French-American actress Tess Barthélémy has a stellar 2024 ahead of her, starring in the A24-backed series Icon of French Cinema. Directed by none other than her own mother and arthouse icon, Judith Godreche, the production has already received a wave of buzz and high acclaim.

In the series, Tess is seen embodying 16-year-old Zoe, the daughter of a French actress returning to Paris from the dramatic world of Hollywood. Throughout the series we see Zoe live out parallels of her mother’s life and fall in love with forbidden interests.

At just 18 years old, Barthélémy is set to not only make it big in the film world, but also in the fashion field, having built strong relationships with renowned french labels such as Dior and Miu Miu. We had the honour of sitting down with the budding actress to discuss her recent role in Icon of French Cinema, working alongside her mother, and her passion for performing.

Read the exclusive interview below…

Hi Tess! Thanks for chatting with us. Can you tell us a bit about the series and your character?
The series is called Icon of French Cinema and it is produced by A24 and ARTE. It’s about a French actress and her daughter Zoe coming back to Paris after living in Los Angeles. My character Zoe is a 16-year-old dancer who falls in love with her 30-year-old choreographer. This is a parallel to her mother’s childhood where she fell into the hands of her 40-year-old film director. The series revolves around the wrong usage of power mostly over women.

When did your passion for acting first come about? Did you always know you’d want to work in this industry as well?
I started dancing when I was three years old and danced throughout my whole life but I was always more connected and passionate about the emotions behind the dance than the actual dancing itself. I grew up with the world of cinema surrounding me. My mom showed me Hitchcocks’s Rear Window when I was nine and I developed a passion for movies ever since. I then began doing musical theater in middle school to be able to play my crushes’ wife and realized through that, my passion for acting. I knew I wanted to be on a stage performing but the idea of the “industry” wasn’t my goal, my goal was to do what I was passionate about.

How do you see your mom’s influence in your craft?
I see my mom’s influence as she taught me about being fearless. She has a certain energy and strength, when she wants something to happen, she makes it happen. She also has a way of throwing herself at a character without ever being scared of humiliation, she never looks back. I believe these are things that I still try to implement in my craft but that have been passed to me in a way.

What’s one piece of advice she gave you that you’ll carry with you forever?
I don’t know if my mom ever gave me one specific piece of advice but I have realized through many mistakes, that she is always right in the end. Mothers know the truth! So trust your mom! She knows when you bring home your pseudo intellectual long-haired boyfriend that he’s not the one! But more seriously she gives me advice on almost everything in my life but also knows the balance when she should hold her piece, in order to let me fall a little.

What drew you to this character specifically, and how did you connect most with her?
What I find interesting about Zoe is that in a way for me, she is the most grounded character in the series. The world around her is constantly changing and she seems to be taking it extremely well and with much confidence. She’s a mix of extreme maturity and great innocence too, coming from the fact that she is sixteen. I connected with her a lot through dance, because I felt that we see her true evolution through her dancing scenes, like the finale of the show where she has a real breakthrough. She also has this ever-longing hope for romance, that I can relate to, which pushes her to make questionable choices throughout the series.

What does it mean to you to work with your mom on her debut project as a TV director? How was the experience?
My mom has worked so much on this project that I feel I gained a new sibling. It is her story and her craziness, and I feel so grateful to be a little pond in her cinematic world. The experience was extremely professional, I wanted her to see me as an actress and not as her daughter and vice versa, she was my director not my mother. I was so impressed by her, she was playing every role at once, behind the camera and in front of it. I am so lucky that my first project was with my mom, I felt so protected and cared for during the entirety of the shoot.

Icon of French Cinema is a comedy series inspired by Judith Godrèche’s life, which is, in some ways, also your life. Tell us a bit about the experience of playing something so close to home.
I guess in a way I played an idealized version of myself, like an always well-dressed alter ego. Yes, I play the daughter of my mother and the character is extremely influenced by who I am in real life, but Zoe stays very fictional. I believe her to be way stronger than I am In my everyday life and in a way I admired her, which created a distance between her and me. The idea of playing “yourself” is quite therapeutic as you study your everyday behavior to then play it on screen.

How do you reflect on 2023, and what are you most looking forward to in 2024?
In 2023 I began my acting career! I think that if I could go back on this year, I would tell myself to enjoy more all the great things that were happening to me, instead of speeding through it all. In 2024 I am looking forward to being stronger, being unapologetically myself and introducing more fantasy and craziness to my everyday life.

As an actress, how do you see your craft evolving or expanding in the future? Are there any roles you dream of playing?
In the future I think I will mature more into my craft and find more freedom in it. I hope that my craft never stops evolving and I also hope that it keeps on changing and leading me to different places. I dream of playing in a period piece, wearing a corset is a big goal of mine. If I stay true to myself, I would say my dream role would be in a Wes Anderson film. That stylized world intrigues me the most!

Are there any new projects on the horizon that you’d like to share with us?
I just played in a French movie named An Ideal Father directed by Hélène Fillières, with another French “icon” Eddy Mitchell.