Léa Drucker: “I play as if nothing was certain”

She established herself without playing it safe, preferring roles that disturb to those that reassure. The Life of a Woman, which is released in theaters today, provides further proof of this. Decryption with the actress and three of her directors.

In a Cannes 2026 competition where French actresses shone, Léa Drucker was not the least noticed. She does better than wearing A Woman’s Life – which is released today in theaters – by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet on his shoulders. She gave him her rhythm. The actress plays a surgeon and head of department in a collapsing hospital, struck by a crush on women who shatters her certainties. The kind of role that Léa Drucker could now choose with her eyes closed. Except that she continues to play as if nothing had been taken for granted. It remains to be understood why.

The revenge of the beginnings

The actress was obviously not born in the cinema with To the hilt. It began in the early 90s and, without experiencing one of those successes that propel you into the spotlight, regularly caught the eye of attentive filmmakers.

“It was by seeing her in The Man of Her Life that I wrote the character of this cashier struggling with a violent husband. She was first a source of inspiration before I even knew if she would agree to play in my short which would become a feature,” explains Xavier Legrand, the director of To the hilt. For Dominik Moll, it is The Blue Room which makes him want to give him a small role in News from the planet Mars before finding her in File 137 – which will earn the actress her second César. These years count for a lot in the actress she has become today:

“The fact that everything was not given to her, that she had to fight, has a direct impact on her approach to work. She plays as if nothing was certain, as if she herself was not convinced of its legitimacy.“

Léa Drucker says nothing else. “The César for Up to the Guard moved me deeply and I think about it often. Such an award is not trivial: it pushes you to live up to it,” confides the one who, with each new shoot, finds the same fear as when she started: that of not succeeding.