Marion Cotillard and Eva Green pay tribute to ‘extraordinary’ Emilie Dequenne
The Belgian actress died aged 43 after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer.
Belgian actress Emilie Dequenne has been remembered as “extraordinary” by her fellow stars of French cinema, Marion Cotillard and Eva Green.
The Missing star died at the age of 43, her agent said on Monday, after she revealed she had been diagnosed with a “rare cancer” in October 2023.
According to reports, Dequenne had been suffering from adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), an aggressive cancer of the adrenal gland.
On Instagram, Green wrote: “Emilie was already a star, an extraordinary actress who I revered,” when they first met during a drama school presentation, and called her “humble, encouraging, so full of light and pure kindness”.
The Penny Dreadful and Casino Royale star added that she last saw Dequenne at the Cannes Film Festival, where the star was a co-winner in 1999 for her role in Palme d’Or winning film Rosetta.
“When I saw her last summer, she was so vibrant and full of life, we were both certain that she had vanquished the rare form of cancer she had been battling,” she added.
“Her death has left me stunned… heartbroken… as it has left all those who knew her, and even those who knew her only in her films. She was grace, light, and all things excellent.”
Cotillard wrote in French that she will “forever cherish what we shared”, and called Dequenne a “sublime human” and a “genius actress”.
The Oscar winner said “you have been and will be an source of infinite inspiration for me”, and added that she had studied Dequenne’s work.
“I am going to find a hard time realising,” she said. “I will always find this unjust.”
Cotillard said she “loved” and will “miss” the actress, also known for playing police officer Laurence Relaud in British anthology drama The Missing.
The Missing stars James Nesbitt as the father of a boy who disappears during a family holiday in France.
Dequenne also starred in horror-action film Brotherhood Of The Wolf (2001) alongside Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Samuel Le Bihan.
Her other roles included 2009’s The Girl On The Train, in which her character Jeanne makes up a shocking story about a racially motivated attack on a train, and 2012 crime drama Our Children.
She also played a sound recordist called Charlotte, who learns that her mother has been murdered, in noughties movie Ecoute Le Temps, and a mother in 2022 coming-of-age film Close.
Dequenne cried after receiving the Cannes prize for Rosetta, in what was her first role in film when she was 18.
She returned to the festival in 2024 for the 25th anniversary of Rosetta, which tells the story of a young girl’s efforts to keep her job in the face of her own schizophrenia.
Her last film was the post-apocalyptic thriller Survive, by French director Frederic Jardin.
Dequenne was married to actor Michel Ferracci and had a daughter, Milla Savarese.
