When speaking about his Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard-starring movie, Leos Carax reveals that the 'small part written specifically' for the 'Diamonds' hitmaker.
- Aug 10, 2021
AceShowbiz - Rihanna nearly starred in "Annette". Leos Carax, the movie's director, has revealed the singer was wanted for a cameo in the motion picture, which stars Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.
"It was a small part written specifically for her," he told USA Today. "She was supposed to play Rihanna."
The movie tells the story of Driver's stand-up comedian character, who falls for Cotillard's famous opera singer's alter-ego. The couple has a child together, Annette, who is represented by a wooden puppet.
Should Rihanna have starred in the movie, she would've performed a duet with the puppet. Carax added, "When Baby Annette becomes famous, there was a duet between the puppet and Rihanna. But then Rihanna feels upstaged by this baby."
"Annette" wouldn't have been Rihanna's acting debut - she previously starred in "Battleship", "Ocean's 8" and "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets".
Premiered at Cannes Film Festival in July, the movie musical itself is Carax's first film since 2012's "Holy Motors". It also marks his English language debut.
About the challenge Carax gave her and co-star Driver during the filming of their love scenes, Cotillard recalled, "On most classic musicals, you record your songs in advance and then you do playback on the set. But there, Leos wanted everything to be completely live."
"It added to the complexity of the set: we found ourselves singing in very complicated positions, doing back-crawling or mimicking cunnilingus; acrobatic positions that technically modify your song [the way you sing]," she elaborated. "But that was the effect Leos was looking for: he wanted the voices modified, thwarted, by the real [situation]."
