After just two weeks of basking in her slightly unexpected Best Actress Oscar glory French star Marion Cotillard faces a backlash over 9/11 comments.
In an interview given to a French television network the thirty two year old actress appeared to suggest that the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre were stage in an attempt to avoid refurbishing them.
‘We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned? There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for twenty four hours.
‘It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there (in New York), in a few minutes, the whole thing collapsed.’
The comments were made on a television programme in 2006 and footage for the show has, only recently, appeared on the Internet.
9/11 was the biggest tragedy in American history killing almost 3,000 people.
The actress, who won an Oscar for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose, went on to question America’s greatest historical moment questioning if they really did land on the moon.
‘Did a man really walk on the moon? I saw plenty of documentaries on it, and I really wondered. And in any case I don’t believe all they tell me, that’s for sure.’
However in an embarrassing u-turn that actress claimed that there had been a misunderstanding as she attempted to try and keep the Hollywood film industry, which is notoriously patriotic, on her side.
Her lawyer Vincent Toledano said: ‘Marion never intended to contest nor question the attacks of September 11, 2001 and regrets the way old remarks have been taken out of context.’
While she my have backtracked she hasn’t apologised for the comments that many in Hollywood, which is divided over the remarks, see as anti-American.
Tim O’Neil, a critic for The Envelope, said: ‘This crosses the line. You can say crazy things, they all do in Hollywood all the time, but she’s a foreigner who is perceived to be saying things that are anti-American.
He also suggested that if this video had been released sooner ‘she probably would have lost the Oscar.’
The effect that this will have on her international, and in particular her Hollywood, career is yet to be seen as she is due to begin shooting Public Enemies with Johnny Depp and Christian Bale next week, a contract she signed prior to this outburst.
Public Enemies, which is directed by Michael Mann, will be the biggest role, in terms of being in a large money spinning movie, for the little known actress but may be her last in Hollywood.
‘Non, je ne regrette rien’ may not be the feeling in the Marion Cotillard camp as her career, that is yet really to take but looked very promising, burns down around her.
