Olivier Martinez: Super Cool

The term “super cool” is used by the chic in Paris to signify someone or something that is beyond mere cool, ascending to a place of almost legendary or mythical coolness. French actor Olivier Martinez is the very personification of that term.

Olivier Martinez is not the most physically imposing person in the world. He stands about 5’10” and is solidly built but not bulky. What does strike you immediately when you meet him in person is his easy smile, his suave French charm and his generally friendly, albeit somewhat philosophical nature. Martinez is of French and Moroccan descent. He comes from decidedly middle class stock in Paris – his mother was a secretary and his father was an auto mechanic who dabbled in boxing as a side passion. Olivier was a directionless youth who left school very early because he felt out of place and self-conscious there. He drifted in and out of a series of dead-end jobs, the longest of which saw him selling jeans. Influenced by his father’s passion, Olivier also tried his hand at boxing Europe as a welterweight. “I was a pretty tough guy and could take a beating in the ring,” says Martinez. “But my heart was not entirely in boxing. I wasn’t completely committed to it and if you are not, you never get anywhere with it.” At age 23, at the suggestion of some friends, Martinez decided to give acting a try. He enrolled at the International Conservatory in Paris and found that he took to acting very naturally. “It was almost like this wasn’t work for me,” says Martinez. “It was all very instinctual for me.”

Above image: Olivier Martinez / 2004 AFI Film Festival – “Bad Education” Premiere – Red Carpet, Photo by Jeff Vespa

Gallery images: Olivier Martinez staring in Taking Lives, Blood and Chocolate, Unfaithful and Taking Lives

It would take Martinez six years before he would really find his stride as a professional actor. He worked in episodic TV and made a living as an actor, but when he was just about to turn 30 he appeared in his breakout film called Le Hussard sur le Toit (The Horseman on the Roof) in which he played the love interest of his off-screen girlfriend Juliette Binoche. The film was a big success and made Olivier Martinez a heartthrob throughout Europe. The film played in North America in art houses and at film festivals and Martinez was described in the American press as “the French Brad Pitt.” The concept of being a sex symbol amused Martinez. “In Europe the notion of a sex symbol is much different,” says Martinez. “If I were to take that seriously my cousins would never stop making fun of me.” It was during this period that he also got his first taste of the downside of fame – the constant hounding by tabloid press and the paparazzi. At one point Martinez and Binoche sued an English tabloid after they reported that Binoche was pregnant. Their relationship would not survive the strains of this first wave of success. Around this time, Martinez also had a life changing experience when he came very close to dying after a serious motorcycle accident. “It certainly made me a lot less flippant about danger!” says Martinez. “It was such a pleasure to walk again after such a long period of immobilization. It put everything into perspective – the fame, the money, all of it. I came away from the experience not being afraid to die anymore. What I am afraid of is suffering.”

Martinez would not break big in the North American market until 2002 when he starred opposite Diane Lane and Richard Gere in the psychological drama Unfaithful. Martinez played a suave French book dealer living in New York who falls into a romance with a married woman. The film earned Diane Lane and Oscar nomination for Best Actress and was a solid hit, bringing Martinez a lot of attention in reviews. “I wanted to make a film in the States for a long time,” he says. “But I was conscious of the fact that I needed to be very careful in what I chose as my first film there, because based on that choice and how that film turned out, I might not get to make another. Lucky for me Unfaithful was a popular film.” From there, Martinez made a TV film called The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Helen Mirren. In this film, Martinez played a role that was originated in 1966 by Warren Beatty.

He would continue to work in the US in the big-budget action film SWAT playing the villain opposite Colin Farrell. Martinez followed that with the role of a Montreal police detective in the curiously underrated film Taking Lives, in which he starred opposite Angelina Jolie and Ethan Hawke. “I loved working in Montreal,” says Martinez. “It was like working on a Hollywood film but making it in a North American version of Paris. I felt very comfortable there and would love to make another film there.” Ethan Hawke told me during the making of Taking Lives that he found Martinez to be a lot of fun to work with. “The guy has no visible discernable technique at all,” said Hawke. “He seems so relaxed that he just seems to be making this stuff up as he goes along, which is good to act opposite of because it keeps you on your toes at all times.” It was during this time that Martinez became involved in one of the longest and most passionate relationships of his life, with Australian singer Kylie Minogue. During their much-publicized relationship, Martinez stuck by Minogue as she valiantly and successfully battled cancer. Sadly, the couple was involved in a very public break-up in February. While he was helping Minogue through her fight with cancer he stopped working with the exception of the horror movie Blood and Chocolate. He has since gone back to work with a starring role in a French film called Belle du Seigneur that is scheduled for release near the end of 2007.

While Martinez still lives in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés region of Paris, he does plan to move to Los Angeles to try his hand at permanently working in Hollywood. “It is not that I am ‘going Hollywood’,” he says. “It is simply that I want to explore what possibilities are there for me. I have had nothing but wonderful experiences working in American films and I am looking forward to doing more if they will have me.”

Olivier Martinez is great fun to watch because he is an actor of mercurial talents who is simply enjoying himself, which makes him all the more convincing. He is already a huge star in Europe and there is every indication that he will be as big here once he gets the chance to show what he can do. And how does the French star choose to live la dolce vita? “Jazz, man – I love jazz. If I can relax and just have jazz playing around me, then I am content.”