Personal details
- Height: 5′ 5¼″ (1.66 m)
- Professions: Actress
Caroline Raynaud isn’t your typical French actress—she’s got that whirlwind, bounce-around-the-globe energy. Born in Orléans, she pretty much splits her time between Paris, New York, and Toronto these days. Bit of a wild start to her career, too—she was literally discovered while slinging drinks at a Champs-Élysées pub, just trying to pay her nursing school bills. Director Olivier Dahan spotted her and—bam—she’s suddenly in La Môme, playing Edith Piaf’s best friend Ginou with Marion Cotillard. She’s been at it since she was ten, first up as Viola in a Twelfth Night production. Since then, she’s bounced between French and English roles like it’s no big deal. Her film credits are all over the map: Alexia in The Merry Widow/Enfin Veuve, Paule Fétiveau in La Rafle with Mélanie Laurent and Jean Reno, Juliette in La blonde aux seins nus, and even a trippy solo role in Stardust, some wild experimental horror shot in Finland. She’s got a thing for working with new directors, too—Guillaume Levil, for example, on Tour de Cheville, which cleaned up on the festival circuit. Her first Canadian gig, Fishing in the Moonlight, even snagged a Cannes short film award. Oh, and she’s not afraid to swing a bat at zombies (The Last Zombie), or take the lead in a Canadian horror sci-fi flick (Project Ithaca). Lately, you’ll catch her in The Boathouse, The Baker with Ron Perlman, and Some Other Woman. When she’s not acting, she’s belting out tunes in the shower, painting, doing yoga, or hanging at her childhood seaside village.
movies trivia informationnnBack when she was just 18, grinding away as a waitress, Olivier Dahan spotted her in some pub right on the Champs Elysees—yep, the famous street with the endless tourist traffic and overpriced coffee. He just happened to be looking for someone to play Ginou, Edith Piaf’s best friend, in La Môme (2007). Next thing you know, she’s standing next to Marion Cotillard, who absolutely crushed it as Piaf. Talk about a wild career jump, right? One minute, she’s serving drinks and dodging creepy regulars, and the next, she’s wrapped up in one of France’s most iconic biopics. Dahan clearly had an eye for raw talent, because her turn as Ginou felt real—like she’d lived a hundred stories already, even though she was barely out of high school. That’s the kind of movie magic that doesn’t come from a casting agency spreadsheet. Sometimes, all it takes is a chance encounter and the right person noticing you at just the right time.
5′ 5¼″ (1.66 m)
Konidela Ram Charan