Some months before her death, Brigitte Bardot gave an with BFMTV. Journalist Steven Bellery noted that 11 years had passed since her last on-screen appearance. Why step in front of a camera now? Bardot, petite yet dignified on a sofa in her Saint-Tropez home, replied: “I’m going to war.”
Bardot, who rose to global fame as a youthful rebel in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, wanted France’s government to ban hound hunting of wild animals—a practice she called a “horror.” This move was typical of the latter half of the actress’s life, when the plight of animals—from Bucharest’s stray dogs to Arctic seal pups—was often her top concern. Since 1986, her Fondation Brigitte Bardot has run shelters, sterilization and adoption campaigns, and conservation efforts worldwide.
But Bardot—whose death at 91 was by her foundation—was also a vocal supporter of far-right politics in France. She condemned Muslim immigration in public letters and , and was repeatedly found guilty of inciting racial hatred.
Decades after her films first sparked scandal and fascination, she remained a study in contradictions.
Career as a bombshell
Born in 1934, Brigitte Bardot was the eldest daughter of a wealthy Parisian family. She studied ballet and worked as a model in her early teens, eventually meeting filmmaker Roger Vadim—who would become her first husband.
At 18, she starred in his And God Created Woman, a global blockbuster and controversy magnet that established her as a sex symbol. Over the next two decades, she appeared in numerous films, including Jean-Luc Godard’s New Wave classic Contempt. She was famous for her languid stare, full-lipped smile, and for embodying a new form of female sexual emancipation.
Second act as an activist
Bardot’s final film was The Edifying and Joyous Story of Colinot (1973). She publicly announced her retirement from acting, then turned her focus to animal activism. In 1977, she was lying on ice in Canada with a harp seal pup as part of a Greenpeace campaign against the seal hunt.
Such stunts were far from her only work. Her foundation helped fund a plan with Bucharest’s mayor in Romania to —as an alternative to extermination.
Far-right symbol
In 1992, Bardot married Bernard d’Ormale, a businessman and adviser to Jean-Marie Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Front. She began to with public letters and statements attacking various societal groups, with few targets escaping her contempt—from homosexuals to #MeToo activists to kosher butchers. Sued by civil rights groups, she was eventually convicted five times for inciting racial hatred.
After Bardot’s death was announced, politician Marine Le Pen—the daughter of Jean-Marie Le Pen—: “France has lost an exceptional woman, remarkable for her talent, courage, frankness, and beauty.” Also on X, French President Emmanuel Macron that Bardot “embodied a life of freedom…She touched us. We mourn a legend of the century.”
In her BFMTV interview, which , Bardot focused on the abolition of hound hunting.
“Do you want the abolition to be your legacy?” the journalist asks. “What we remember about you?” “Oh! No,” she says, smiling coyly. “Oh no, there are many things that should be remembered about me.” She chuckles and looks down, as if reflecting on her life. Then she begins speaking again of animal suffering.
