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Neubauer Artists LLC
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A bit of a clown and quite a cowboy. That’s how you could describe Laura Smet, a veteran actress and occasional singer. We feared a painful neurasthenic, but instead we find a jovial, funny woman. We expected a tormented, mute soul, but instead we encounter a frank and enthusiastic woman, even if she understandably tires us out by constantly bringing up the Hallyday inheritance disputes. We thought we would be accompanying someone forever lost in the labyrinth of her psyche, but instead we connect with an exaggerated woman aware of her past excesses, yet determined to live life to the fullest. We feared having to search deep for a distant attentiveness, but instead we revel in her freedom of speech. Laura Smet, 42, immediately declares: “Ah! So you’re the shrink I’m supposed to talk to ? You’re going to have your work cut out for you!” She will be verbose and funny, without any pretense or restraint. Here is Laura in 12 chapters.
1) Hotel on strike. She lives on Place Saint-Sulpice in the beautiful 6th arrondissement. She receives guests next door at the Hôtel de l’Abbaye. This rocker at heart appreciates the old-fashioned charm of the place. The only Parisian who loves to devour porridge for breakfast, she’s been coming here for twenty years. She recalls that Jean-Luc Godard, who directed her mother, Nathalie Baye, stayed in room number 2. The place is closing for extensive renovations. The employees are worried about their future and have set up a small picket line. Laura Smet is keeping herself informed, showing concern, and embracing the waitresses and chambermaids like they’re the best of friends. On the political front, she says she despairs at “voting against ” something, like so many forty-somethings. But what she fears most is ” the National Rally coming to power . “
2) Kiss Kristin. She’s reminded that Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Kiberlain, and Kristin Scott-Thomas have all been seen here before. At the mention of the latter, she immediately reacts. And the Romy Schneider fan remembers that, for her first appearance in a short film, she had to kiss Scott-Thomas and even kiss her left breast. She was 14 years old, and everything went perfectly.
3) Boxer. She views the arrival of intimacy coordinators on film sets with a certain skepticism. Sex scenes don’t particularly worry her. She’s never had any problems with her co-stars and settled things with an overly pushy director “by kicking him in the balls .” She practices boxing and believes that girls’ education should include learning self-defense techniques. “It’s more important than math, isn’t it?”
4) Ankle boots. She’s wearing Celine boots with a menacing edge. Over them, she’s paired them with Alaïa jeans, a dark Petit Bateau T-shirt, and a fringed black jacket she found at a flea market. She was also recently spotted in leopard-print trousers at a recent Balmain show.
5) Burning Summer. A frequent resident of Cap Ferret, she has a soft spot for a local buccaneer. Benoît Bartherotte fights against the Ocean in his own radical way, with a moderate legalism. She justifies this attachment thus: “Normal people frighten me.” She was in Arcachon when the fire threatened the peninsula. She took a boat and crossed the bay to bring her family home. She says: “It broke my heart to see all that forest go up in smoke.”
6) Doe. An accomplished rider, she was moved by the beauty of the horses fleeing the flames, their hooves crunching on the asphalt. A doe was trapped behind a barrier. She opened it for her. She recalls that “as during the tsunami, animals sense what is going to happen before we do . “
7) Wolf and husky. In a recent series titled Surface , she readily let her wolf-like face be scarred . She also knows she has “husky eyes ,” which see her “preferring the cold to the heat” and swimming in the sea, even in winter.
8) Speed. She’s 12 years old. She gets behind the wheel of an automatic car and drives to meet a friend, “20 kilometers away,” on the back roads of the Creuse region. She says, “Speed is probably the addiction that lasted the longest for me.” She used to drive at breakneck speed, music blasting. Motherhood slowed down this “fast and furious” driver . She owns a Nissan in Paris and an old Volvo in Cap Ferret. And now it’s her 6-year-old son, Léo, who calls out to her, “Faster, Mom!”
9) The Pope. She talks to her dead, but isn’t afraid of her own. “It’s just the illness that worries me.” She believes in all forms of ecumenism. She attended Catholic schools, where she also enrolled her child. She says, “Faith is calming; you feel less alone.” She sometimes glimpses signs from the afterlife but only moderately believes in miraculous stories. She was offered a seat in the VIP section of the Stade de France to attend the mass celebrated by Leo XIV. She declined, punctuating her remark with a scoundrelly and sacrilegious: “The Pope? I don’t give a damn.”
10) Frigatebird and Frog. At a time when writing is becoming artificial and photography proliferating, Laura Smet inscribes her life in words and images on a slender, defined, and uninhibited body. She has a biographical and affirmative tattoo. Her father, Johnny H., has become a frigatebird. It’s the bird of Saint-Barth, the island where the remains of the national monument rest. The production company that Laura Smet created with her husband, a real estate entrepreneur, even bears the same high-flying name. Her mother, Nathalie B., lives on as… a frog on her right ankle. And Laura S. gets up from the sofa to demonstrate the best way to walk: “We always start on the same leg.” So that her daughter would get off on the right foot, the recently deceased actress long guided her steps and tried to frame her missteps.
11) Director. The actress will soon portray her great-grandmother in the biopic about Johnny H. She made an appearance in Fauda and will soon be seen in White Lotus. Most importantly, she ‘s going behind the camera. It will be a thriller, the story of a woman who loses control. She’s been trying to bring this project to fruition for eight years. As for inspiring female directors, she cites Sofia Coppola and Coralie Fargeat as influences. Regarding recent films, she, who began her cinephilia as a child with The Night of the Hunter, mentions Parasite and Anora . And while Sean Penn and Johnny Depp are lifelong role models for actors, she has a deep admiration for Benoît Magimel.
12) Singer. Laura Smet is currently appearing alongside the Penelopes, a Franco-London musical duo. They are covering “Nightclubbing ,” the classic by Iggy Pop and David Bowie. As for intense nights out, the reformed party girl has become cautious, knowing that “one drink is already too many, and a thousand not enough.” In agreement with Charlotte Gainsbourg, she believes that English lyrics would make her feel “freer.” She claims not to know how to sing, stating that she merely “hums.” Obviously, she is careful not to attempt to match the vocal stature of the late, great singer. This doesn’t stop her from imitating Johnny Hallyday’s phrasing, with a touch of playful irreverence.
November 15, 1983 Birth in Neuilly-sur-Seine.
2004 Romy-Schneider Prize for Les Corps impatients (Xavier Giannoli).
2026 Nightclubbing with The Penelopes.
2027 The White Lotus (season 6).
