A former dancer who began her film career as the woman Peter Fonda has a brief affair with in "Two People" (1983), Nathalie Baye enjoyed her first brush with fame as Francois Truffaut's script girl assistant in the award-winning "Day for Night" (1973), uttering perhaps one of that film's more memorable lines: "I might leave a man for a movie, but I would never leave a movie for a man!" By the end of the decade, after two more Truffaut films and finely controlled performances in Bertrand Tavernier's "A Week's Vacation" (1980) and Claude Goretta's "A Girl from Lorraine" (1980), Baye had emerged as one of France's leading actresses, capable of a wide range of roles and demonstrating a constant maturity, not unlike American actresses like Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis. Among her internationally known films are Bob Swaim's slick thriller "La Balance", for which she won a Best Actress Cesar as a prostitute involved with a petty thief, and as the wife of a soldier (Gerard Depardieu) who comes home from war after many years in the medieval drama "The Return of Martin Guerre" (both 1982).
Baye had won her first Cesar as Best Supporting Actress for Jean-Luc Godard's "Sauve qui peut .., la vie/Every Man For Himself" (1979), as a woman leaving her husband for a life in the country, and would later reteamed with the director for "Detective" (1984). Her second Best Supporting Actress Cesar was for "Une etrange affaire" (1981), again as an unhappily married woman. In 1990, the actress had one of her best roles as an actress who sacrifices her family in pursuit of fame and fortune in "Every Other Weekend", a role that was written expressly for her. Baye also shone as a pregnant, HIV-positive woman in "Mensonge/The Lie" (1993) and portrayed Dr. Francoise Borre, who worked on the identification of the HIV virus, in HBO's Emmy-winning "And the Band Played On" (1993).
As the 90s drew to a close and she approached an age when most actress find it difficult securing leading roles, Baye continued to offer superlative performances. In 1998's "Venus Beaute Institut", written and directed by Tonie Marshall, she essayed Angele, a fortyish beautician who has shut herself off from the possibility of love only to be ardently pursued by a young sculptor. The following year, Baye turned in a strong, sensual portrayal as a woman who seeks to satisfy a sexual fantasy via a personal ad which leads to an odd and touching relationship in "Une Liaison pornographique/An Affair of Love". She then played a victim of blackmail in the drama "Selon Matthieu/According to Matthieu" (2000).
Family
-
Daughter: Laura Halliday. born on November 15, 1983
-
Father: Claude Baye.
Significant Others
-
Companion: Johnny Halliday. met in 1982; separated in 1986
-
Companion: Philippe Leotard. appeared together in La Balance (1982); had ten-year relationship; no longer together; died on August 25, 2001
Education
-
Conservatoire National de Musique et d Art, Paris, France
Milestones
-
1968 Spent brief time in NYC working as an au pair and studying dance (date approximate)
-
1972 Film debut alongside Isabelle Adjani in Faustine
-
1972 Stage acting debut in Galapages with Gerard Depardieu and Bernard Blier
-
1973 Cast as the script girl in Francios Truffaut s La nuit Americaine/Day for Night
-
1973 Had a one-scene role in Two People , directed by Robert Wise
-
1977 Second film with Truffaut, The Man Who Loved Women/L Homme Homme qui aimait les femmes
-
1978 Third and final film with Truffaut, The Green Room/La Chambre vert
-
1979 Co-starred in Jean-luc Godard s Every Man for Himself/Sauve qui peut ... la vie ; won Cesar
-
1980 Solidified reputation as a teacher experiencing a nervous breakdown in A Week s Vacation/Une Semaine de vacances , helmed by Bernard Tavernier
-
1981 Earned second Cesar for featured role in Strange Affair/Un entrange affair
-
1981 First film with Bertrand Blier, Beau Pere
-
1982 Cast as Bertrande in Le Retour de Martin Guerre/The Return of Martin Guerre
-
1982 Starred in La Balance , directed by Bob Swaim; won Best Actress Cesar
-
1984 Reteamed with Blier for Notre histoires/Our Story
-
1985 Second film with Godard, Detective
-
1990 Acted in Diane Kurys C est la vie
-
1990 Portrayed a divorced actress who runs off to the seaside with her two children in Every Other Weekend/Un Week-end sur deux ; role written specifically for her by director Nicole Garcia; received a Cesar nomination
-
1993 Had key role in And the Band Played On (HBO)
-
1996 Co-starred in Enfants de salaud/Bastard Blood , directed by Tonie Marshall
-
1998 Reteamed with Marshall to play an aging beautician afraid to experience love in Venus Beaute Institut/Venus Beauty Institute ; was nominated for a Cesar; released in USA in 2000
-
1999 Starred as a woman who initiates a sexual relationship with a stranger via a personal ad in Une Liaison pornographic/An Affair of Love
-
2000 Portrayed a factory boss wife blackmailed by the son of a fired employee of her husband s in Selon Matthieu/According to Matthieu
-
2001 Cast as Patsy in Absolument Fabuleux , a French film version of the popular British comedy Absolutely Fabulous
-
At around age 14, dropped out of school and enrolled in ballet classes in Monte Carlo
-
Posed for Playboy
-
Raised in France