Sophie Marceau’s life couldn’t be better today. The woman who played Princess Elizabeth of France in ‘Braveheart’ recently confessed to being sapiosexual in the French newspaper Liberation. The reason for her interview was to commemorate the launch of her book La Souterraine, a compilation of poems, stories and fables, which she published with the Seghers publishing house on May 4.
But what does it mean to be sapiosexual? According to the explanations given by the actress, it is a concept where sexual or romantic attraction to intelligence, knowledge of another person, prevails. These intentions take precedence over physical or gender, resulting in a more intellectual relationship and emotional interest. Some experts consider that this is simply another way of naming the preference for intelligence over physique when it comes to relationships.
This label, which arises from the concept of sapiophilia, has been adopted more frequently in recent times in the face of new ways of relating. With the unstoppable rise of social networks, many people have used them to find and create new emotional ties. This results in relationships that arise without a single previous physical contact, only through text conversations or the like.
Marceau is not the first known personality to come out as sapiosexual. One of the pioneers of the label was the legendary Marilyn Monroe, who confessed that Albert Einstein was the person who most seduced her in the world, 60 years ago. Others who have called themselves sapiosexual in recent times are the Mexican commentator Marco Antonio Regil, the American poet Mercedes Acosta or the musician Mark Ronson.
Ronson’s case is possibly the most curious of all. After having declared himself sapiosexual, he publicly apologized in 2019 after using the name incorrectly. The music producer clarified his attraction to other people’s intelligence, but clarified that he did not feel part of a marginalized community.
Returning to Sophie Marceau, the actress was able to speak at length with the French newspaper of her latest publication. And it is that there are certain stories of La Souterraine that share certain similarities with various passages in her life, specifically with the relationship she had with the actor Christopher Lambert.
Lambert and Marceau lived together for seven years, until 2014 when they both separated. The actress clarified that, however similar they may be, her stories are not autobiographical. This book is the latest success in an extensive career of hers that led her to win a César Award at a very young age, thanks to Vic Beretton’s double work entitled La Boum.