Eva Green has that fine-featured, dark haired, elegant look that I love. She’s perfect for gothic roles, and she wears historical styles very well. Let’s take a look at her many historical costume movie and TV roles!
The Adventures of Arsène Lupin (2004)
Somewhat weirdly cast as the ingenue — I say weirdly, just because she’s gone on to play so many villains, not because her acting is bad! — in this turn-of-the-century French story of a “gentleman thief.”
She’s got the neck to carry off both that necklace and the gown!
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Eva plays Sibylla, Queen of Jerusalem in story about crusaders in the 12th century.
This is really pretty, even if I have NO idea how historically accurate it is (my guess: not very much).
Being queen!
Cracks (2009)
As an artsy teacher at a 1930s English girls’ boarding school in this dark thriller.
Her character is very bohemian and arty, so her wardrobe is fabulous. Here, the scarf and the trousers mark her as not-your-average teacher.
Great colors, and love the print on the sheer fabric! She doesn’t blend in.
More color and pattern.
I like the subtlety of the sweater’s pattern.
Camelot (2011)
Yet another, not terribly inspired, attempt at the story of King Arthur. Eva is one of the best things about the show as evil sorceress Morgan.
She’s a sorceress, so I guess we let the pleather and coronet slide?
I mean, at least you’re not going to get confused and think she’s the ingenue!
Actually I like this look the most — it’s the least heavy-handed!
Dark Shadows (2012)
A film adaptation of the 1970s horror/comedy TV show. Eva plays Angelique, the spurned maid who places the curse on the Collins family.
Most of the film takes place in the 1970s, but they set things up with some 1770s-set scenes.
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
I saw the original 300 because Gerard Butler, but know nothing about this attempt at a sequel to the ancient Spartans battle movie. I’m assuming there are more abs?
What did they wear in ancient Sparta? Apparently a lot of kohl.
Also, badass armor.
The Salvation (2014)
A Danish western. Eva plays Madeleine, the widowed sister-in-law of the protagonist.
The dress is actually quite nice, minus the gun!
I don’t think things go well for her character.
If you’re going to go bleak, GO BLEAK.
Penny Dreadful (2014-16)
A horror/drama TV series in which various classic gothic characters intermingle. Eva plays Vanessa, childhood best friend of Mina from Dracula, now kidnapped and running into all sorts of scariness.
STUNNING costumes by Gabriella Pescucci. All the layered lace!
I like the high neck and again, lace.
Lots of subtle details here, especially the bit of pink.
She was basically made for this look, wasn’t she?
LOVE.
Coming Up
Dumbo (2019)
A live-action version of the Disney classic, directed by Tim Burton — so it makes sense that Eva was cast as a French trapeze artist.
She looks great in red!
And that hair is pretty darn 1930s fabulous.
What’s your favorite Eva Green historical costume role?
My favourites are Kingdom of Heaven and Penny Dreadful. And where can I find Cracks?
Another favourite is the fantasy Golden Compass.
Not sure about Cracks, but it’s worth tracking down!
If I can add a bit of a warning: her character in Cracks is a schoolteacher who molests her students. It’s a good movie, because it focuses on the psychological impact of this on the girls, but it is disturbing to say the least.
I believe that the third photo from “Camelot” is wrongly matched and actually comes from “the Golden Compass” movie , where Eva played Serafina Pekkala
Yes, I’m sure too. The style and hair are totally different! I love Eva, one of my fav actresses, she was flawless in Penny Dreadful, and she as Morgan probably was the only good reason to watch the ill-fated Camelot. Amazing woman!
Well that explains a lot! 🙈😂
What stuns me about her is that she’s a natural blonde— I can’t imagine her without her dark hair, I was weirded through the 70s portion of Dark Shadows because of it.
Also, does Miss Peregrine count as a frock flick, since they live in a 1940 bubble, or just another entry in her Burton/steampunk/goth resumé?
BLONDE??? WHAAAA??
I thought about including Miss Peregrine but skipped it bc yep, fantasy!
Right? I can’t find any pre-dye photos, but there is proof!
https://www.peoplemagazine.co.za/celebrity-news/international-celebrities/eva-green-pleased-she-ditched-bland-blonde-hair/
She’s also a twin and I found a pick of them young, and Eva has blonde hair http://dailywowzer.com/celebrity-twins-stars-you-didnt-know-were-twins/
She’s actually the (nominal) sister-in-law of the villain in “The Salvation.” And because her character’s a mute (she’d been a captive with a native tribe and her tongue was cut out) she spends the entire movie communicating entirely by epic side-eye. Since Mads Mikkelsen doesn’t tend to play loquacious characters either, the movie is a master class in communication via death glare.
It’s also worth it (for those who love Westerns as it’s beautifully done by a writer/director who totally gets the genre) as a totally indulgent revenge epic and for the pure casting novelty. I explain it to some people as the antimatter “Casino Royale” (Le Chiffre and Vesper are just about the only ones NOT dead by the end), or by explaining the plot as “Hannibal Lecter and Miss Peregrine stop Neegan (or John Winchester, pick your fandom) from taking over a town. Violently.” It’s also one of my favorite/most painful what-could-have-been because the character Peter, Mads’s character’s brother, was written for his brother Lars Mikkelsen, who for whatever reason had to drop out. I’m not sure they’ve ever really played brothers, let alone in an English-language movie (and okay, I freely admit I’m the weird one and have more of a thing for Lars and will watch him in anything.)
And of course for western buffs, most beautifully of all is a really unusual sight-I actually called my Dad into the room and was like “Dad, you have to see this! The guns…they’re reloading!” (There is no magic 37-shot revolver in this.)
I love this your answer! Mads Mikkelsen is not a chatterbox? I totally giggled. And reloading?! Well, what is Hollywood coming too, really… Tss, tss, realism.
Also, Eva Green is Marlène Jobert’s daughter, and she did inherit her mom’s skin. She also usually has a killer red carpet look!
Reloading! 😂😂😂😂
I feel she was born to play Vanessa in “Penny Dreadful”.
Green’s ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ are very pretty indeed and completely un-historical – just like the rest of the movie.
In the ‘300’ sequel she’s playing Artemisia of Caria not a Spartan so the kohl may be accurate. The armor not so much.
About the only historically plausible thing she was given to wear in the whole of KoH was a straight-up replica of the Byzantine-style crown of Constance of Aragon, the early-13th-century Holy Roman Empress (which she wears not for her own coronation, oddly enough, but for her son’s). It’s the most likely style for a Frankish monarch of Jerusalem to have worn. It’s terrific.
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/538391330448810887/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_of_Aragon#/media/File:Crown_of_Constance_of_Aragon_-Cathedral_of_Palermo-_Italy_2015.JPG
The costumes in ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ are intentionally a-historical in two ways: (1) Ridley Scott wanted to push a quite untrue vision of Baldwin IV and Sibylla having a religiously and ethnically tolerant outlook, and therefore wanted her to have costumes with an ‘Arab’ look, rather than the Frankish/Byzantine clothing she would have worn, and (2) costume designer Janty Yates has said she was working to make the Frankish characters look like pictures by late-19th-century medieval-revival artists, rather than the real Middle Ages (though sometimes she just went completely off-piste – when Sibylla poisons her son in the DC she’s dressed like a fashionable 1890s Parisian widow in black lace).
About the only historically credible thing Green wears in the entire movie is the terrific crown she wears at her son’s coronation (though, weirdly, not for her own) which is a straight copy of the crown of Constance of Aragon, Holy Roman Empress 1208-22.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_of_Aragon#/media/File:Crown_of_Constance_of_Aragon_-Cathedral_of_Palermo-_Italy_2015.JPG
Frankly the costumes are the LEAST of Kingdom of Heaven’s problems with history. Mind you it is very pretty to watch.
I loved everything about her Morgan character in Camelot. So darkly regal. Ominous chic. Feminine despotic. All fabulous.
I LOOOOVE Eva Green!!!
I think she’s the most unearthly beautiful woman I’ve ever seen, and also a fantastic actress. Vanessa Ives felt so personal, a reflection of female passion, desperation, mental illness, and simple kindness I’ve never seen on screen before. The darkness always seems to be given to the male characters, so her depiction was a revelation and a gift for me. While she’s definitely not a bit player, I don’t understand why she’s not one of the leading names.