Charlotte Le Bon (born 4 September 1986) is a Canadian actress and film director. She is known for her work in the Canal+ talk show Le Grand Journal, and the films Yves Saint Laurent, The Hundred-Foot Journey, and The Walk.[1]

Charlotte Le Bon
Le Bon in 2015
Born (1986-09-04) 4 September 1986 (age 38)
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Occupation(s)Actress, model, television presenter
Years active2007–present
Websitelebonlebon.com

Falcon Lake, her feature film directorial debut, premiered in the Directors' Fortnight program at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[2][3] It also screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.[4] For her work on Falcon Lake, LeBon won the award for Emerging Canadian Director at the 2022 Vancouver International Film Festival.[5]

Life and career

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Le Bon was born in 1986 in Montreal, to Brigitte Paquette and Richard Le Bon.[6] Her mother and her stepfather, Frank Schorpion, are both actors. After studying visual arts, she began modelling at 16 years old[7] and left Canada when she was 19 to model overseas.[8]

After spending brief periods in Tokyo and New York City,[7] she eventually settled in Paris in 2010.[9] She never enjoyed modelling, however, saying that "I was a model for eight years and really hated it."[8] She then started doing ads for brands such as Si Lolita, Carte Noire and Garnier Fructis.[6]

 
Le Bon in 2012

Soon after, Le Bon was cast as "Miss Météo" on Le Grand Journal, a news- and pop culture-based talk show on the French television channel Canal+, where she did daily weather reports in the form of comedy skits she wrote herself.[8][10] Although the network wanted her back for a second season, she declined their offer in favour of embarking on a movie career.[7]

Le Bon's first film role was in the 2012 French comedy Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia.[11] In 2013, she appeared in Mood Indigo and The Marchers,[10] and in 2014 she starred as Yves Saint Laurent's muse Victoire Doutreleau in the biographical film Yves Saint Laurent, earning a nomination for a César Award.[8]

Le Bon's first role in an English-language film was in The Hundred-Foot Journey (2014), a romantic comedy directed by Lasse Hallström in which she plays a chef-in-training at an upscale French restaurant alongside Helen Mirren.[7][12]

Le Bon was cast with Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Walk, a film directed by Robert Zemeckis and based on Philippe Petit's famous tightrope walk in 1974, released in 2015.[13][14] In 2015, she dubbed the voice of Joy in both the French and Quebec French dubs of the Pixar film Inside Out.

In 2016, she appeared in six films. The Promise matched her with Christian Bale and Oscar Isaac in a story based on events that occurred during the Armenian Genocide. She also played in the science fiction film Realive, the World War II film Anthropoid, and the action movie Bastille Day with Idris Elba. She also maintained her profile in France by starring in two French films, Arctic Heart and Iris (where she reunited with director Jalil Lespert).

Le Bon made her directorial debut with the short film Judith Hotel, which premiered at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.[15] Her feature film directorial debut Falcon Lake, adapted from the graphic novel Une sœur by Bastien Vivès, premiered in the Director's Fortnight program at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival.[2][3] It also screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.[4] For her work on Falcon Lake, LeBon won the award for Emerging Canadian Director at the 2022 Vancouver International Film Festival.[5]

Trained in the field of visual arts, Le Bon has actively pursued a parallel career as an illustrator and street artist. She began as an artist for Spank, an online magazine founded by her on-air colleague at Canal+ Raphaël Cioffi, who hired her to do drawings to accompany certain articles.[16] As part of the 2011 commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the March for Equality and Against Racism, she collaborated with French artist JR in organizing the Inside Out Project, in which 2500 black & white portraits were posted in Lyon in December 2013. She subsequently maintained a sporadic involvement in street art by creating works that allow audience interaction, such as moons on strings that can be unhooked by passers-by (on the streets of Paris and in New York City's Rikers Island prison).[citation needed]

In September 2016, she confirmed her return to illustrating with an exhibit called "One Bedroom Hotel on the Moon" at Anne-Dominique Toussaint's Galerie Cinéma in Paris. In an interview with The New York Times, she explained that this exhibit symbolizes the merging of melancholy and hope: "the expression of a poetic isolation".[17]

Le Bon is bilingual in French and English,[11] and lives in Paris.[14]

Filmography

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Film

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Year Title Role Notes
2012 Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia Ophélia
The Stroller Strategy Marie Deville
2013 Mood Indigo Isis
The Big Bad Wolf Natacha
The Marchers Claire
2014 Yves Saint Laurent Victoire Doutreleau Nominated—César Award for Best Supporting Actress
Nice and Easy Anna
The Hundred-Foot Journey Marguerite
2015 Inside Out Joy (Joie) Voice role (French and Quebec French dub)
The Walk Annie
2016 Arctic Heart Christophine
Bastille Day Zoe Naville known as The Take in North America and the UK
Anthropoid Marie Kovárníková
The Promise Anna Khesarian
Iris Claudia / Iris
Realive Elizabeth
2019 Berlin, I Love You Rose
2021 Warning Charlotte
2022 Fresh Ann
2024 Inside Out 2 Joy (Joie) Voice role (French and Quebec French dub)
Niki Niki de Saint Phalle
Key
Denotes films that have not yet been released

Film (as director)

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Year Title Notes
2022 Falcon Lake Also screenwriter

Television

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Year Title Role Notes
2010–2011 Le Grand Journal Herself, weather girl nightly news show
2012 Le Petit Journal 2 episodes
2013 Le Débarquement 1 episode
2013–2015 Hubert and Takako Takako Voice
2019 Cheyenne et Lola Lola Title role
2022 Happily Married Grazia 6 episodes
2025 The White Lotus TBA

Music videos

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References

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  1. ^ "Charlotte Le Bon on The Hundred-Foot Journey". CBC News. 8 August 2014. Archived from the original on 13 September 2022. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  2. ^ a b Keslassy, Elsa (21 April 2022). "Memento International Boards Cannes' Directors' Fortnight Film 'Falcon Lake' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on 21 April 2022. Retrieved 21 April 2022.
  3. ^ a b ICI.Radio-Canada.ca, Zone Arts-. "Le premier film de Charlotte Le Bon, Falcon Lake , sélectionné à Cannes". Radio-Canada.ca (in Canadian French). Archived from the original on 20 April 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b Pat Mullen, "TIFF Announces Canadian Films for 2022 Festival" Archived 4 October 2022 at the Wayback Machine. That Shelf. 10 August 2022.
  5. ^ a b Noel Ransome, "‘Riceboy Sleeps’ and ‘Until Branches Bend’ win top film prizes at VIFF" Archived 13 October 2022 at the Wayback Machine. Toronto Star. 7 October 2022.
  6. ^ a b Dumas, Hugo (3 September 2010). "De mannequin à Miss Météo". La Presse (in French). Archived from the original on 19 January 2018. Retrieved 26 August 2014.
  7. ^ a b c d Kirkland, Bruce (5 August 2014). "Charlotte Le Bon taking 'Hundred-Foot Journey' success in stride". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on 30 July 2020. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d Dolan, Maggie (2 July 2014). "Model-Turned-Actress Charlotte Le Bon Is Turning Heads in Hollywood". Paper. Archived from the original on 8 July 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  9. ^ "Interview de l'Illustratrice et Actrice Charlotte le Bon". 13 April 2016. Archived from the original on 21 June 2016.
  10. ^ a b Lebsack, Lexy (2014). "Charlotte Le Bon". Violet Grey. Archived from the original on 30 June 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  11. ^ a b Keslassy, Elsa (28 March 2014). "International Star You Should Know: Charlotte Le Bon". Variety. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  12. ^ Ansari, Sadiya (7 August 2014). "Montreal's Charlotte Le Bon a bit daunted working with Helen Mirren". The Chronicle Herald. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  13. ^ Ghomeshi, Jian (6 August 2014). "Former model Charlotte Le Bon says acting is 'liberation'". CBC Radio. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  14. ^ a b Thompson, Laura (8 August 2014). "Charlotte Le Bon's culinary trip in The Hundred-Foot Journey". CBC News. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  15. ^ "JUDITH HÔTEL". sub.festival-cannes.fr. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018.
  16. ^ Siankowski, Pierre (10 September 2010). "Charlotte le Bon, une Miss météo venue de l'ouest - les Inrocks". Les Inrocks. Archived from the original on 21 November 2018.
  17. ^ Woo, Kin (19 September 2016). "Tagging Buildings With a Rising Actress". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 13 October 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
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