When Michael Mann’s Public Enemies hit theaters in 2009, the world was basically expecting Heat in fedoras. We wanted Johnny Depp’s John Dillinger to be the coolest guy in the room and Christian Bale’s Melvin Purvis to be the steel-eyed lawman. But honestly? The real heartbeat of that movie—the thing that keeps it from being just a bunch of loud shootouts—is Marion Cotillard.
Playing Billie Frechette wasn't just a "girlfriend role" for her. It was a high-wire act.
See, Cotillard had just won an Oscar for La Vie en Rose. She was the toast of Hollywood, the French darling. Then she gets cast as a mixed-race (Menominee and French-Canadian) woman from the American Midwest who falls for the country's most notorious bank robber. It sounds like a disaster on paper, doesn't it? A French actress trying to nail a Chicago-Wisconsin hybrid accent while standing next to Captain Jack Sparrow?
Some critics hated it. Others thought she saved the film. But if you look at how she actually built that character, it's kind of wild.
The Marion Cotillard Public Enemies Performance: More Than Just a Pretty Face
Michael Mann is a notorious perfectionist. The guy makes his actors live their roles. For Marion Cotillard, Public Enemies became an obsession with dialect and heritage. She didn't just show up and read lines.
She spent months refusing to speak French. Not even to her family.
Imagine that. You’re one of the most famous people in France, and you won’t even talk to your mom in your native tongue because you’re terrified of losing the "r" sound in a Midwestern accent. She was aiming for a very specific blend: French-Canadian roots mixed with the Menominee Indian reservation influence of northern Wisconsin, eventually smoothed over by the grit of 1930s Chicago.
What she did to "find" Billie
To get into the head of Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, Cotillard went on a bit of a pilgrimage. She met with Frechette’s actual relatives in Wisconsin. She wanted to know about the boarding schools—those places where the government tried to "erase" the Native American identity of kids like Billie.
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That’s where the "suspicion of authority" comes from in her performance.
It wasn't just about being a gangster's moll. It was about being a woman who had been pushed around by the system her whole life. When she meets Dillinger in that dance hall, it’s not just a crush. It's a "you and me against the world" moment.
The Accent Controversy: Did She Nail It?
Let's be real. Accents are the easiest thing to nitpick.
At the time, some people found her voice "distracting" or "awkward." There’s a certain subset of film Twitter that still argues about whether she sounded like a Wisconsinite or just a French woman trying really, really hard.
But here’s the thing: the real Billie Frechette was half French-Canadian. She would have had a specific lilt. Mann actually told Cotillard to stop overthinking the technical stuff at one point. He told her to give Billie "heart and soul," and the accent would follow.
And it did.
Think about the interrogation scene. You know the one—where the FBI agent (played by Stephen Dorst) is basically beating her to get Dillinger's location? That’s not a scene about an accent. That’s a scene about pure, unadulterated resilience. She takes a backhand to the face and doesn't blink.
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That’s the "public enemy" energy right there.
Why the Dillinger-Billie Romance Actually Matters
A lot of people complain that the romance in the movie is "lazy." They ask, "Why would she stay with this guy?" He's a murderer. He's on the run. He's literally the most wanted man in America.
But history (and the film) suggests something deeper.
- Shared Trauma: Both characters were outcasts. Dillinger was a product of a brutal prison system; Billie was a product of cultural erasure.
- The "Robin Hood" Aura: In 1933, the banks were the villains. Dillinger was a rock star.
- Mutual Protection: Dillinger treated her with a level of respect she hadn't seen in the Chicago underworld.
When Depp tells her, "I like baseball, movies, good clothes, fast cars, whiskey, and you. What else you need to know?" it’s classic Mann. It’s stripped-down and cool. Cotillard’s job was to make us believe she’d go to jail for two years for that man. And she did—the real Billie Frechette served time for harboring Dillinger and was still in prison when he was gunned down outside the Biograph Theater.
The "Bye Bye Blackbird" Myth
The movie ends with that heartbreaking message from Dillinger: "Tell Billie for me, 'Bye, bye, Blackbird.'"
Historically? It probably didn't happen.
Investigators say Dillinger died pretty much instantly without some poetic final word. But in the world of Michael Mann, that message is everything. It’s the closure Billie never got. Cotillard’s face in that final shot—the way she just crumples while trying to stay stoic—is basically an acting masterclass.
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Practical Insights for Movie Buffs
If you’re going back to rewatch this, or if you’re seeing it for the first time, don't look at it as a historical documentary. It isn't one.
Look at the texture. Mann used digital cameras to make the 1930s look like now. He didn't want it to feel like a dusty museum piece. He wanted it to feel immediate.
- Watch the eyes: Cotillard does more with her eyes in the club scenes than Depp does with his whole body.
- Listen for the "r"s: Try to catch those moments where her Wisconsin training slips through. It's subtle, but it's there.
- Context is key: Remember that Billie was working as a coat-check girl when they met. She was nobody. Dillinger made her the most famous woman in the country.
Marion Cotillard's work in Public Enemies remains one of the most underrated performances of the 2000s. She took a character that could have been a footnote and made her the moral center of a very violent, very loud movie.
Next time you see a "best of" list for 2000s crime films, look for Billie. She’s the one holding the whole thing together.
To really appreciate the craft here, try comparing this performance to her work in Two Days, One Night or The Dark Knight Rises. You’ll see the same "all-in" commitment to the physical reality of the character. She doesn't just play roles; she inhabits them until there's nothing of Marion left. That's why, regardless of what you think of her accent, you can't look away when she's on screen.
Check out the real history of Billie Frechette if you want to see how closely Cotillard mirrored her life—it’s a story of survival that’s almost more interesting than the movie itself.