Sophie Marceau has always taken care to protect her children from fame. Vincent and Juliette, the fruit of his relationships with filmmaker Andrzej Żuławski and producer Jim Lemley, grew up far from the spotlight. As the actress celebrates her 58th birthday, we take a look back at her role as a mother and at the youth of her two little-known children.
Sophie Marceau: What happened to her two children, Vincent and Juliette, who grew up in the shadows?
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Some stars flaunt their children from a very young age, on social networks or on red carpets, others prefer that they remain in the shadows. Sophie Marceau, who celebrates his 58th birthday this November 17is definitely part of this category. In the same way that she has always kept her loves discreet, delaying formalizing some of her stories, the actress preserves the apples of her eyes, Juliette and Vincent. A decision made easier by the fact that they bear their father's names, which are the fruit of their mother's rich sentimental history.
When we are 44 years old – the date on which she appeared on the cinematographic scene in the Boom – “the little bride” French people, there is no shortage of courtiers. They do not all come from France, the notoriety of Sophie Marceau having gone well beyond the borders of our country, in particular thanks to her presence in the casting of Braveheartby Mel Gibson, in 1995 and more after her appearance as James Bond GirlIn The world is not enoughalongside Pierce Brosnan in 1999.
The Polish director Andrzej Żuławski did not wait so long to recognize both the talent and beauty of the actress. The filmmaker met him in Cannes in 1981. She is 15 years old, he is 26 older… Three years later, they show their love. Seduced by the new interpretations of his muse in Fort Saganne et Happy EasterŻuławski decides to cast her in his film Love pointsadaptation of the Idiotby Dostoyevsky.
Sophie Marceau never married Andrzej Żuławski
And their age gap then makes people talkthe French actress finds balance with this pygmalion, as she confided to the Monde in June 2023. “Apart from the age difference and the influence he had over me, probably much more than I still imagine, he could not mold me entirely. I had a character which could counter the his. I didn't feel swallowed up.”
Another life then begins for young Sophie. Particularly in her partner's country, still under Soviet influence, where she spends a lot of time. “I felt like I was returning to the communist city of my childhoodin the same buildings, the same atmosphere…” she added to Monde. “In Poland, I had to fetch my own water, queue in empty shops and read scripts that were passed around under the table.”
The couple will make the Cassandras lie. This union that evil tongues imagine as fleeting as a student bluette, although punctuated by marital crises, will last 17 years! “I preferred the love pact to the administrative contract. The gamble of life, in balance, risky, was enough for me”explained Sophie in 2016 to Paris Match to justify the fact that she had never married Andrzej Żuławski. In reality, the bond between them will be stronger, embodied by a child.
Vincent, Sophie Marceau's son, educated in an original English school
Vincent Żuławski was born on July 24, 1995 in Paris. After his parents separated in 2001, he stayed to live with his mother, whom he sometimes found at the ends of the world, but made recurring trips back and forth between Poland, where he went to visit his father, and France. Soon, the young man also lived part of the year in London, where he studied. Vincent spent his high school years within the Bedales Schoolan old English school located in a small village 1.5 hours from London which promotes new education, an educational movement which aims to transform traditional teaching methods to make them more adapted to the needs of the child and their personal development .
Vincent then turned towards artistic studies, following theater and comedy courses at the prestigious Regent's University in London. A way to follow the path traced by his famous parents. On his LinkedIn profile, the young man defines himself today as follows: “Competent, versatile and hard-working film and theater director. Having been raised in the world of cinema, I have an in-depth knowledge of the industry and the elements necessary for convincing acting and directing. dynamic scene. I am very passionate. Fully trilingual (French-English-Polish) and fluent in Spanish. I have directed two short films and I have to direct a play at the Lucernaire in Paris. I also published a collection of poetry in 2020 with Éditions Fougue and I will soon publish a second with poems in French and English.”
The first work of poetry that Vincent talks about, Sophie had proudly promoted it on Instagram at the time of its release: “How can I not express my emotion when I read these words, it is overwhelming and magnificent. Of course it is about my son, but it is about beauty that it is about and I am moved, I am amaze… Thanks to life and its healing power through creation and the love of always being stronger than everything. Thank you Vincent” she wrote, making a brief allusion to the difficulties her son had gone through, particularly after the death of his father in 2016.
Vincent gives acting lessons
Now, Vincent seems to have found the balance. In 2022, he even offered on Instagram to give acting lessons, to work on roles in cinema and theater… Three years before that, he had broadcast on the same network a rare photo showing him in the middle of a session mountaineering in the Mont Blanc massif, roped up to his mother and sister… quite a symbol. That of a united family and siblings, and the opportunity to discover Juliette's face for the first time…
At the beginning of the 2000s, Sophie Marceau fell into the arms of Jim Lemley, an American producer a year older than her. They met on the set of the film James Bond. The two lovers regularly appear in major cinematographic events. At the Moscow film festival in 2003, in Cannes where they walked the red carpet three times. In 2004, they attended the presentation of the Legion of Honor to Steven Spielberg by President Jacques Chirac at the Elysée. Their last public appearances date from 2006, a year before she had a relationship with another man, Christophe Lambert.
Sophie Marceau: “Juliette looks like the one I was when I was little“
This relatively short relationship with Jim Lemley, Sophie had mentioned it in the pages of Psychology Magazine in 2013. “(It) above all served as a transition in my journey” she conceded. “Which does not minimize its importance: he's still the father of my daughter ! But above all, it allowed me to empower myself, to assert myself, to trust myself more. She gave me the strength and the desire to take matters into my own hands, in order to become a central pivot for others, for the family.”
A family, which, through contact with the producer, grew with the arrival of a little Juliette, born on June 13, 2002. The youth of Vincent's half-sister took place very far from the cameras and even today, the young woman continues to flourish in complete anonymity. Her LinkedIn profile just tells us that she has she was also educated like her brother in the English school Bedales. For the rest, a few internships in the cinema sector suggest that she could also pursue a career in the sector where her parents work. As for his face, it appeared furtively in a Vincent story, as well as in this famous photo taken in the mountains. A few years ago, in Paris Match, Sophie Marceau was content to assert “Juliette looks like the one I was when I was little”specifying that the then teenager was “very boyish, very Tomboy.”
“I am a mother before being an actress. I think first of my two children”had confided the actress to Parisianin 2009. “I butter Vincent and Juliette’s toast in the morningI'm there to tell them a story and put them to bed, I'm also there on weekends.” A mother who, as famous as she is, has always ensured the happiness and protection of her family.
