Fanny Ardant

Ardant was born on 22 March 1949, in Saumur, Maine-et-Loire, France, to a military attaché and cavalry officer father. The youngest of five children, Ardant was raised in Monaco where she was educated at a convent school. A voracious reader, she discovered Proust at age 15 and felt as though his writings were for her. At age 17, she became a student at the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence. In her early twenties, her interest turned to acting and in 1974 she made her first appearance on stage. When she was 27, her father died. After his death, she followed his advice and went to university in Aix-en-Provence, where she read Political Science. Upon graduation, she took a job working for the French embassy in London, from which she was sacked for poor time keeping and for being dishevelled. The latter was attributed to the social whirl she enjoyed in London. Ardant continued working odd jobs in London before deciding, almost on a whim, to go to drama school. She returned to France for her studies and before long began acting on stage and then on television.

At the age of 31 she was contacted by François Truffaut, who had spotted her in a television drama and wanted to cast her in the lead female role of his next film, La Femme d'à côté (The Woman Next Door). That film, in which Ardant co-starred with Gérard Depardieu, was her breakthrough role, bringing her a César Award nomination for best actress in 1982. In 1984 she was nominated again for Vivement dimanche!, also directed by Truffaut. Initially, Ardant's youthful beauty brought popularity but over time her sophistication and acting skills made her one of France's most admired actresses. She later proved her versatility, playing a comedic role in Pédale douce for which she won the 1997 César Award for Best Actress. Fluent in English and Italian, Ardant has starred in several Hollywood and British films. Her most recent English-language film was the 2002 Franco Zeffirelli production Callas Forever, in which she portrayed opera diva Maria Callas. It opened the 14th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival on 9 January 2003. In 2003, Ardant received the Stanislavsky Award at the 25th Moscow International Film Festival (for the outstanding achievement in the career of acting and devotion to the principles of Stanislavsky's school). In 2009, she became a director and screenwriter, with Cendres et sang (Ashes and Blood). She also took part in a rare performance of Sardou's La Haine on 19 July 2009 at the Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc Roussillon, with Gérard Depardieu, the concert broadcast on France Musique. In 2010, she directed a short feature, Absent Chimeras (Chimères absentes in French), in which she also stars. She made this short film in order to raise public awareness to the plight of Romani people in Europe, a cause she personally defends. In 2011, she starred in the music video for Elle me dit, the first French single by Lebanese singer Mika, and appeared in the play based on Joan Didion's 2005 novel The Year of Magical Thinking in the Théâtre de l'Atelier, Paris. She also starred in Interno Giorno that same year by Tommaso Rossellini, acting in both French and Italian. In 2013, she made a cameo appearance as herself in The Great Beauty. In 2018, Ardant starred in the Swiss drama film Shock Waves – Diary of My Mind by Ursula Meier. It was screened in the Panorama section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. In 2019, Ardant directed the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at the Greek National Opera.

While working on The Woman Next Door, Ardant and Truffaut fell in love, and on 28 September 1983 she gave birth to their daughter Josephine. Truffaut died a year later from a brain tumour. In August 2007, Ardant expressed her "admiration" for the Red Brigades leader Renato Curcio as a "hero", adding she "considered the Red Brigades phenomenon to be very moving and passionate". For her comments, the actress was sued in the Italian courts by Piero Mazzola, the son of an Italian policeman killed by the Red Brigades. Ardant apologized, saying that she had been ill-informed about Italy's political history. In 2009, Ardant signed a petition in support of director Roman Polanski. While traveling to a film festival, Polanski had been detained in relation to his 1977 sexual abuse charges. The petition argued that detaining Polanski would undermine the tradition of film festivals as a place for works to be shown "freely and safely", and that arresting filmmakers traveling to neutral countries could open the door "for actions of which no-one can know the effects." In 2023, Ardant supported her friend Gérard Depardieu when he was accused of rape and sexual assault. When Depardieu stood trial for sexual assault in 2025, she testified in his favor.