The 'Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol' actress reveals she launched an acting career in an effort to become more famous than an actor she had a huge crush on.

• Jul 8, 2021

AceShowbiz - Bond girl Lea Seydoux became an actress in a bid to become more famous than an actor she had a huge crush on.

The French star, who is the granddaughter of the chairman of Pathe and the niece of the chairman of Gaumont - both film companies, insists her family ties had nothing to do with her decision to start acting.

"I fell in love with an actor," the "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol" star tells Deadline. "A very arrogant actor."

Lea explains she followed the unnamed star around Paris, but he showed little interest in her.

"I thought, 'OK, I'm going to become more famous than he is. I want to prove to him I exist and that I can be a great actress'... I won! Except not really, because he never loved me."

"I was completely lost (at first), and then when I was around 18 or 19 and I was meeting some actors, I started to think it would be a great job to do. It felt like acting was made for me... It's a strange feeling, but I'm like a blank page, and people can project things onto me."

And she's convinced her international upbringing helped - her parents divorced when she was three and she spent time in Africa with her mother and at American summer camps because her father wanted her to learn English.

"I think as an actress, that's a force, because I can adapt to any genre," she tells Deadline.

Lea is set to be the toast of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, which began in France on Tuesday (06Jul21), with four films premiering at the event.