‘I like to be like a chameleon,’ says Léa Seydoux, sitting in a Paris hotel as she considers a gilt-edged career that exploded a decade ago when she starred in the Cannes-winning same-sex drama Blue Is The Warmest Colour. Since then, she’s gone from capturing James Bond’s heart in the recent 007 movies to starring in David Cronenberg’s twisted sci-fi Crimes Of The Future, and joining Wes Anderson’s ever-widening ensemble for both The Grand Budapest Hotel and The French Dispatch.

Although Hollywood has ferociously courted her (she’ll soon be seen in a ‘small part’ in Denis Villeneuve’s epic Dune: Part Two), the 37-year-old Parisian is first and foremost umbilically attached to European cinema. ‘I feel that I have a specific taste,’ she says. ‘I like films that are awkward; that are strange in a way. I think this is what I’m drawn to. I like when there is a mystery about a movie, when I don’t understand completely the whole film.’ 

Her new film is more a mix of the ordinary and the extraordinary. After premiering in Cannes last year, and now being unveiled for UK audiences at Glasgow Film Festival, One Fine Morning is the brainchild of writer-director Mia Hansen-Løve (Father Of My Children, Things To Come). Seydoux plays Sandra, a single mother living in Paris who must contend with her ailing father (Pascal Greggory). A former philosopher, he suffers from Benson’s syndrome, a horrifying degenerative illness that gradually erodes memory and sight.

‘What I like about One Fine Morning is the emotional dimension,’ Seydoux explains. ‘It’s quite deep and yet it is almost like a documentary. I like this depth; nowadays it’s not something we see very often in films.’ The movie comes inspired by Hansen-Løve’s experiences with her own father. ‘It was painful but also she was happy to make that movie,’ adds Seydoux. ‘She always said that there are films you make and films you have to do; she had to do this. It was beyond her will. She had to tell the story.’

In Cannes, the film elicited rapturous ovations from audiences and you can expect the same in Glasgow. The phrase ‘not a dry eye in the house’ could well apply but, from Seydoux’s grounded performance onwards, there’s nothing mawkish or sentimental about the film. While Sandra must watch her father slip away from her, at the same time she finds love with an old friend, Clément (Melvil Poupaud). It’s the perfect expression of how life serves up pain and pleasure all at once. 

Seydoux adds that the way Hansen-Løve approached the portrayal of this illness was commendable. ‘She didn’t make it about performance. It’s not like The Father, for example,’ she says, referring to Florian Zeller’s Oscar-winning dementia drama. ‘I thought that Anthony Hopkins was really amazing. But it’s more about the performance of an actor. What I like about Mia is that it’s very subtle; it looks easy but it’s not. Actually, it’s very precise. She knows exactly what she wants.’

Away from the big screen, Seydoux quietly raises her son Georges with her partner André Meyer, while the only glam thing she gets up to is working for fashion giant Louis Vuitton.  ‘I like fashion, but for me it’s something very playful and light. There is no pressure about this. I feel very lucky to be the face of Vuitton but it’s something I take as a plus.’ Clearly this chameleon (fashionista, actress, mother) is not one for taking things too seriously. When I ask if any movie changed her deep down, and what she learned, she replies, slightly tongue in cheek: ‘I think that I’ve understood the meaning of life!’ Touché. 

One Fine Morning screens at GFT, Glasgow, Wednesday 8 & Thursday 9 March, as part of Glasgow Film Festival; in cinemas from Friday 14 April.