Academy Award Winning Actress Marion Cotillard, Fierce Opponent of Orca Captivity, Menaced By Killer Whale on Film Set

Marion Cotillard, who won the Best Actress Oscar for La Vie en Rose and will soon be seen in the summertime blockbuster,The Dark Knight Rises, is speaking out about an incident she experienced with a killer whale while filming on the set of Rust and Bone, a French import due in US theaters this fall.

“One of the whales kind of went mad at me,” the actress recalled. “She screamed at me with her jaws wide open.” Cotillard was filming at the Marineland park in Antibes, France when the act of aggression occurred.

Her statement is eerily reminiscent of captive orca aggression described in the book Death at SeaWorld, Shamu and the Dark Side of Killer Whales in Captivity. The book, to be released July 17th by St. Martin’s Press, recounts the brutal killing of beloved orca trainer Dawn Brancheau at SeaWorld Orlando in 2010, and theorizes that captivity is so stressful on these intelligent, free-ranging animals, it drives them to turn on humans (no orca has ever seriously attacked a human in the wild in all recorded history, while four people have died in killer whale tanks since 1991).

Cotillard, ironically, is herself adamantly opposed to orca captivity. Rust and Bone required her to work daily with killer whales, and persuade them to do silly tricks, “a task she found unpalatable after years of campaigning for animal welfare and supporting charities including WildAid and Greenpeace,” according to the London Evening Standard.

“I’ve always had a repulsion going in a place where animals are in captivity. I had to work through my rejection of this world, which I still feel. But I had a job,” she said. “Even though the orcas are as big as trucks, they’re animals, and you have a connection with them.” The actress added that she felt guilty when she withheld treats from the killer whales.

Meanwhile, Death at SeaWorld, which Booklist called “gripping” and “hard to put down,” will hopefully become a big must-read this summer. Reviewers at Goodreads.com seem to like it, and the story is currently being shopped around in Hollywood as a scientific thriller well-suited to the big screen.

For more information on the danger of using killer whales in entertainment, to receive a press copy of the book, or to speak with David Kirby, please contact Jessica Preeg at St. Martin’s Press at jessica.preeg@stmartins.com.

An article on the incident involving Marion Cotillard is below.

Marion Cotillard’s whale terror

Marion Cotillard was ‘scared’ by a whale who ‘went mad’ at her on the set of ‘Rust Bone’.

The ‘Inception’ actress plays a killer whale trainer who loses her legs for her latest role, and while she admits it was an incredible experience to work with the mammals, she was frightened when one of them started menacing her.

She said: ‘One of the whales kind of went mad at me. She screamed at me with her jaws wide open. It was the only time I was really scared.’ Marion said losing her legs for the screen wasn’t too hard, with the magic of digital technology, adding: ‘I just acted, then they took my legs off.’

Marion has been a little less open about her character – Miranda Tate, an ecologically-minded businesswoman – in the new Batman film ‘The Dark Knight Rises’, but she will admit that she kisses Christian Bale’s character Bruce Wayne, whose alter ego is Batman, in the film. She told Empire magazine: ‘Miranda is fascinated by Wayne Enterprises. They go through difficulties, and she wants to help provide the world clean energies. She’s a good guy.”