"I think we're lied to about a lot of things," said the 32-year-old, who was honoured last month for her role as Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.

"We see other towers of the same kind being hit by planes, are they burned?" she added.

"There was a tower, I believe it was in Spain, which burned for 24 hours. It never collapsed. None of these towers collapsed. And there in New York, in a matter of minutes, the whole thing collapsed."

Cotillard said she thought the World Trade Centre's Twin Towers would have cost the US government more money to refurbish than destroy.

"It was a money-sucker because they were finished, it seems to me, by 1973, and to re-cable all that, to bring up-to-date all the technology and everything, it was a lot more expensive, that work, than destroying them."

Ms Cotillard made the remarks last year but have come to prominence after her Oscar win.