Marion Cotillard Spent Two Months Disguised as a Man Last Year

"You have this fairy quality, like you're flitting through trees and stars," Nicole Kidman tells Marion Cotillard in the new issue of Interview, and we'd have to agree. The Inception actress has a lot of deliciously quirky things to talk to Kidman about in their chat, whether it's her fantasies ("I would love to go into an animal's dream--like a lion's or a cat's. I'm sure that's pretty awesome") or the two months she spent touring Europe as a man in 2009. Wait, what?

Let Cotillard herself explain how she ended up disguised in male drag under the assumed name "Simone":

COTILLARD: When I was in Los Angeles last January, a friend called me up who is an amazing singer who goes by the name Yodelice. He said, "Would you come to the studio? I would love for you to sing one of my songs." So I went down and ended up going from a background singer to being in a duet. Then my friend said he was playing at the Olympia in Paris. The Olympia is one of the most famous places in Paris for concerts. Édith Piaf played there. The Olympia was very close to bankrupt and Piaf saved the place several times. So he asked me if I would sing with him there and I said, "Oh, yeah, of course." I went to rehearsals with them and he asked me, "Would you play bass guitar?"

KIDMAN: [laughs] Oh, my gosh!

COTILLARD: I had never played bass guitar before. I was like, "Are you out of your mind? I'm not a bass guitar player!" But it has always been my dream to play bass guitar. He said, "Just try it for a few songs." I took the bass guitar and suddenly it was so organic. So he said to me, "Would you play piano on this song?" I said, "I don't even play piano!" He told me to try. I took piano lessons when I was like 5 or 6 but that was a long time ago. I stopped when I was 13. But suddenly it was very organic when I started playing it. So he said, "How about playing the drums?" He made me try, and it went on and on like this for a week. I was part of the band, playing all of the instruments. One day I arrived at rehearsal and my friend said, "Okay, now that you've done everything else, how about singing a song by yourself alone?" I said, "Man, you are way out of your mind." But we did it and I ended up on tour with Yodelice for two months, traveling around to shows in different cities in France and Belgium. I changed my name, of course. I said, "I can't be Marion Cotillard." We ended up using Simone, which is my other grandmother's name. She passed away many years ago but always wanted to be a singer. So sometimes Simone appears with the band.

KIDMAN: What a great guy to do that. I want to see Simone!

COTILLARD: [laughs] I love being Simone. I'm waiting for my schedule to open up in a month or two so I can pick up with the band and be a musician again.

KIDMAN: Being a musician is a very different life, isn't it?

COTILLARD: Yes. But I love being one of the musicians in the back. The light is on the singer and I'm in the band. I love that.

Marion Cotillard [Interview]