Adèle Exarchopoulos seems to have unlimited amounts of energy and charm. Will she follow Mélanie Laurent (“Inglourious Basterds”)  and Léa Seydoux (“Mission Impossible”) to Hollywood, too? Considering the fabulous triumph she experienced in May in Cannes, a career in the movies is hers, if she wants it. She appears in Abdellatif Kechiche’s “La Vie D’Adele” (“Life of Adele”) alongside with Léa Seydoux, an intense love story between two young girls which is sure to move even the most stone-cold moviegoer. Against all odds the film earned the Palme D’Or.

What’s striking about Exarchopoulos is the pout (sulky and delicious). Then, there’s the self-assuredness and the strong voice. At 19, Adele Exarchopoulos has an intense and troubling presence. On a recent fashion shoot she said, “I like to dress up, experiment! In fact, I’m still building my full style.” Exarchopoulos is living proof that one’s added-value is not necessarily attached to number of years on the job. Discovered when she was only twelve she got a part in “Boxes” (2007) starring Serge Gainsbourg’s significant other Jane Birkin. The young actress then appeared in 2008’s “The Children of Timpelbach” by Nicolas Bary.

Exarchopoulos–she grew up with a guitar teacher father and a mother who works as nurse and has two younger brothers–was born nineteen years ago in Paris’s district XIV and hung out in the Clichy suburbs a lot, with a cousin whom she was very close to. On Kechiche’s directing style she said, “it leaves much to improvisation. It is overly-directed, without really being anything at all, it’s all about trust. At the beginning of shooting I would burst into tears, I told Abdul that this role was too heavy for me, that I was going to screw this up and he told me, “do not worry, do not overthink it.”

Even before the top nod at Cannes her career had been on the launching pad: she played a rebellious teenager in “Pieces of Me,” directed by Nolwenn Lemesle (released earlier this year in France).