Karin Viard: Mother and Ally – Confessions and Humour on the César 2025 Red Carpet
She's moved through the decades without ever losing that free-spokenness, that blunt charm we love her for. Karin Viard was back on the red carpet at the César awards on 28 February 2025, and she didn't walk the steps of the Olympia alone. By her side, a quiet but noticed presence: her eldest daughter, Marguerite, 26, in a slit black dress with her hair down, matching her mother like a wink to their renewed bond.
A mother-daughter relationship that weathered storms
What strikes you when you look at the two women today is how obvious it is: they have fun together. Yet, not so long ago, Karin Viard described their relationship as “a relational nightmare”. Yes, you read that right. That was in February 2024, on a TV show. The actress, who had just finished shooting Madame de Sévigné, confessed without filter: “It was many extremely difficult, very toxic years. And I contributed without realising it, not knowing what to do, with the best of intentions.”
The mad thing is that it was precisely when she received the script for Isabelle Brocard's film, ten years ago, that she fully recognised the mirror being held up between the 17th-century marquise and her own life. “I thought: this is my story”, she recounted. Ten years later, the war is over. Peace has the gentleness of belated reconciliations.
“When you're celebrating your daughter's 25th and you're the only one dancing”
If you still have any doubts, just take a look at Karin Viard's Instagram account. In November 2024, she was celebrating her younger daughter Simone's 25th birthday. And what's the scene? A mother in a black Courrèges dress, literally alone on the dance floor, shaking her hips like a teenager. The caption, killer: “When you're celebrating your daughter's 25th and you're the only one dancing.” Even Alex Lutz reacted with a laughing emoji.
This ability to laugh at herself, to showcase her little moments of solitude with devastating humour – that might just be the Viard trademark. A mother who was never afraid to talk about sex with her daughters (“No taboo”), who raised them to be “free and independent women”, and who now has to “battle to see them”.
- Marguerite (1998): trained in make-up at the D-Mai Paris school, she worked behind the brush for her mother on the set of Les Apparences.
- Simone (2000): a graduate of the École supérieure d'art et de design de Reims, she made her first film appearances in Polisse and Le Bal des actrices.
The “2D cardboard mask”: when Karin Viard doesn't take herself too seriously
And then there's that funny image floating around online: the famous “2D cardboard mask Karin Viard”. It's not entirely clear who started this joke, but the actress, far from being offended, seems to have embraced this silly spoof of her own face. Because that's also Karin Viard: an actress who can go from intimate drama (The Little Tickles, César 2019) to total self-mockery in the snap of a finger. That ridiculous mask is a bit of a symbol of a woman who refuses to get a big head, even after three César awards and thirteen nominations.
Today, happily in love with Manuel Herrero (married in June 2022), Karin Viard seems to have found that fragile balance between mother hen and free woman. And if she keeps sharing such raw confessions about her “long, violent years”, it's perhaps to remind us of a simple truth: you don't raise children without scars, but you can always laugh about them later. Alone on a dance floor, or under the spotlight of the Césars.