http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080427/GPG
0101/804270707/1978/GPGlife

April 27, 2008

'Enemies' actress learns from Menominees

Cotillard plays role of woman who grew up in Neopit

By MIKE HOEFT
mhoeft@...

An Oscar-winning actress who will play John Dillinger's girlfriend in the
movie "Public Enemies" has visited the Menominee Indian Reservation to gain
insight into her character.

French actress Marion Cotillard will portray Evelyn "Billie" Frechette, who
grew up in Neopit. Frechette met Dillinger in a Chicago dance hall in 1933.
They traveled together for six months until her arrest in 1934. She spent
two years in prison.

After her release, she sold her story to publications and toured with a
show called "Crime Doesn't Pay." Frechette died in 1969.

Cotillard, who won a best actress Oscar in February for "La Vie en Rose,"
met in March with tribal youths and elders to talk about the Frechette
connection.

"She was born and raised here," said David Grignon, director of the
Menominee tribal historic preservation office. "A lot of elders still know
stories of Billie and Dillinger. They still talk about it."

Universal Studios sent scouts to the reservation in February to take
pictures of natural landmarks and buildings from the 1930s.

Rebecca Alegria, researcher/planner for the tribe's historic preservation
office, said Cotillard wanted to know more about her character, what the
reservation looked like and what it was like to grow up there.

The group met at the Forest Island Restaurant in the Menominee Casino Bingo
Hotel in Keshena, about 35 miles west of Green Bay.

Two students, Randi Corn and Kateri Hawpetoss, identified for Cotillard
everything on the table in the Menominee language, Alegria said. The girls
presented Cotillard with a sweatshirt from the high school.

Two elders, Ted and Cynthia Gauthier, talked about the history of the
tribe. Ted Gauthier grew up next to the Frechette family. Cynthia Gauthier,
who spoke Menominee as her first language, talked about traditional
activities like gathering berries and maple syrup, hunting and fishing.

They gave Cotillard a bottle of maple syrup and a pair of beaded earrings.

Alegria said an audio recording by the late Dave Matchopatow in Menominee
and translated into English told about a visit by Dillinger and Frechette.

"Back then, most people spoke Menominee," she said. Frechette knew all the
back roads. Dillinger enjoyed going to Smoky Falls on the Wolf River and
Lamotte Lake.

In the taped account, Matchopatow recalled as a boy seeing a big car pull
into the yard carrying a driver, Dillinger and Frechette. His mother fried
up some trout and made fry bread for the guests. The gangster enjoyed the
meal so much they loaded up leftovers to take with them. People referred to
Dillinger as a "good thief," who bought groceries for those who needed
them.

Ron Corn Jr., who teaches the Menominee language at the tribal high school
and whose maternal grandmother is a Frechette, said Cotillard asked about
the French names.

"She seemed genuinely interested in learning her character," he said.
Cotillard was accompanied by a speech coach and two others.

David Fulton, a Los Angeles publicist for "Public Enemies," said
Cotillard's visit was part of research into the role.

Director Michael Mann is known for building background, Fulton said.

"This is an example of giving actors as much information as possible to get
inside their characters," he said.

The movie, also starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, is being filmed in
Wisconsin. Shooting wrapped in Oshkosh and has moved to Manitowish Waters,
the site of a Dillinger gang shootout at the Little Bohemia Lodge. Other
scenes will be filmed in Madison and Milwaukee.