Eva Green was born in Paris, France, on July 6, 1980. Joy Galle Green’s fraternal twin sister Eva Galle Green was born two minutes before her. Marlène Jobert, an actress and singer, and Walter Green, a dentist and occasional actor, are her parents. Her father is Breton and Swedish, and she is the great-granddaughter of composer Paul Le Flem through him. Her mother, who was born in French Algeria, eventually relocated to the metropolitan area of France.
Green and her mother, who is of Sephardic Jewish origin, are both Jewish. Green describes herself as a “secular Jew who never went to synagogue as a child” who feels “like a global citizen.” Her family is described as “bourgeois,” and she claims her sister is extremely different from her. Green’s hair is naturally dark blonde, although she has coloured it brown since she was 15. She is the maternal first cousin of singer Elsa Lunghini and actress Joséphine Jobert, as well as the niece of actress Marika Green. The surname “Green” [en] is of Swedish origin. It is not derived from the English word “green,” which in Swedish is “grön.” The term “green” comes from the Swedish word “gren,” which literally means “tree branch.”
Green was born and reared in France, where he studied at the American University of Paris, an English-language university. Growing up, she split her time between London and Ireland. She was quiet in school and became interested in Egyptology after visiting the Louvre at the age of seven. Green chose to become an actress at the age of 14 after seeing Isabelle Adjani in The Story of Adele H.
Her mother was initially concerned that an acting career would be too demanding for her sensitive daughter, but she eventually came to support her goals. Green continued her studies at the St. Paul Drama School in Paris and attended the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London for an acting course. Green then returned to Paris, where she appeared in a number of plays. Green said she “always picked the very wicked characters” in theater school because “it’s a terrific way to deal with your everyday emotions.”
