The Monday Media Diet with Laëtitia Eido

Laëtitia Eido is a multi dimensional actress, artist, and musician. She first came to my attention through the Netflix breakout hit, Fauda, where she played the role of Dr. Shirin El Abed. She also just finished filming the upcoming spy thriller Chief of Station and will appear in Terrence Malick's new feature film The Way of the Wind and Isild Le Besco’s Connemara. We are delighted to have her thoughtful perspective on the page today. -Colin (CJN)

Photo: Ash Daniyan

Tell us about yourself.

I’m labeled as an actress but I prefer to see myself as an artist, more globally. I started by studying arts and architecture. But even way before that, I’ve always been writing, and drawing, and I had the luck to be trained in classical guitar for 11 years. All of this totally opened my soul as a human being who knew from a very young age that she would dedicate her life to creation, in all its forms. 

But I had to choose one of them and push until I could say I established my practice as a professional, to be able to be back to the other forms of arts. I recently started to sing my own lyrics but on someone else’s music and project, like a training to fight my shyness and to work on my voice. I feel that singing is the most difficult of all things for me, but it’s at the same time the thing I look at as the most sacred expression of the soul. This is why I’m really taking my time to produce my own music, with the help of some great musicians because I’m not confident enough yet in my ability to compose and I really need a professional to help me with the arrangements. 

I’m also working on some visual arts projects, such as ink drawings to illustrate some spiritual tales for children (and adults I’d say!), photography, and writing on some scripts I’d like to direct soon. 

And I spend some time gardening as soon as I can, either on my balcony in Paris or in a little garden in the south of france where I take refuge when possible between filming. To me, to see life emerging from the earth is one of my favorite things in this global creation we are all part of. 

Describe your media diet. 

I try to avoid the news in the way it is presented nowadays. A lot is about scandal and what is going to be divisive is about creating more views. But where has the value of the content gone? And of course, AI now interfering with the news is something totally frightening. The only good thing it could bring is maybe the end of social media as we know them - if we cannot be sure anymore of who posts what and who/what wrote something… it gives a lot less interest to this quick and often manipulative news. Perhaps we could see a return to a calmer press?

What’s the last great book you read?

It’s my friend Sabyl Ghoussoub: Beyrouth sur Seine. He won the Goncourt high school student award and I absolutely love his books and the person he is. An artist as I love them: fully creative in different mediums and really committed to deep introspection and at the same time able to question global and world issues, geopolitical, always in a deeply human way. 

What are you reading now?

I bought a collection of several books by the late French author Christian Bobin, whose immense poetry and profound accuracy in describing human complexity I have always loved. 

Who should everyone be reading that they’re not?

I don’t like to tell people what they have to do. I noticed that it’s always a bad idea to advise anyone if they didn’t ask you to. 

What is the best non-famous app you love on your phone? 

It’s called “Down Dog Yoga” and I don’t know how famous or not it is but I love it so so much. It helps me create the daily yoga sessions I really want, the time I want to practice, the level, the muscles I want to focus on…I just love it. 

Plane or train?

Train of course. First for ecological reasons. But I also always felt like I was in a moving office with a view… I find it very inspiring. 

What is one place everyone should visit? 

Their space of inner silence? I’m very fond of meditation. I think there is nothing more courageous than to look within… 

Tell us the story of a rabbit hole you fell deep into.

A few years ago I came across Anthony Williams ("Medical Medium") books. Those books totally revisit our ways of eating and show us how food really is our first medicine. I have always believed in this motto, especially since my mother became seriously ill about ten years ago. I spent hours and nights looking for ways to live a healthier life to help her heal. She is doing well today and our lifestyle has totally changed. Thanks to these fascinating books, millions of people testify that they have been cured of countless ailments, often supposedly incurable in Western medicine, and that they have been overcome by a change in their eating habits. It is fascinating. I myself have solved serious digestive problems, intolerances, and skin problems and I am often told that I look like I am not getting older or sometimes even younger. I laugh at this, but there is some truth to it, as I am getting better and better. But it is quite obvious to me that the combination of yoga, meditation, and a healthy diet brings nothing but good to my life!

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Thanks for reading,

Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN)

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