Julie Dreyfus

French actress

This article is about the French actress. For the American actress, see Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Julie Dreyfus

Dreyfus in 2007

Born|  (1966-01-24) 24 January 1966 (age 59)

Paris, France

Occupation| Actress

Julie Dreyfus (born 24 January 1966) is a French actress who is well known in Japan, where she made her television debut on a French language lesson program on NHK's educational channel in the late 1980s. She has appeared on the TV show Ryōri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef) as a guest and judge. She is best known to western audiences for her appearances in the Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill: Volume 1 and Inglourious Basterds, in which she played Sofie Fatale and Francesca Mondino respectively. Aside from her native French, she is fluent in English, German and Japanese.

## Early life

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Dreyfus was born and raised in Paris, the only child of actress Pascale Audret and producer Francis Dreyfus. Her father was of Romanian Jewish and Alsatian Jewish ancestry, and her mother was of French descent. She spent her summers in the UK. As a child she used to watch Woody Allen's early movies together with her mother.[1] She started learning Japanese in 1985 at the Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisation at the University of Paris, after studying interior design and becoming interested in Japanese architecture. She moved to Japan to study at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies for a six-month, intensive Japanese course, thinking that she would eventually land a job in interior design.[2] After finishing the course, she moved to Tokyo working part-time in a design studio while continuing her private Japanese lessons. In 1988, she worked as a French language instructor on the NHK morning-television-educational program. Centering on a mystery drama, chief producer Motoyoshi Sei hired Dreyfus to increase ratings by changing the program into an episode format.[3] Eventually, she was cast by Japanese network executives as the twenty-something beauty in several TV and film roles, leading her to become a gaijin tarento (foreign talent). She was also a judge on the cult-hit cooking show Ryōri no Tetsujin (Iron Chef).

## Film career

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Dreyfus portrayed the character of Sofie Fatale in Quentin Tarantino's 2003 film, Kill Bill Volume 1. She was a member of the 2007 Gérardmer Film Festival (Festival international du film fantastique de Gérardmer), which honored her Kill Bill co-star David Carradine.[4][5]

Dreyfus appeared in Vinyan in 2008 and in Tarantino's war epic Inglourious Basterds in 2009, as Francesca Mondino, a fictional French interpreter and mistress for Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels.[6] She also appeared as a translator in the Leos Carax segment entitled "Merde" in the feature film Tokyo!

## Filmography

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Year  | Film/television  | Role  | Notes

|
|
|

1986  | Sekai fushigi hakken | Herself  | unknown episodes
1992  | Tōki Rakujitsu | Mary  |
1994  | Rampo | Mademoiselle  |
1995  | Ryôri no tetsujin | Herself/Taster/Panel Guest  | 2 episodes
A Feast at Midnight | Mother  |
1998  | Legal Aliens | Isabel  |
The Crow: Stairway to Heaven | India Reyes  | 3 episodes
1999  | The Godson | Laura  |
2000  | Bathory | Lady Katarina  |
2002  | Jean Moulin | Lydie Bastien  |
2003  | Kill Bill: Volume 1 | Sofie Fatale  | also casting associate
2004  | Kill Bill: Volume 2 | Sofie Fatale  |
2008  | Tokyo! | The interpreter  |
Vinyan | Kim  |
2009  | Inglourious Basterds | Francesca Mondino  | Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
2011  | Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair | Sofie Fatale  | Both Kill Bill films together with an extended animation sequence
2011  | Interpol | Barbara  |
2013  | Bitter Sweet Home Kyoto |  | Season 1 Episode 11: Episode #1.11

## References

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1. ^ "BBC - Films - Web Access - Julie Dreyfus". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
2. ^ Ehrman, Mark (6 October 2003). "Dressed to 'Kill'". Variety. p. 16.
3. ^ "Fun factor injected into language programs". The Daily Yomiuri. 26 April 1993. p. 10.
4. ^ "Ouverture du 14è festival du film fantastique de Gérardmer". Agence France Presse (Vosges) (in French). 31 January 2007.
5. ^ "La comédie primée à Gérardmer". Le Progrès (in French). 6 February 2007.
6. ^ H, Sebastian (7 October 2008). "From Fatale to Inglorious". The Quentin Tarantino Archives. Retrieved 6 September 2020.

## External links

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Julie Dreyfus.

* Julie Dreyfus at IMDb

Authority control databases

International|

* ISNI
* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Japan

Academics|

* CiNii

Artists|

* MusicBrainz