French actress Noémie Merlant might have gotten her big break in 2019’s French historical drama Portrait of a Lady on Fire — which recently landed on Sight and Sound’s list of the 100 greatest films of all time — but she’s made waves for her performance in this year’s Tár, in which she plays the personal assistant of Cate Blanchett’s famed conductor Lydia Tár. In fact, Tár is Merlant’s first American production and first English-language film.
Director Todd Field had seen Merlant’s previous films and sent her the script, the actress tells THR. Instantly, Merlant was drawn to Francesca because of her nuanced character. “I needed a couple of times to read it because it’s so complex, even for [English-speaking] people. There are so many details, so I had to read it a couple of times to really understand all of it,” says the actress. “And I loved it. This is so powerful, so intense, because it [forces you to ask] yourself so many questions about things that we all struggle with. And it doesn’t give you a moral answer, but it makes you go through such deep, deep feelings about the dynamic of power and the process of creation.”
