Olivier Martinez: A Fresh Distraction

I take a breath and nod yes.

"You see," he says, "I think if the man has the affair, the marriage can go on. But I think if it's the woman, then it crumbles. Because that is like the family being tainted."

I groan and say, "You mean, the man is just being a man if he sleeps around, but if the woman does it, she's a whore?"

Martinez says nothing, and it takes me a minute or two to realize that he doesn't think I've just asked a question--he thinks I'm just restating the obvious. But I know better than to argue with a French man about affairs, so I move on. "What did you expect from America when you first came here?"

"I expected to see Al Pacino and Robert De Niro on the street every day! I'm not fooling. My whole idea of America was shaped by movies and television. I thought that there were going to be tough guys everywhere. And beautiful women!"

Martinez knows a lot of beautiful women. I ask him about Binoche, whom he dated a couple of years ago, and his current girlfriend, Mira Sorvino.

"I saw Juliette last night," he says happily. "She looks great. And Mira and I just finished a movie together (Semana Santa). It was wonderful because we got to shoot in Spain during the winter. Believe me, we didn't even care about the script."

"How did you meet Mira?"

"I was driving along in Paris on my motorcycle and I saw her. And then we were introduced."

He sees the look on my face.

"I know," he says. "It is such a cliché. But really, sometimes I think I am a cliché. I start acting and I make it big. Then I come here and work with Richard Gere and Diane Lane. I am lucky. Very lucky."

I give Martinez a look that says, "Enough already." No one just stumbles into Hollywood. Everyone has to work at it.

"OK, I'll tell you what I learned," he says. "You do have to work very hard. What I said about being lazy, that's just a dream. You have to be very conscientious and do your work well. It's only then that good things start to happen to you."

__________________________________

Check out more about Martha Frankel here!

Pages: 1 2