Robin Wright the anti-superstar
By Sophie Fontanel, Elle, 2010	Home   Cette page en Français

She waits for me, courteous, sitting upright, with the light a priori of the woman who can not bear anymore that we speak to her about Sean Penn.. But Robin Wright is instantly reassured, because it is about Robert Redford, under whose direction she has just shot The Conspirator, that I starts, with pathetic questions like : "Is it true that he is beautiful ?", "How does it feel to see him ?". She has the exquisite politeness not to laugh and replies that she is also, "in some extent", "still impressed by Robert Redford." She clarifies that if I was facing him, I'd be surprised : "There is no Robert Redford, there is a committed type, an intellectual, and all that releases him of what could be heavy for him, to be such a myth." I ask how it can be done when we have seen these multifaceted persons (without ever citing Sean Penn) to get connected to normal people, then. She replies : "I do not really have friends in this business, I know more people who have a normal life. When you have friends who are holding up to your fame, you cherish them." I do not dare asking about love. I turn around the idea, saying it must be horrible all these people (but obviously not me) who want to know things about her failed marriage, about her past. She says : "The worst thing is that it does not stop there. Then you are asked, "How do you survive ?", "Have you met someone else ?", "Do your children are miserable ?"" She acknowledges, however, not to be too much a prey for paparazzi. She even has a theory : "Everything comes from what you play. The more your roles are worked, harsh and stronger, the more you are filled with real substance. And there is no gap to fill for paparazzi. You are protected by the wall of your work."

She also thinks not to be such an icon, to be able of passionate crowds :"Thank God, I'm not a superstar." She knows, however, that if Gerard Darel came to get her to represent his trademark, it is because of her immense fame. She balances though : this is because she has, in France, the same agent as Charlotte Gainsbourg, a friend of hers, that she was contacted and has been convinced. "I've never done a advertise campaign before. I have been asked for, but I can even not tell you who, so much I'm not interested. What's the point ? I have jobs over the head. Here, what attracted me is that the image of me in this Gerard Darel advertise campaign is what I am. I would hate being transformed, even better. I accept the changes only if they are in the service of a film and a story. There, I not only recognize myself, but I also discovered this Darel family, some friendly and simple people, fully respectful of what I am, and discreet. I did not imagine fashion like this."

Fashion is in any way very far from her. Yet she has a real style. Not so far from that of Charlotte Gainsbourg, too. Here, in front of me, a black turtleneck cashmere sweater, with discreet and ravishing short openings on the sides indicating that it must come from an expensive place. A worn and tight jeans I can not see the mark without my glasses (sorry), and Frye cowboy boots (Charlotte rather wears R. Soles). She loves these casual clothes and we spend half the interview to discuss Ralph Lauren’s vintage collection, the mark 45 RPM of the Marché-Saint-Honoré street, the Diane Keaton’s spirit of this place. At my feet, boots from Heschung make her crazy, and I told her where the store is on a piece of paper that I tore. If Robin Wright is really "the top style”, that is because she knows how to keep a simple look, something so rare with the American women. I'm asking her how she supports to put on her's Sunday best for the red carpets. She sighs, as someone who has pretty much had enough : "In America, if we do not accept it, we better not do this job." She refuses to "buy an evening dress of I do not know how thousands of dollars for one evening, a dress I'll never put on anymore. So I accept that someone lends one to me. I lends myself, I get lent the dress. We shake hands and everything is clear. I wore a lot of Gucci. After I give the dress back, often sublime it must be said"... She is also famous for her coloring often very natural, that she defines like this : "If the make-up man puts too much makeup, I let him do. And then, once he is gone, I take a tissue and I remove almost everything." On her perfectly proportioned face, the temptation to play with makeup is huge. Except that we do not have it. She never let anyone doing it.

We talk about the time of Santa Barbara, about her almost teenager face who is in the collective imagination. She said to me : "I stopped Santa Barbara twenty-five years ago. We must let the images of ourselves behind." I asked her if she is more beautiful now than when she was 20 (she is). Her answer : "Twenty years which have passed, it counts. Perhaps we glean beauty and doubts during this time and it puts all of what we may think of ourselves into perspective. It is not bad too that beauty depends on a state of mind and on a random angle, a light. Beauty is a bigger field than we do believe at 20 years old. We must be humble and true, and what needs to arise arises."

Today, her icons are Diane Keaton and all the women in front trousers, and we talk about the photographer Jacques-Henri Lartigue. I ask her if, today, dressed like Diane Keaton, you can seduce a man and she says : "A real man, yes. Because a real man always seeks what there is to discover." So, let's be natural, although the real men are rare. Even Robin Wright admits that real men are rare. We feel less alone.