By SP

When Jenny Schecter (Mia Kirshner) first began her journey of self-discovery in season 1 of The L Word she went through a series of male and female lovers until she met a young French writer, Claude, at the end of season 3. The two of them became lovers after their first meeting but will we see more of Claude in season 4 or will she disappear without any explanation never to be seen again?

Let’s take a look at Elodie Bouchez, the beautiful French actress who plays Claude. Her biography might not be as extensive as some of the other newcomers to the show but some of her earlier interviews to several French publications that can be found on elodie.bouchez.actricesdefrance.org, as well as her mini-biographies can help us to uncover the person behind Jenny Schecter’s latest love interest.

Even if you are not a fan of French cinema, Elodie Bouchez might be well known to American viewers. As mentioned on Wikipedia website, “she is best known for her César Award’s most Promising Actress winning film Wild Reeds (Les Roseaux Sauvages, 1994) by André Téchiné and Cannes Film Festival’s Best Actress Award winning film The Dream Life of Angels (La Vie Rêvée des Anges, 1998).”

The Dream Life of Angels was a first feature film by Eric Zonca and, according to actress’ Biography from the Alias website, “the film was a worldwide commercial and critical success. For that role alone, she won the Best Actress Award at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, the European Film Award for Best Actress, the Best Actress Award at the 1999 Lumière Awards and the Best Actress French César of 1999.”

That film alone provoked a lot of positive publicity for Elodie Bouchez and her acting talent. The An Evolving Talent review on esquire.com stated that her character in this film “is a mystery. Her face in it is so changeable that you can't get a handle on what she looks like from shot to shot; she’s plain one second, and then, the next, shatteringly beautiful. That kind of confidence and comfort with herself shows in all her work.”

Bouchez might also look familiar to American audience from her role in the final season of a popular TV series Alias (2005), where she played Renée Rienne, “an assassin who works unofficially for a black ops division of the CIA. Although considered a main cast member, she only appeared in select episodes, her character acting as something of a ‘secret weapon’,” as we read on Wikipedia.

Bouchez’s acting career began when she was 16 years old. As mentioned in her Interview with Jean-Luc Brunet to CPlanete (December 1999), “she first appeared in March of 1990, in Stan the Flasher, a film by Serge Gainsbourg. Since then, the brilliant actress was born and the teenager became one of the persons, without whom our cinema is impossible to imagine. During this decade Elodie Bouchez accomplished even more, appearing in 22 films, including the famous Life Dream of Angels.”

Bouchez also mentioned in the Interview to Personality (1998) that though Stan the Flasher was her first cinematographic debut, her first introduction to the camera happened earlier. “I was participating in a fashion photoshoot … at Filipacchi, on Champs-Élysées. I was 13 years old and I was in the agency of teenager models. I had met the director during an audition for a dance for the TV.”

Her Biography on allocine.fr website also describes he actresses’ earlier career. “Elodie Bouchez studied the theatre at the University [of Paris]. Initially she was studying to be a dancer but she began her cinematographic career with sulfurous roles in Stan the Flasher (1990) by Serge Gainsbourg and The Stolen Diary (Le Cahier Volé, 1993) by Christine Lipinska, where she played her first great parts.”

Alias website’s Biography further informs that after her earlier roles “Bouchez has worked with renowned directors such as Patrice Leconte, Cedric Klapisch, Yolande Zauberman, Ismail Merchant, Michel Deville and Olivier Dahan. She starred in Jean-Marc Barr and Pascal Arnold’s Free Trilogy [Trilogy of Freedom] – the English-language features Lovers (1999), Too Much Flesh (2000) and Being Light (2001). She also portrayed manic-depressive Lucie in Abdel Kechiche's Blame it on Voltaire (La Faute à Voltaire, 2000), which won Best First Feature at the Venice Film Festival.”

The same site also complimented Bouchez on her cinematic career when it said, “Bouchez is highly respected for her risk-taking and poignant choices. With more than 30 films to her credit, she plays a major and essential role in contemporary French cinema.”

When Elodie Bouchez had talked about her early films in an Interview with Marie-Clémence Barbé to DS N43 (December 2000), she was called “a kind of ‘professional tourist of the life’, hot heart but feet in the clay” and at the same time “a brilliant icon of enthusiastic cinema of demand.”

In the same interview, Bouchez discussed how she likes to approach the characters she played. “I like when the things are organized in a natural way, that they catch me in way. It is the fact of being honest and sincere, just and true which ‘manufactures’ my acting … At the same time, I do not approach my characters in a psychological way, I do not analyze, I do not become them. I see enormous qualities only on their premises that I am likely to portray.”

In 2000, Bouchez was first seen in two independent American movies, The Beat Nicks (2000) and Shooting Vegetarians (2005). Both of those films were mentioned in the An Evolving Talent review on esquire.com in regards of some love scenes and the actresses’ thoughts on nudity. When she was asked in the review about being completely at ease with her body, Bouchez replied, “My body is just part of my material for me as an actress … It's just flesh, you know?”

The same topic was also brought up in her Interview to DS N43 when the interviewer asked that in her love scenes Bouchez seems very natural and uncomplicated when it comes to nudity. The actress answered, “It is true that my decency is placed elsewhere. That can appear odd, but for me, my body … it is also my working tool. What disturbs me in the love scenes or being naked, it is when one can tell if the actors don’t feel at ease – except of course if the scene requires it – because they don’t feel good about their bodies or afraid it won’t be filmed right. As soon as there is this embarrassment the scene becomes indecent.”

And then she added, when asked to define love, “as someone said, ‘to like, it is to give what one does not have’, it is for me to go … beyond what I can usually give.”

Bouchez is also serious about emotional scenes in her movies. In her Interview to Ciné-Live, #30 (December 1999), the actress talked about her dealings with the emotions and if she had any control over those kind of scenes. She said, “When one is an actor, in general, one tries to approach it with the truth. In an emotional scene like the one at the end of Lovers, for example, I could only invest my personality. I do not have a technique, in fact. I cannot laugh or cry on order. I believe deeply that it will be increasingly more authentic if the laughter starts from a true burst of laughter or if sadness starts from a true sorrow, rather than using a certain method or if artificial tears are used.”

Today, at 33, Elodie Bouchez has been in over 50 films and TV series. In the same interview to Ciné-Live she was asked if she regretted making certain films. Bouchez’s answer reflected her whole attitude towards her life and her profession, which was “No, they are not really regrets. I would rather call them my little errors. There are has been two or three films that I could’ve passed but at least the experiments were not useless. We all make mistakes, it is complicated sometimes. One get into a film without knowing what will come out of it because it based only on a script … With final cut, it could be the film which the participant had in mind but not exactly is he imagined.”

Elodie Bouchez indeed seems like an actress who can take risks with her roles. With a show like The L Word, she is a perfect addition to the wonderful cast.

With little information known so far about the fourth season of The L Word, one might hope that if Elodie Bouchez won’t stay beyond the third season, at least the audience can get a closure on Claude’s relationship with Jenny. Is it too much to hope for?

(Author’s note: excerpts from all interviews came from elodie.bouchez.actricesdefrance.org website and were translated from French by the author. Excerpt form the biography on allocine.fr was also translated from French by the author.)