play
JON GORRIGAN
From starring on TV’s sexiest show
to sitting front row at Chanel, this
French actress is everywhereGIRL OF THE MOMENTELISA
L A SOWSK I
“Sex is a part of life. We all do it. It’s how we
were born into this world,” says Elisa Lasowski,
strolling the streets of Paris while talking to
marie claire on the phone. She’s addressing the
hype around Versailles – the lavish 17th-century
drama in which she plays Queen Marie-Thérèse,
the wife (and cousin) of King Louis XIV. Now
in its second season, Versailles has been called
“porn in cravats and tights”.
Lasowski, 30, who made her acting debut
in the 2007 film Eastern Promises, finds the
pearl-clutching amusing. “People like to be
outraged,” she explains. “In France, the
journalists were outraged that we were doing
the history of King Louis XIV in English. And
in England, they were outraged about the sex.”
Versailles’ success has cemented Lasowski’s
place in the spotlight, and yet she’s completely
unaffected. “I don’t consider myself famous.
I’m just doing my job – a job that I love.”
A delicious part of that job is, of course,
fashion. Lasowski has graced front rows at
Chanel and Burberry and sees clothes as a way
to create a character. In a navy Mulberry dress
at London Fashion Week she looks like a modern
royal. In a pair of metallic silver pants at the
British Film Awards, she’s a disco dancer.
Her off-duty look is more low-key. “At one
of my first castings, I wore my T-shirt inside out.
I got the part, and the director asked me to wear
the same shirt in the film.” What is it they say
about Parisian women being effortlessly chic?W A T C H
IT
Season 2 of
Versailles airs
Thursdays at
9.30pm on SBS.EDITED BY ALLEY PASCOE