it is connected--the sky and the planets and the stars and everything else we see as a mystery. I think we connect when we accept that the mystery is also taking place here on the ground. We live on Earth and have jobs and interact in society, but we still exist because there is a moon rotating around us, and a sun we rotate around.
COTILLARD: I think searching is a beautiful thing. There is this thought that goes, If you search and search and stop searching, then ultimately you'll find what you need. But I think maybe if you don't search you wouldn't have the experience of searching and then won't find it at all. You have to search first, if you know what I mean. It's the experience of living. We can have one experience that can change our whole lives. I saw a documentary recently about a guy who was attacked by a shark. He was very injured and almost died. After this, he went all over the world killing sharks. Then an even bigger fear entered his mind: "I have killed so many of them. If I go on killing sharks, maybe one day they will all disappear." The fear of his being responsible for the extinction of sharks made him change, and he then became a defender of sharks.
KIDMAN: Wow.
Marion is promoting 'Inception,' as in Leonardo DiCaprio, who recently went shirtless for 'Rolling Stone.'