Vanessa Paradis: "It was complicated for our couple to tell each other that we were going to be on stage together every night"

We are somewhere in the suburbs of Paris, in a large photo studio.

Vanessa Paradis poses for

bare shoulders and a man's bow tie around her neck.

She laughs, has fun, knows by heart the science of shadows and light.

From a distance, we notice his clear eyes, his fine musculature, we hear a little joyful laugh which seems that of a little girl.

His first steps in the theater were successful.

the play, tailor-made for her by her husband, Samuel Benchetrit, returns to Paris after a sold-out tour.

So here she is again at the Théâtre Édouard-VII with a different cast: this time, Samuel Benchetrit gives her the reply to replace Éric Elmosnino, retained elsewhere.

He is Jeanne's husband, this somewhat mysterious character whom she gracefully assumes, a hypersensitive woman, in need of children, plunged into a poetic-absurd universe which will reveal her greatness and her cracks.

Vanessa Paradis is like a fish in water.

She turned 50 last December – which seems incredible, so much adolescence lingers in this graceful, supple and lean body, a ballerina's body.

She radiates.

It is the happy age.

On video, Retro: Vanessa Paradis César for best young female hope (1990)

"It's a somewhat complicated exercise, a challenge to be met at each performance..."

Madame Figaro

– We surveyed France, Switzerland and Belgium for four months.

The cast has changed.

Éric Elmosnino and Félix Moati had other commitments, Samuel Benchetrit and Simon Thomas replace them.

Gabor Rasov is still with us.

In retrospect, everything was extraordinary.

It's one thing to play every night in Paris in the same theater with similar benchmarks, it's another to engage in new stages in new cities, with different gauges and acoustics.

It's a somewhat complicated exercise, a challenge to be met at each performance...

You were very apprehensive about this theater baptism.

Has the stage fright dissipated with practice?

At first, it's true, I felt immensely nervous at the idea of ​​accomplishing this mission: bringing people into our story, convincing them, moving them, winning them over.

The public was there, the play was successful at a time when the theater was not doing the best in the world.

We played in front of full houses, it was a relief.

And then came the second step: playing on tour with a different cast, playing opposite my husband in real life… playing my husband in the play.

And there, it became complicated for us, a couple, to tell ourselves that we were going to be on stage together every night...

Playing with your lover, it spices up life.

It's all the easier since we're playing a couple who love and support each other.

Vanessa Paradis

It is scary ?

Yes of course !

We were afraid of disagreeing sometimes, of yelling at each other, of not giving each other space, of being together during the day and then on stage at night.

The experience of the couple and of living together, we have it, because we are rarely separated for long.

But the stage experience?

Then we started to play, and we realized how pleasant and fun it was.

I could not have imagined how easily I could play the comedy in front of him.

The actors are children, and we have become children again.

We were uninhibited, we forgot ourselves: we interpreted.

Finally, playing with your lover, it spices up life.

It's all the easier since we're playing a couple who love and support each other.

You, woman of concerts, what did you learn at the theater?

I was afraid of repetition, afraid of silences, afraid of being less free than in a concert, where it is always possible to improvise.

But, contrary to my fears, the theater public participates enormously, even if it is obviously not the same energy.

In fact, the theater audience is the extra character, it is wise or expansive depending on the evenings and the places.

Sometimes it's worry: people don't laugh or stay silent, you think they're bored, you worry, then the play ends and they're up!

Not being expressive does not mean not being attentive.

It also happens sometimes during concerts, there are evenings when you have to go and get the spectators.

There is no method, it sometimes takes time, you have to involve them, go see them,

talk to them, challenge them, move around more, put all your energy into it.

In the theatre, it's obviously different: we don't act towards them, we don't expect an answer, we don't talk to them, except for a moment of monologue.

We cling to something else, to our partners, to history.

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For an actor, is the theater the most noble of the arts?

I don't know if it's about nobility.

But we're not cheating, there's no tinkering, there's no filter, no net.

We are not helped by microphones, close-ups or accompanying music.

It is our body and our voice.

And then I discovered the pleasure of playing the whole story in one breath, unlike a movie.

Sounds trivial, but it's really something.

It's the joy of playing without being cut off.

We play, we really play, and we learn something every night.

Finally, in the theater the text is sacred.

And that of

has a particular resonance.

The play is about women, it is feminist in its own way.

Jacket, tweed pants, and bra, Chanel.

Church's moccasins.

Philip Gay

"In any revolution, you have to hit hard to be heard"

Are you a feminist?

The word seems a bit overused to me today, but yes, even if I don't feel like an activist, I support feminism in general.

Of course, he had exaggerations, but in any revolution, you have to hit hard to be heard.

The play defends the cause of women.

Jeanne, my character, speaks on behalf of all women who have experienced disrespect, misfortune, trauma.

At times, I almost step out of the role: I speak on their behalf, I feel another responsibility, beyond the respect due to the public.

Sometimes the silence is total and the words really resonate.

The theater then takes on its full meaning.

Important things are said, heard, repeated.

You have made your way into a man's world.

Did you have to suffer from machismo or were you spared?

Spared, no.

But I must have been born under a lucky star: I was very lucky from the start, because I worked with extraordinary men, men who gave me a voice, gave me choice and uplifted me.

Franck Langolff and Étienne Roda-Gil listened to me, spoke to me, taught me.

Furthermore, misogyny and machismo are expressed in a thousand ways, I have experienced it - you constantly come across people who want to impose their power or their ideas on you - but I have never experienced these dramas that many women have suffered.

It was not my fame that protected me: it is clear that manipulation takes place everywhere.

How do we resist?

I answer cautiously: many women have not had the luck that I had.

I was free.

I said it: I chose the people, the projects, how to present them.

I was really me.

At first, for example, I wore too much makeup for a teenager, but nothing was imposed on me.

I was able to do what I wanted, say what I wanted, in the time I wanted.

I had the luxury of choosing, I belong to a very small minority.

Of course, I worked a lot for that, but I can't compare myself to women who are washed out by life, who come home exhausted and who couldn't choose.

Your background is very interesting.

You knew how to reinvent yourself at the right times.

Was it thought?

There has never been a career plan, instinct at most.

A record takes a lot of time: three or four years of your life.

In the cinema, on the other hand, I was not proactive, I was not at the initiative of the projects even if I happened to deliberately choose alternative films, like Café

or

But in the cinema, we are dependent on the desires of others.

I accepted certain films that I like less than others, but I made them because I wanted and needed to work and play.

Vest, T-shirt and skirt, The Row.

Coco Crush Jewelry, Chanel Jewelry.

Philip Gay

“Age has never been an obsession with me”

You turned 50

Quite a number though!

It's an anniversary that should be taken with a smile: do we have the possibility of going back?

Age has never been an obsession with me, but inevitably I think about it: I am invariably placed in front of my image, and sometimes I see myself in close-up and notice things that do not delight me. …

Catherine Deneuve said: “In cinema, you have to choose roles that accompany your age”…

Accompanying your age is a philosophy, a job.

Me, I try to make myself feel good: I do sports, meditation, I try to eat well, to sleep well, even if I'm not always reasonable and sometimes I do breaches of this discipline.

And that's good: I wouldn't like the idea of ​​being a prisoner of my body and my image either.

You have to know how to have fun, break the rules, not be drastically healthy all the time.

Misfortune is everywhere, you can't always dodge it, but you have to want to live, you have to love to live

Vanessa Paradis

Cate Blanchett

“

”

That goes for men too, doesn't it?

Believe me, there are also a lot of men obsessed with their age.

Already, we must distinguish women from actresses.

Aging is not easy for anyone, but it is worse for those whose image is ruthlessly commented on.

We hear: “She got old” or “She had plastic surgery”.

In short, you can never win… For the rest, yes, at 50, there is less time left, of course.

But I am fulfilled by the life I have been able to lead so far, by all that I have experienced.

Yes, there is less time left, and it will be less easy.

I hear myself say more and more often: "It goes quickly."

But it's like that.

The Earth is a few billion years old, and our time there is brief.

I discovered Marceline Loridan-Ivens late in life, I read her, I listen to her interviews, she is totally inspiring.

She lived through a great tragedy, she was deported, but for the rest of her life she surrounded herself with young people to whom she repeated: “We must continue to live, continue to believe in it, want to see it through to the end. »

So there it is: misfortune is everywhere, you can't always dodge it, but you have to want to live, you have to love to live.

You have kept a slender silhouette of a teenager…

And yet, I eat like four, but I don't put on weight.

I have my father's metabolism, a bon vivant who has stayed that way all his life.

Well, I also do a lot of sport and a job that keeps me in shape.

It's very sporty to sing, athletic even.

Tank top and bow tie, Chanel, The Frankie Shop pants.

Coco Crush jewelry, Chanel Jewelry, personal wedding ring.

Chanel beauty treatment by Khela with: Care N° 1 de Chanel Rich Revitalizing Cream with red camellia, Teint N° 1 de Chanel Revitalizing Foundation with red camellia B20;

on the cheekbones, Baume Essentiel Rouge Frais, on the eyes, Stylo Yeux Waterproof Espresso, Les Beiges Palette Regard Medium and Mascara Noir Allure Noir, on the lips, Rouge Allure Velvet Essentielle.

Philip Gay

"My entourage finds me prettier than I find myself pretty"

You are also a beauty icon.

We remember you as a bird of paradise for a Chanel perfume, the house of which you are one of the faithful ambassadors…

My entourage finds me prettier than I find myself pretty.

Let's say that... it depends on the mornings, the number of hours of sleep...

When did you realize that beauty was power?

I started this job at 14, it's not the age where we like.

I think you start to find yourself a little prettier the day you fall in love with someone who finds you beautiful, with a man who loves you.

But in adolescence, we ask ourselves the same questions as all the other girls, and I still others, because I was scrutinized with a magnifying glass.

I didn't particularly hate myself, but my feminine ideal was the opposite of what I was and what I am: it was Béatrice Dalle, her physique, her personality.

I loved it and I still love it.

The women I love?

What do I find beautiful?

My mom.

My daughter.

Her beauty impresses me, and yet I am her mother.

She puts on her woman's face, she never stops being beautiful,

but beautiful also because beautiful from the inside, a pretty person, a nice person, funny, intelligent.

I love the shape of her face.

Otherwise, the physique that fascinates me has been the same since I was 14: Béatrice Dalle, Marilyn Monroe and Romy Schneider.

Read alsoNicolas Maury: "As a child, I sang in front of the mirror and I loved Vanessa Paradis and Elsa"

You are an idol.

However, you often mention the conflicting beginnings…

Yes, it's still a trauma, that's how it is.

I remember those times when I was walking in the streets and people I didn't know insulted me and even spat on me.

It happened after

it happened often, and it lasted at least two years.

I can't forget it, I grew up with it.

Of course, there was also a lot of love, but at this age we are especially sensitive to criticism.

Will we ever heal from childhood trauma?

I haven't forgotten it, it's part of me.

It was foundational.

Today, I especially see sympathy and love towards me, so much so that I wonder if I deserve so much.

But I'm not fooled, I know that everything is not linked to my art, my music or my films, but also to the fact that I am part of the daily life of the French.

I grew up under their eyes, I am very familiar to them, there is surely a very reassuring side for them in seeing me grow old, happy, unhappy… in short, being a human being.

My daughter, I have seen her work for eight years.

She is a hard worker as we rarely see

Vanessa Paradis

An American controversy has targeted, among others, your daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, the controversy of

Today, everyone has an opinion to give, social networks, the tabloid press.

”

just the expression is awful.

A child whose parents are famous already has a part of his personality taken away from him: people are interested in him to reach his parents.

People are wrong.

Doors open for these "children of", but they are not always the right doors.

Of course, the temptation is probably great to suggest a "child of" in a casting, but if he's doing his job poorly, he's not going to stick around for long.

And then, above all, he will be involved in bad projects.

My daughter, I have seen her work for eight years.

She is a hard worker as you rarely see.

She works a lot on her roles and her auditions.

She did a lot of castings where she was not chosen, and she was unhappy about it, like the others.

I really think that the successful ones are the ones who work hard and have talent, whatever they call themselves.

My daughter is one of them.

You often live in Los Angeles.

What do you do when you are there?

I go back and forth, I've never expatriated, I've never lived there for a whole year.

My work, my life, it's here, in France, my family, my friends.

When I'm in Los Angeles, I make music, dance, but above all I spend time with my children.

I go there for them.

“Mom”, from

In video, Vanessa Paradis moved by a message from her daughter Lily-Rose