Morgane Polanski (born 20 January 1993) is a French-Polish actress, best known for portraying Princess Gisla in the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

series ''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

''.

Early life and education

Polanski is the daughter of French-Polish filmmaker

Roman Polanski Raymond Roman Thierry Polański (; born 18 August 1933) is a Polish and French filmmaker and actor. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Roman Polanski, numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, three Britis ...

and French actress

Emmanuelle Seigner Emmanuelle Seigner (; born 22 June 1966) is a French actress and singer. She is known for her roles in '' The Diving Bell and the Butterfly'' (2007), '' The Ninth Gate'' (1999) and '' Frantic'' (1988). She has been nominated for a César Award ...

. She has a younger brother, Elvis. Polanski was raised

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

ly in French and

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

. Polanski was educated at the International School of Paris. She later studied acting at the

Drama Centre London Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in Kings Cross, London, King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint ...

and the

Central School of Speech and Drama The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...

, graduating in 2014.

Career

Polanski made her credited acting debut in her father's 2002 film '' The Pianist''. She appeared in two more of his films, ''

Oliver Twist ''Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress'', is the second novel by English author Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. The story follows the titular orphan, who, ...

'' (2005) and ''

The Ghost Writer ''The Ghost Writer'' is a 1979 novel by the American author Philip Roth. It is the first of Roth's novels narrated by Nathan Zuckerman, one of the author's putative fictional alter egos, and constitutes the first book in his '' Zuckerman Boun ...

'' (2010), in the latter of which she had her first speaking role. In 2015, Polanski appeared in the British independent film '' Unhallowed Ground'' and began portraying Princess Gisla in the

series ''

''. Princess Gisla was introduced in season three of ''Vikings'' as a daughter of the French Emperor

Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as CharlesII, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), King of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a series of civil wars during t ...

(while a legendary French princess named Gisela was the daughter of his grandson,

Charles the Simple Charles III (17 September 879 – 7 October 929), called the Simple or the Straightforward (from the Latin ''Carolus Simplex''), was the king of West Francia from 898 until 922 and the king of Lotharingia from 911 until 919–923. He was a memb ...

). She directed the shorts ''The Stroke'' (2016) and ''The Understudy'' (2018), the former of which she also wrote. In 2019, Polanski starred in Rene van Pannevis debut feature ''Looted''. Pannevis stated, "I hadn't worked with Morgane before so she was a bit lost after her first scene. Thankfully, she picked it up very quickly and her performance is beautiful. I mean, growing up in that environment, I knew she had the skills". In February 2020, it was announced that Polanski would appear in the

Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. Wes Anderson filmography, His films are known for themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Due to his films' eccentricity, distinctive visual and narrative ...

's new film ''

The French Dispatch ''The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun'' (or simply ''The French Dispatch'') is a 2021 American anthology comedy drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Wes Anderson from a story he conceived with Roman Coppola, Hugo ...

''. It was revealed that Polanski would return to her role as Princess Gisla with an appearance in season six (part two) of ''Vikings'', which aired at the end of 2020. In 2021, Polanski directed Dame

Siân Phillips Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips (born 14 May 1933), known professionally as Siân Phillips ( ), is a Welsh actress from Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen, Wales. Her early career consisted primarily of stage roles, including the title roles in Ibsen's '' ...

in ''Through the Looking Glass'', a short film which was screening at

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...

. Polanski stated, "When I find a project and I know in my gut I need to direct it, I feel no fear. I know how I want to interpret it, what point of view I want to adopt, how I want the colors, the tone. I didn't have any insecurities about approaching Dame Sian's agent and sending her the script. I wanted to recreate that feeling of a fairytale, Snow White with her lips as red as blood; the talking mirror. Sunset Boulevard was also on our mood board. The idea was that the production should have a feel of heightened femininity that's OTT, fantastical".

Filmography

References

External links

*
''Vogue'' article (in French)

''W'' article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polanski, Morgane 1993 births 21st-century French actresses Actresses from Paris Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama Alumni of the Drama Centre London French female models French film actresses French people of Polish-Jewish descent French television actresses Living people