Louis Garrel worked under the direction of Greta Gerwig in 2019’s Little Women and shared credits with many great actors, something that the French star was seemingly intimidated by initially.
The film adaptation of the Louisa May Alcott novel starred Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, Laura Dern, Timothée Chalamet, Meryl Streep, Tracy Letts, Bob Odenkirk, James Norton, Chris Cooper, among others.
Garrel is recalling his time on the set of the Gerwig film and feeling stressed and telling The Independent, “I am the most anxious French guy you can meet. Believe me, I want to be more brave than I am. I am… what do you say? Effrayé they say in French… a scared guy.”
The actor said that it was his talented co-stars that added to his anxiety saying, “I was super stressed because I knew that all of the actors in it were better than me. Obviously Florence [Pugh], Saoirse [Ronan], Timothée [Chalamet].”
Little Women would go on to become critically acclaimed and was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Ronan), Best Supporting Actress (Pugh), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Score. The film won an Oscar for Best Costume Design.
“But then it does work out sometimes,” he added. “I find you know early – like the first or second day of shooting – if you’re going to be good. Or not so good.”
Garrel would go on to star on titles like DNA (2020), The Crusade (2021), Our Men (2021), Scarlet (2022), The Innocent (2022), Caravaggio’s Shadow (2022), The Plough (2023) and The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan (2023).