Film: Noémie Merlant’s Fantine Reimagines Les Misérables

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Speaking to Variety, the “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” star says her Fantine is shaped by courage, womanhood, and the quiet heroism of survival.

By TRH Entertainment Desk

Mumbai, December 17, 2025 — By any measure, Fantine is one of literature’s most devastating figures. But in the upcoming adaptation of Les Misérables, Noémie Merlant is determined that she will not be remembered merely as a tragic victim. In an interview with Variety, Merlant describes her Fantine as a woman of profound strength—one who carries fragility and courage in equal measure.

“For me, it means a lot,” Merlant says of the role. “It’s a huge character. You have to bring fragility, but also courage. She handles everything alone, like a lot of women even today.” That contemporary resonance is central to Merlant’s interpretation. Her Fantine is inspired not only by Victor Hugo, but by real women she has known—women who endure, fight, and persist without applause.

Merlant acknowledges that Les Misérables has lived so long in global culture that it has blurred the line between text and imagination. “You can’t even tell what’s from Victor Hugo or what’s from all the adaptations,” she says. What distinguishes this version, she notes, is the power it gives its female characters. Her Fantine is not simply crushed by circumstance; she resists it.

“I had a lot of freedom,” Merlant explains, “to show that even if terrible things happen to her, she fights. She’s not just fragile. She’s something else.” That “something else” is agency—a quality often denied to women in classic adaptations.

Merlant also reflects on the importance of kindness and humanity on set, shaped by observing fellow actors who work intensely while preserving compassion. A nurturing environment, she believes, allows deeper performances to emerge.

In reframing Fantine not as a symbol of suffering but as a figure of endurance, Merlant’s performance signals a broader shift in how classic stories are told. Les Misérables, it seems, is once again speaking to its time—through a woman who refuses to disappear quietly.