Which actress plays Soshanna Dreyfus in Inglourious Basterds?

Mélanie Laurent plays Shosanna Dreyfus in Inglourious Basterds. Laurent portrays the French Jewish cinema owner whose personal quest for revenge becomes one of the film’s two central storylines.

Shosanna survives a massacre carried out by Hans Landa and escapes to Paris, where she operates a cinema under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. When a Nazi propaganda-film premiere is scheduled at her theater, she and Marcel plan to trap the German leadership inside and burn the building using nitrate film.

Laurent’s role is sometimes mixed up with Diane Kruger’s, but Kruger plays Bridget von Hammersmark, a German film star and Allied agent. Marion Cotillard and Léa Seydoux do not play major roles in the film. Laurent’s performance also marked her Hollywood breakthrough.