• 16/06/2022
• By binternet
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Romain Duris: “I have a great appetite to live”<

What attracted you to the Eiffel adventure?

The idea of shooting in a great film on the construction of the tower, this monument that leaves no one indifferent.We all know the name of Gustave Eiffel, but few people know how this man was able to carry out such a crazy project from the end of the 19th century.However, trace the stages of such a company in parallel with a love story offered an original vision;This made it possible to move away from the biopic, the historical fresco, and to consider a real romantic film.Also understand that artists are always worn, or slowed down, by what they experience in intimacy.

Is it your case?

I can see the impact of my emotions on my drawings and precisely feel the state in which I was when creating.As an actor, it's different, because I do not "realize" the works myself, I am at the service of a thought or an external idea.In addition, filming are aspiring bubbles that grasp you and cut you more in life.

How did you get Gustave Eiffel?

There were many ways to get close to it, but I found myself in its fervor and the way he had to execute his project. Like him, my heart is at work. Having inherited myself from artistic fiber, I use a lot about what I see or what I hear to create. To embody Eiffel, the artist, I was able to rely on many existing documents, but to understand what type of man it was, I had to look for a maximum of details on his personal life. And as all the biographies were quite modest, even poor in intimate confessions, I imagined its character. For example, after reading that he was worried about what newspapers could write about him, I told myself that he must have a fairly important ego - which seems to me necessary to start such a challenge and embark so many people behind you. But it was not a question of making it a supported character, my goal was to remain light and malleable to be coherent with the story that we wanted to tell.

Should we be careful when you embody a historical figure?

In this job, everything is a new challenge!If the idea had been to build a historic fresco, I would have been particularly scrupulous, but, as in Molière or Arsène Lupine, the ambition here was to carry out a contemporary work and, to achieve it, it was not necessary to locate thisMan in a frozen state of mind, because this film is led by action and my character is still in motion.I played it by highlighting its engineer side, passionate artist, but at the same time in love ignited.

How do you manage to wear period costumes without losing your modernity?

I imagine that it is a question of rhythm, of attitude.I may transform myself, work upstream of attitudes and try to understand what meant this or that way of being at the time, I never completely erase my physique and my energy.But it is not controlled, it is something that escapes from me.

Like Eiffel, have you ever accepted a project to dazzle someone?

It could happen, but it was surely a tiny trigger because, as an actor, I am not used to embarking on a project thinking about the finished object.When I approach a role, I am carried out by the idea of making it exist, excited by what he will bring me to do, but in no case concerned with the image he will send.

What do you find in the drawing that the acting profession does not bring you?

This passion which imposes, as the only tools, that a pencil and a paper reassures me, because it is a simple pleasure to make.The drawing seems to me to be more concrete than cinema and more on the scale of life: I can also easily register this activity in my daily life.In addition, the loneliness and the meditative state that this art requires calm me and emits me in relation to the agitation which reigns on a platform, where one is naturally surrounded and looked at.And then the freedom to develop your work alone is very pleasant.As an actor, I can offer a lot of things during the day, leave the happy set, but I am not master of the editing, while in drawing, yes.

Are you as romantic as most of your characters?

I am a very sensitive man, it seems necessary to me when we exercise this profession, and the films evoking missed loves, like the vestiges of the day, of James Ivory, or on the road to Madison, by Clint Eastwood, that IRevived before I play Eiffel, tear my hearts and put me in all my states.But I don't know if it makes me a great romantic.What I am sure is that I like people, nature, and that I am in love with life.

Which partner is Emma Mackey, who plays the loved woman?

She is a very contemporary actress in her way of moving.She has a lot of character, appetite, her investment is total and she immerses herself in the body and soul scenes.With her, everything is inhabited, felt, embodied.There is an instant and very fast form of "action-reaction".Emma is so generous that it is very pleasant to play by her side, because we feel that she really listens to you.

How do you keep your passion after twenty-six years of career?

I think this is one of the reasons for which I do this job.If I lost it, I would stop the cinema.And it's a way of investing the moment.On a daily basis, I have a great appetite to live, I am physically very enterprising.Sometimes too much, even.This is why the drawing calms me, because the body, at least, is at rest.

Are you comfortable on the filming of large productions?

The disseminated, in this case, is to find its place in the small place allocated to play the scene.When the tray houses a large technical artillery and the rhythm of the days is supported, this sacred space must be protected to preserve the pleasure of the game and the ambition of truth.It is the small accidents that create spontaneity, originality, earthy details, and it is essential to keep them in order to prevent the film from becoming academic and formatted.In fact, to give it a contemporary character and a certain freshness, you must constantly ask what the scene would give, filmed camera on the shoulder, in a low budget project.

You will soon find Martin Bourboulon to play Aramis in the three musketeers.How do you approach this project?

With joy !This new adventure is as exciting as Eiffel.The ambition is to make it a real entertainment film and I have total confidence in Martin, in its rhythm, in its pleasure of observing the actors.I know the actors of this project [François Civil, Vincent Cassel, Pio Marmaï…] - Some are even close friends - and I like to shoot a band film with them, because I find the casting and clever.

Before, we will find you in the adaptation of while waiting for Bojangles ...

Having not read Olivier Bourdeaut's novel, I discovered history through the script of Régis Roinsard and I immediately liked the state of mind of this couple who, in the 60s,wants to live on the sidelines of society.I was touched by the mother [embodied by Virginie Efira], who loves her child, but will get lost in her too great sensitivity, and I loved playing the father, who will protect his son from the fragility of his mother.It is a film that overflows with love and tolerance.

In life, what pleasure do you find to be a father?

A huge pleasure.It is a magnificent and endless relationship since there is no user manual and can always be reinvented ...

You take care to keep your privacy secret.Is it a daily job?

Daily no, but I stay on my guard.I am not one of those artists who like to talk about their privacy.I do not judge those who do it but, for me, it is too precious.With social networks, it is sometimes diffile, but rather than talking about myself, I prefer to talk about what I create.

Michel Hazanavicius told you the main role of his film Z (like Z).What is he talking about ?

It is a comedy in which I play a director who stages a terror film.I just finished filming and the experience was great, because Michel is a passionate conductor, sensitive to rhythm.He is very human, respectful and he is a genius of actor management: he knows exactly where to press to get what he wants!

We can see you little in the theater.Is it a choice?

No, I love playing live!I have a real requirement in the theater, the project must take me and we must integrate the fact that our life around will be transformed.Replay each evening the same piece does not scare me, I owe this to Patrice Chéreau, who made me start on stage with the night just before the forests, from Koltès, and gave me the keys to refresh each nightfeelings and never get bored.

Back to school is approaching.What memory evokes this period?

If I replace myself in childhood, the start of the school year corresponds a little at the end of the dream because, on vacation, everything is possible: parents take you into other universes where you can fall in love ten times!It is also the beginning of an adventure that provides a mixture of excitement and apprehension.I like it because, in general, I like to change its state.But return to Aramis, on a horse, with a sword and a mustache, I admit that it looks epic!

Eiffel, from Martin Bourboulon.Release scheduled for October 13.