Why Marion Cotillard Joined ‘The Morning Show’: “We Need Entertainment That Questions Ourselves”

[This story contains spoilers from episode four, season four of The Morning Show, “Love the Questions.”]

Going into the fourth season of The Morning Show, not much was known about the role Marion Cotillard had signed on to play for her first TV series.

The Oscar-winning French actress was playing a character who only had a name — Celine Dumont — and a brief description (“a savvy operator from a storied European family”). Now four episodes into the Apple TV+ series’ fourth season, viewers have met the show’s new woman in power.

“I wanted to be part of a show that is so smart, that is questioning a lot of things I’m interested in: power, media, politics and feminism, obviously,” Cotillard says of joining the cast of the media drama led by executive producers Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, who co-star as ambitious anchors Alex Levy (now an executive) and Bradley Jackson, respectively.

The latest episode, “Love the Questions,” also pairs Cotillard onscreen with Billy Crudup, as the actor who plays ousted CEO Cory Ellison makes his way back to the media company at the center of the series, which recently merged with its largest competitor. In their scenes, Cory and Celine muse about the timely perils of AI and if he’s in love (last week’s episode finally got Cory and Bradley together after three seasons of will-they-won’t-they drama) — and they bond over Cory dropping the bomb on Celine that CEO Stella Bak (Greta Lee) is having an affair with her husband (Aaron Pierre).

“Being part of this really makes you question yourself deeper, and I think we need this. We need entertainment that questions ourselves,” says Cotillard, who expands on her Morning Show role below.

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Your showrunner, Charlotte Stoudt, said she so excited when they found out you were a fan of the show that she immediately went, “How can we sweeten the pot” to get you to play new season four character Celine Dumont. So, how did they sweeten the pot and get you to say yes?

Oh, well, I have to say it was easy. I was a big fan of the show. I had watched the two first seasons in three days, and then the third season I was a regular audience member waiting each week to see what was coming. I wanted to be part of a show that is so smart, that is questioning a lot of things I’m interested in: power, media, politics and feminism, obviously.

Was Celine Dumont, the newly introduced and ambitious board president at NBN, a fully formed character by the time they presented her to you?

It was a character description. They sent me three episodes. I had never done TV shows before, so I really didn’t know how it worked, and I found out quickly that those three episodes would be my only material I would get for a while, and that I wouldn’t have the whole story before I started shooting. So it was a different experience. I’m used to having the whole story and knowing where the character is going and where the story ends. But I didn’t know where she would go, so I was kind of anxious because it really put me out of my comfort zone but excited at the same time.

We had the first table reading and Billy Crudup, whom I worked with twice, came to me. He knows how I work; he knows what kind of animal of an actor I am. We have a similar process of preparation and of searching the authenticity through the arc of emotion that a character will go through. He came to me and was like, “This is for your first TV series.” I was like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “OK, trust them 100 percent. They know where you will go. You will not know. Like, ever. Not until shooting the last episode.” I was like, “Oh, wow.” And he said, “Just be a happy puppet. You can trust these people. They’re so smart, amazing and sometimes they will ask you things that don’t really fit your idea or imagination about the character, but they know better than you because they have all the information.”

So I actually found it very exciting. It’s like life. You never know what’s going to happen next, even if you plan. I started to really enjoy that process very early on thinking, “Let’s jump into the unknown,” which is something that I love to do. And the fact that you know you can trust the people you work with, and that the trust is even more real because you have to trust the whole process and mechanism? It was something that was easy to do. It actually got me very excited.

We will eventually get insight into Celine’s vulnerabilities, but in these first episodes, she comes in exuding power, from everything she’s wearing to how she speaks. Charlotte said that from the beginning, you two had strong conversations about European dynasty families where the sons are elevated over the daughters. Where or who did you take inspiration from to play her?

Before knowing that I would be part of the show, I had read this very interesting book written by two French journalists about wealthy French families and their succession. That’s the conversation I had with Charlotte, because I thought, “If I had to prepare this role, I would have read this book,”and there were actually two books by then, and to see the mechanism of raising a successor was very interesting. As you said, most of the successors are male —even if they have siblings who are sisters, they will always go for the male. So it’s interesting in those stories about those wealthy families and companies to see how a woman will navigate, and what she will want to achieve and prove to her family.

There’s this very interesting kind of fight between brothers and sisters because, why wouldn’t it be the daughter? It’s not natural for those big, powerful —most of them male — to have a successor that would be a female. So that was very, very interesting for me to explore and study those families throughout those books.

How does Celine really feel about women and progress? Is she an ally, as so many of the characters proclaim to be, or is she self-serving?

I think she admires Alex [Jennifer Aniston’s character] because she’s authentic and true to herself. And how she got her power was through truth. Celine is in a position where she has to prove herself, and where a lot of things are expected from her. I think she feels Alex is in a position of being freer than she is. Celine has a lot of prisons around her. She’s not free to do whatever she wants. So she’s inspired by Alex. There is this desire to prove and this desire to have more power by herself to free herself from her family, and where that leads her is interesting. Because if there weren’t strong female personalities around her, I think it would be easier for her. But at the same time, the way it nourishes her personality and herself is really beautiful. It unfolds her emotion in a very beautiful way.

I imagine coming into a show four seasons in is not always the easiest, but I read Glamour‘s cover story with your female cast, and you all spoke about the support you found among each other on set. How did walking onto the Morning Show set feel different than other sets you’ve been on, and how did that support help you take risks when finding your place?

I expected to be welcomed. I expected warmth on set, because you cannot write and create a show like this if you’re not a hearted person. The first connection I had with [director] Mimi Leder and [showrunner] Charlotte Stout, I felt that we would build something together. But everything was actually better than my expectations, because I worked with very present, very smart, creative, inspiring people. What I love the most about this art is that it’s something entertaining while at the same time, it questions a lot of social and political subjects. Being part of this really makes you question yourself deeper, and I think we need this. We need entertainment that questions ourselves.

Your character continues to play a big role as the episodes go. Did you sign on for one season with the option to return for season five? Charlotte always says that as long as anyone’s alive, they can come back.

We’ll see. We’ll see!

Has working on The Morning Show made you want to do more television roles?

Honestly, I loved it. I really loved it. I really enjoyed this process and being part of a show where there are so many stories and characters. I enjoyed every bit of it. A few years ago, I would have never considered TV. Today, we have amazing writers, amazing showrunners. I read three TV series lately that were all amazing. So, yeah, I would love to do more.

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The Morning Show releases new episodes Wednesdays; the first four episodes of season four are now streaming on Apple TV+.