Charlotte Lucy Gainsbourg (French: [ʃaʁlɔt ɡɛ̃zbuʁ] ; born 21 July 1971) is a French and British actress and singer. She is the daughter of English actress and singer Jane Birkin and French singer Serge Gainsbourg. After making her musical debut with her father on the song "Lemon Incest" at the age of 12, she released an album with her father at the age of 15. More than 20 years passed before Gainsbourg released albums as an adult (5:55, IRM, Stage Whisper and Rest), to commercial and critical success. She has acted in many films, including collaborations with Lars von Trier, and received two César Awards and Cannes Film Festival's Best Actress Award, among many nominations.
Gainsbourg was born on 21 July 1971 in the Marylebone area of Central London. Her mother was English actress and singer Jane Birkin. Her father was French musician Serge Gainsbourg. Gainsbourg was born at the height of her parents' fame; they had made headlines three years earlier with the sexually explicit song "Je t'aime... moi non plus" and by that point had become notorious for their turbulent relationship and multiple artistic collaborations. As a result, her childhood was well publicised.
At birth, she received the surname of Gainsbourg, her father's stage name, but at the age of 18, she changed her surname to Ginsburg, her father's legal surname. She has continued to use the Gainsbourg name professionally.
Her maternal grandmother was actress Judy Campbell, and her uncle is screenwriter Andrew Birkin, who directed her in The Cement Garden. She is a cousin of theatre and opera director Sophie Hunter. Gainsbourg's father was Jewish, whereas her mother is from a Protestant background. Gainsbourg attended École Active Bilingue Jeannine Manuel in Paris and Collège Alpin International Beau Soleil in Switzerland. French is her first language, but she is also fluent in English.
Gainsbourg was raised in Paris alongside her half-sister, Kate Barry, from her mother's marriage to composer John Barry. Kate Barry died in 2013 after falling out of a window. According to Birkin, both parents were somewhat neglectful, often spending their nights going out to parties and drinking. She has a younger half-brother, Lucien "Lulu" Gainsbourg, born in 1986 from her father's relationship with Bambou. On her father's side, she also had two older half-siblings born from his second marriage to Françoise-Antoinette "Béatrice" Pancrazzi.
By 1980, her parents' relationship had dissolved, and her mother left her father for the director Jacques Doillon. Her half-sister Lou Doillon was born in 1982 as a result of the union. Gainsbourg would go on to work with her stepfather in the 1985 film The Temptation of Isabelle and later in the 1992 film Amoureuse, which also starred her future partner Yvan Attal.
In 1987, she was the target of a bungled kidnapping.
After her parents separated, Gainsbourg's father descended into alcoholism, eventually dying of a heart attack in 1991. Gainsbourg remained devoted to preserving his legacy and preserved his home, saying she hoped to eventually turn it into a museum. Maison Gainsbourg opened in 2023.
Gainsbourg grew up on film sets, as both of her parents were involved in the film industry. She stated that her mother had pushed her into acting, believing that she wanted to be an actress and encouraging her to make her motion picture debut playing Catherine Deneuve's daughter in the film Paroles et Musique (1984).
In 1986, Gainsbourg won a César Award for "Most Promising Actress" for An Impudent Girl. That same year, Gainsbourg appeared in the film Charlotte for Ever about a man who develops incestuous desires for his teenage daughter after his wife dies. Written and directed by Gainsbourg's father Serge Gainsbourg, who also took the role of Gainsbourg's father on screen, the film heightened the controversy that had resulted from Gainsbourg's debut single "Lemon Incest", which had similar themes and also was created and sung with her father Serge, causing press speculation that the material was autobiographical.
In 1988, she appeared with her mother in the films Kung Fu Master and the documentary drama Jane B. by Agnes V., both directed by Agnès Varda. In 1993, Gainsbourg made her English-language debut in The Cement Garden, written and directed by her uncle, Andrew Birkin. Her stage debut was in 1994, in David Mamet's Oleanna at the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse. In 1996, Gainsbourg starred as the title character in Jane Eyre, a film adaptation of Charlotte Brontë's 1847 novel. In 2000, she won the César Award for "Best Supporting Actress" for the film La Bûche.
In 2003, Gainsbourg starred in 21 Grams, with Naomi Watts, Sean Penn and Benicio del Toro. In 2006, Gainsbourg appeared alongside Gael García Bernal in Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep. In 2007, she appeared as Claire in the Todd Haynes-directed Bob Dylan biographical film I'm Not There, also contributing a cover version of the Dylan song "Just Like a Woman" to the film soundtrack. In 2009, she won the award for Best Actress at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival for the film Antichrist. Gainsbourg starred in the French/Australian production The Tree, released in 2010, and in Lars von Trier's science fiction disaster film Melancholia. She was on the jury for the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2012. In May 2012, Confession of a Child of the Century premiered, in which she starred alongside the British musician Pete Doherty.
Gainsbourg worked with von Trier once again on his 2013 film Nymphomaniac, in which she played the title role. The 5½-hour film depicts the life of a sex addict from youth to middle age. Regarding her reservations about the part, Gainsbourg commented, "The sex scenes weren't so hard. For me, it was all the masochistic scenes. Those were embarrassing and, yes, a little humiliating."
In 2014, she starred in Three Hearts and Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache's film Samba, for which she was nominated for a Lumière Award for Best Actress. She then played Dr. Catherine Marceaux in Independence Day: Resurgence (2016), sequel of the 1996 film Independence Day. In 2017, she starred alongside Michael Fassbender and Rebecca Ferguson in the crime thriller film The Snowman. In 2020, Gainsbourg had a guest role playing herself in the first episode of the fourth season of Call My Agent!.
Gainsbourg made her musical debut on the controversial song "Lemon Incest" in 1984. Sung by Gainsbourg and her father Serge, the lyrics implied a pedophiliac relationship between a father and daughter and led people to believe that the material was autobiographical. Gainsbourg, who was 13 at the time of the song's release, later stated that she had just begun boarding school and was therefore unaware of the controversy regarding the song until she was much older.
In 1986, she released her debut album Charlotte for Ever, which was produced by her father. In 2000, Gainsbourg was featured on the Madonna album Music on the track "What It Feels Like for a Girl". The lengthy spoken introduction by Gainsbourg is taken from the film The Cement Garden, which inspired the title of the song. The track was further remixed for a single version in 2001, with Gainsbourg's The Cement Garden speech repeated during the song.
In 2000, Gainsbourg was featured on the Soundwalk Collective with Patti Smith album Peradam on the track "The Four Cardinal Times".
In 2004, she sang a duet with French pop star Étienne Daho on his single "If". In 2006, Gainsbourg released her second album 5:55 to critical acclaim and commercial success, reaching the top spot on the French charts and achieving platinum status in that country. In the UK, the album was moderately successful, peaking at No. 78. (The single "The Songs That We Sing" only reached No. 129.) Gainsbourg attributed the twenty-year break between her debut album and 5:55 to her father's death and her reluctance to explore a musical career without him.