Eva Green was
born Eva Gaëlle Green on July 5, 1980, in
Paris,
France.
She has a non-identical twin sister. Her father, named
Walter Green, is a Swedish dentist who once appeared in the 1966 film Au hasard Balthazar (1966). Her mother, named
Marlène Jobert, is an Algerian-born (during the
time Algeria was part of France) French actress who retired from acting and became a writer of children\'s
books.
Young Eva Green left
French school at 17.
she switched to
English in
Ramsgate,
Kent, and went to the
American School in France for
one year. She studied acting at
Saint Paul Drama School in Paris for three years, then had a 10-week polishing course at the Weber
Douglas Academy of dramatic Art in
London. She also studied directing at the Tisch School of Arts at
New York University. She returned to Paris as an accomplished
young actress, and played
on stage in several theater productions: \"La Jalousie en Trois Fax\" and \"Turcaret\". There she caught the
eye of director
Bernardo Bertolucci.
Green followed a recommendation to work on her English. She studied for two months with an English coach before doing The
Dreamers (2003) with Bernardo Bertolucci. During their work Bertolucci described Green as being \"so
beautiful it\'s indecent.\" Green won critical
acclaim for her role in The Dreamers (2003). She also attracted a great
deal of attention from
male audiences for her full frontal nudity in several scenes of the film. Besides her work as an actress Green also composed original
music and recorded several sound
tracks for the film
score. After The Dreamers Green\'s career ascended to the
level where she revealed more of her multifaceted acting
talent. She played the
love interest of
cult French
gentleman stealer Arsène Lupin (2004) opposite
Romain Duris. In 2005 she co-starred opposite
Orlando Bloom and
Liam Neeson in
Kingdom of
Heaven (2005) produced and directed by
Ridley Scott. The film became a
blockbuster in the
US and worldwide and brought her a wider
international exposure. She turned down the femme fatale role in The
Black Dahlia that went to
Hilary Swank because she didn\'t want to end up always typecast as a femme fatale after her role in The Dreamers. Instead,
Eva Green accepted the
prestigious role of
Vesper Lynd, one of three Bond girls, opposite
Daniel Craig in
Casino Royale (2006) and became the 5th French actress to
play a
James Bond girl after
Claudine Auger in Thunderball (1965),
Corinne Clery in Moonraker (1979),
Carole Bouquet in
For Your Eyes Only (1981) and
Sophie Marceau in
The World is not enough (1999). Since her school years Green has been a
cosmopolitan multilingual and multicultural person.
Yet, since her father always lived in France with them and her mother, she and her twin sister can\'t
speak Swedish. She developed a wide scope of interests
beyond her acting profession and became an aspiring art connoisseur and an
avid museum visitor. Her other activities outside of acting include playing and composing music, cooking
at home, walking her terrier, and collecting art. She currently shares time between her two residencies, one is in Paris, France, and one in London,
England.