Irène Jacob was born July 15, 1966 just outside of Paris. Her parents were both French--her father a physicist, her mother a psychologist--but the family moved to Geneva, Switzerland when she was three. Jacob decided to become an actress at 13, and studied at the Geneva Conservatory of Dramatic Arts. At 18, she moved first to Lyon, then back to Paris, where she was accepted at the Rue Blanche, the national drama academy.
Her first film was Louis Malle's wartime memoir Au Revoir les Enfants, in which she played a piano teacher. But it was Krzysztof Kieslowski who made her a star, first in The Double Life of Véronique (for which she was named Best Actress at Cannes), then in Three Colors: Red. Of working with her on The Double Life of Véronique, Kieslowski said, "During the shooting I was always surprised at how she was able to give to her character. It's not a question of direction. It's a question of trust...If we understand each other, then during the shooting I'll get what I'm expecting, or in the case of Irène, I'll get more, because simply, she gives more."
Jacob was offered the female lead in Indecent Proposal. She turned it down. "I refused," Jacob explains, "because, for one thing, I spoke very poor English then, but also because this film went against everything I look for in cinema." Of course, Demi Moore ended up taking the role.
For Oliver Parker's Othello, Jacob had only four weeks notice to prepare for the part. She spent the month practicing tongue-twisters in English to slow down her rapid French speech. After working with her, Parker commented, "She has an almost old-fashioned decency about her. And she's enormously focused. She gives people rapt attention."
A trick Jacob uses to help her get into character: perfume. "Before I play a character," she says, "I always choose a scent for her to wear. Then, whenever I put that fragrance on, I feel like I'm in the character's skin." The perfume she chose for her role as Desdemona was a scented mineral water by Paco Rabanne. "It made me feel her softness but also her strength," she said.
Jacob currently lives in Paris.
-Michael St Aubyn
Contact Information
Irène Jacob c/o Nicole Cann, 1 rue Alfred de Vigny, 75008 Paris, France.
FILMOGRAPHY
1. Foolish Heart (1996)
2. Incognito (1996)
3. All Men Are Mortal (1995) .... Regina
4. Fille galante, Une (1995) .... Prune
5. Othello (1995) .... Desdemona
6. Par-dela les nuages (1995) .... Young Woman
... aka Al di la delle nuvole (1995)
... aka Beyond the Clouds (1995)
... aka Jenseits der Wolken (1995)
... aka Mas alla de las nubes (1995)
7. Victory (1995)
8. Moulin de Daudet, Le (1994)
... aka Daudet's Windmill (1994)
9. Predskazanie (1994) .... Lyuda
... aka Prediction, La (1994)
... aka Prediction, The (1994)
10. Trzy kolory: Czerwony (1994) .... Valentine
... aka Three Colors: Red (1994)
... aka Trois couleurs: Rouge (1994)
11. Passion Van Gogh, La (1993) .... Joanna
... aka Van Gogh Wake, The (1993)
12. Secret Garden, The (1993) .... Mary's Mother/Lilias Craven
