Vogue: An Oral History of Sofia Coppola's 'Marie Antoinette'

10 June 2002 52 Campden Hill Square. Sofia and I found ourselves discussing “playboys”—her word. We agreed on their irresistible attraction—not that one tries very hard to resist, since, as Sofia puts it, “you always think you are The One.” Will this affect her portrait of Marie Antoinette’s lover (as I think he was) Count Fersen? It’s good that she understands the charm of playboys, since Fersen certainly had enough women to qualify—though I suspect Marie Antoinette also thought she was The One. As I suspected, she is having difficulty with the ending of the script. But discussing the hairdresser Léonard, now Sofia’s happy! I urge her to embroider the character.

I reflected privately that Sofia is rather like Marie Antoinette (except she is not at all capricious), who didn’t like politics and did like Léonard, and fashion generally. When she asked me lightly, “Would it matter if I leave out the politics?,” I replied with absolute honesty, “Marie Antoinette would have adored that.”