She's an old-fashioned actress. A romantic with codes that have unfortunately disappeared. "Please don't write my age. We will not betray her. No desire then to undergo the lightnings of Elsa's eyes, so bright and so soft in the charming patch of her face. That afternoon, rue Richepin in the XVIth arrondissement of Paris, the actress, who completes the shooting of "Simone, a woman of the century" in which, under the camera of Olivier Dahan, she plays Simone Veil, appears with a smile to which the poet could have dedicated his verses: "Your laughing mouth where pearls bloomed. "
It is true that everything smiles on Elsa Zylberstein, who is on the way to being the most requested actress of the French credits. On the poster of "I only dream of you", by Laurent Heynemann, she plays Jeanne Reichenbach, the wife of the creator of the Prisunic stores who left everything in 1940 to join Léon Blum, dragged from prison to prison by the Marshal Pétain. But it is also that same day in "Selfie", a collective film. And in "I would like someone to wait for me somewhere", by Arnaud Viard (in theaters on January 22). And again, like, in "Everything smiles at us", by Melissa Drigeard (April 8).
The Blum adventure came to him as a sign. "I don't believe in chance and when I was called to ask if I knew Leon Blum a little, I said you are kidding! I was born like him, in Jouy-en-Josas ”. To this flammable lover, from Antoine de Caunes to Nicolas Bedos via the former minister Arnaud Montebourg, and who has been experiencing a beautiful new romance for some time, the character of Jeanne spoke immediately. "There is Adèle H at her place!" She decides her destiny. It's totally crazy what she does: go to Buchenwald to be interned with the man she loves and marry him there! "
"I have always admired heroic women"
Is it because of her Jewish origins, her name called Zylberstein, that the actress of "Mina Tennebaum" also said yes? “Even if my father was a hidden child during the war, no. I have always admired heroic women. I don't know if I would have their courage. And I like what is passionate, because I have that in me. "
She evokes her admiration for Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett or Julianne Moore. This freedom they have, she says, not to take themselves seriously, Elsa does not hesitate to cultivate it since Maurice Pialat put her foot in the stirrup. “I was a silhouette on Van Gogh . The girl playing a prostitute didn't suit her. I thought to myself, he'll choose me. The suite opened up all paths for him. "Pialat is a man who gave me life". Claude Lelouch confirmed it. "It gives you wings. He is eager to find the truth. "
As a child, Elsa was crazy about Isabelle Adjani and Christophe Lambert, but "too shy" to hope to consider following in their footsteps. "One day my father asked me of all the possibilities, what would you prefer? - Being an actress. He had to take a plane and on the plane was Charlotte Rampling. He went to tell her all about it and she said to him: She must go to Cours Florent (note: an apprenticeship in comedy) and she must call my agent . I signed up and the night I got home, I said: This is my life. "