Jeanne Goursaud

The Coldness of Numbers and the Mud

Jeanne Goursaud didn't need to attend Berlin's most prestigious drama schools to understand how the industry works. Born in Pinneberg in 1996, she began working professionally before turning twenty.

German television was her real training ground.

She started with supporting roles in procedural series and medical dramas such as In aller Freundschaft. But her first brush with big-budget film came in 2018. At that time Clint Eastwood cast her for a brief sequence in The 15:17 to Paris.

It was an experience of just a few days on set. Although her appearance was minimal, that American production gave her a sense of the scale of international projects before her big break in her home country.

Thusnelda's Uniform

In 2020, Netflix premiered Barbaren, and the image of Goursaud with her face smeared in mud and war paint went global. She played Thusnelda, a Cheruscan noblewoman who leads the resistance against the Roman legions.

Filming in the forests of Hungary demanded a level of physical preparation the actress had never experienced before. She had to learn to ride horses and handle short swords in extreme weather conditions.

And the gamble paid off.

The series racked up millions of viewing hours in its first weeks. But Goursaud avoided being typecast in historical drama. In 2021 she took part in the series Para – We Are King, where she traded leather tunics for the urban aesthetic of contemporary Berlin.

The French Connection and the Crime Thriller

Her mixed heritage, with French roots on her father's side, made it easy for her to move into French-language productions without the language barrier. In 2023 she worked under the direction of Olivier Marchal on the action series Pax Massilia.

Marchal is known for his raw, violent style. Goursaud played Alice Vidal, a police officer who arrives in Marseille with a personal revenge agenda. The shoot lasted six months and focused on real locations in the most troubled neighborhoods of the French city.

The production of the second season of Barbaren in 2022 had already confirmed that her name was a safe bet for streaming platforms. But she chose to diversify her projects toward psychological suspense.

In 2024 she joined the cast of the second installment of The Empress. Her role in this production about the life of Sissi gave her a plot of palace intrigue that is completely different from the physical action of her earlier work.

The contract for this German production included a temporary eight-month exclusivity clause during the post-production phase in Munich.