Léa Seydoux struggled at school and always got "very low" scores in her exams.
The 'SPECTRE' star always found her studies tough going and at one point her grades were so poor her teacher contacted her mother, philanthropist Valérie Schlumberger, to discuss her performance.
Léa now believes she may have had dyslexia but it wasn't spotted.
In an interview with NET-A-PORTER's weekly digital fashion magazine The EDIT, she revealed: "(The school) called my mother and were like, 'Your daughter has a serious problem.' (My score) was very low! Very!"
Explaining how her experience of education affected her, she added: "I did feel rejected, but I was already so excited about the world. I just wasn't suited to school. I was already watching people. I realised that the world is hostile. I (thought), 'OK, how am I going to survive in this world?' I was like an animal. Some people are not born strong and they invent themselves, and so they become strong individuals by their own will. I think I'm part of that. I made myself strong."
Léa's father is businessman Henri Seydoux and her extended family is well known is her native France as her grandfather Jérôme Seydoux, is the chairman of Pathé; her granduncle Nicolas Seydoux is the chairman of Gaumont Film Company; and her other granduncle Michel Seydoux is a cinema producer and the chairman of the soccer club Lille OSC.
However, the 30-year-old actress' parents divorced when she was just three and her mother would spend months at a time in Africa, while her father would travel for business and despite having five younger siblings and an older sister and coming from a wealthy family she felt lonely.
Discussing her childhood, Léa - who got to meet stars such as Sir Mick Jagger and Christian Louboutin growing up - said: "It was privileged in some ways, but not in others..."
To see the full interview with Léa read The EDIT at www.net-a-porter.com or download The EDIT's free app for iPhone and iPad.
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