French Celebrities Bio | Vincent Cassel

Anyone who saw director Matthieu Kassovitz’s extraordinary feature debut – the gritty urban thriller La Haine back in 1995 – would surely have noted the amazing talent of one of its lead young actors.

A shaven-headed Vincent Cassel (born in Paris in 1966) played the rage-filled Vinz, who sees himself as a gangster, ready to create his own legend by killing a cop when his gang of misfits finds a gun. The performance was terrifyingly wild and menacing, and showed signs of superstar status to come. Cassel was a captivating screen presence.

The son of a journalist mother and actor father (the equally well thought of Jean-Pierre Cassel who starred in such classics as L’armée des Ombres), after La Haine Vincent landed roles in thrillers such as the complex and stylish L’Appartement (where he met his future wife, the beautiful Italian actress Monica Bellucci) and Crimson Rivers, a police thriller by Kassovitz co-starring the genius Jean Reno that did some serious box-office around the world.

Next was Gaspar Noë’s hugely controversial and disturbing 2002 film L’Irreversible (again, Bellucci co-starred). Clearly Cassel was not afraid to work with cutting-edge new directors keen to create non-mainstream movies, and he had secured his position as a go-to character actor.

Soon Hollywood came knocking and Cassel landed parts in blockbusters such as Derailed, Ocean’s Twelve and Ocean’s Thirteen and later he would also take on more family friendly roles, voicing parts in versions of Shrek and Ice Age.

But it was in 2008 that he gave his career-defining performance, playing the part of Jacques Mesrine in the biopic of the often fêted, Robin Hood-style French outlaw. Cassel’s knack for displaying a kind of silent, cold-blooded aggression served him well in the role of the violent bank robber, but the part also allowed him to show off a comic lightness. His performance saw him carry of the César for Best Actor, and the film was both a critical and box-office triumph.

Outside of film, Cassel cites rap music (his brother is in the group Assassins) and the Brasilian martial art capoeira as two great passions. Meanwhile his wife Bellucci gave birth to their second daughter in May 2010.

Author: K.Barrau
Posted: 08/10/2010