Despite winning a 2008 Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of French chanteuse Edith Piaf in “La Vie en Rose,” Marion Cotillard is still unknown to most American movie-goers. But that will change with the July 1 release of “Public Enemies,” starring Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, and Cotillard as his mistress, Evelyn “Billie” Frechette. The day after the June 18 Chicago premiere, the dainty actress curled up in a chair inside a 15th-floor suite overlooking Michigan Avenue to talk about her career, France’s Public Enemy No. 1 and kissing Johnny Depp.
You could be working in English more if you wanted to. Why have you chosen to work almost exclusively in French?
I didn’t have such interesting offers here before. It’s normal. People didn’t know me, and I think at that time to ask a French girl to be Billie Frechette, you know. ... I would love to do a Spanish movie but I would have to speak Spanish. I don’t speak Spanish, actually. I wish I could, I love Spanish language.
There’s a lot that’s known about John Dillinger and not so much is known about members of his gang, including Billie Frechette. How did you prepare to play her?
There are some informations about her, books not about only her but about all those women, the mo … moll …
Molls, yeah.
The molls. She gave this very long interview while she was in jail because she was like this celebrity. And then with I guess every real person, it’s a mix of what you know about the person, the vision of the director, your vision, and it’s a mix of all that to create what you see on screen.
What’s your opinion of John Dillinger?
First, he was a kid who went to jail for something bad, OK. But that long? They wanted to make him an example. Some people go to school, he went to jail. That’s where he learned all those things, what do you expect? I think he was a good guy, he just didn’t know any better. Especially at that time, it was so hard. It was misery.
Were there any criminals or folk heroes in French history that you used as a reference?
There was. When I first heard about Dillinger the person I was with told me that he was the Jacques Mesrine of America. He was a hero in his way, too. But I don’t think they have more than this in common. They just did two movies (“Death Instinct” and “Public Enemy No. 1”) of his life with Vincent Cassel.
We have to ask — what’s it like kissing Johnny Depp?
What it’s like to kiss Johnny Depp? . . . I have an answer that doesn’t make women happy. I didn’t kiss Johnny Depp, Billie Frechette kissed Dillinger, and I think she liked it.
