Camille Cottin knows her job is ridiculous. 'It can be easily despised and mocked,' she admits of show business, listing the reasons: 'Money. Superficiality. Frivolity. Narcissism. Egocentrism.'
Yet Cottin also knows why her industry matters. As the star of Call My Agent!, the French series about talent agents and their demanding actor clients, she rode a wave of pandemic-era success when the show arrived on Netflix at a time when audiences craved escapism. The series, which featured cameos from stars including Monica Bellucci and Isabelle Huppert, was watched by four million people per episode in France before streaming globally, landing in Top Tens around the world.
Meeting in Paris, Cottin spoke about the show's appeal. 'It's like a concert,' she said. 'You dream of backstage, and this gets to the private lives of actors. At first, French TV channels turned it down. They thought it would be niche. But I've been to Argentina, Greece, Brazil, England, India — everybody knows it.'
'It laughs at the absurdness of actors, but loves them too,' she added. 'An agent never turns their phone off. If an actor calls at 3am, they have to answer. And it's for nothing! Just for cinema! It's not the White House. Or a hospital. You're not saving lives, but nevertheless you live with the job with the same intensity, and there is something quite funny about that.'
After four series, the show ended. Cottin walked away, and the series recently returned as a film. Sigourney Weaver had asked to appear in the original show; a less successful British spin-off — which Cottin has not seen — also aired. Now, according to the interview, an offer came for Cottin to film with George Clooney, though details of that project remain undisclosed.