Charlotte Gainsbourg: “A couple must have several lives to last; with Yvan, we have often reinvented ourselves”

Sometimes shyness is contagious.

Also, we do not lead off when Charlotte Gainsbourg joins us in a hotel in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, close to her home.

For forty years, the actress and singer has had the reputation of a wild animal.

Wrongly, because if the extreme reserve of its beginnings is not a chimera, so much ground has been covered.

A life of cinema, music, love and motherhood has gradually broken the chains of Charlotte Gainsbourg, who, in her flamboyant fifties, speaks liberated and assumed, in interviews as on the screens.

Boldness over the shoulder, she dares everything in her new film, a comedy by Dany Boon, 

.

Irresistible in a score exalted and written to measure by an author whom one imagined at the antipodes of his universe, the actress had not been so funny since

by Éric Lartigau.

“With

, I finally allowed myself everything.

As Dany and Kad

had no limits, I followed the movement: it was pure fun in a spirit of benevolence.

I went all out, I grimaced, maybe too much, but I trusted Dany to make the right choices.

I was no longer afraid."

In video, the trailer of

Life for real

In her career, the challenges have always paid off, whether she surrenders herself headlong to Lars von Trier (

,

) or whether she embarks on directing in 2021 with

, a very personal documentary.

But the biggest challenge is yet to come: to open the house on rue de Verneuil to the public, which was once Serge Gainsbourg's lair.

If the work is progressing, the intimate brakes remain for the actress-singer, who, despite everything, does not want to back down before the obstacle.

“I do violence to myself, but I am determined.

So far, overcoming my fears has often benefited me.”

Dany Boon's film is the perfect illustration of this.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, in a viscose dress, tights and pumps, the Saint Laurent ensemble by Anthony Vaccarello.

Studio L'Etiquette/Art and Commerce/H&K

Audacity

“I knew Dany Boon, because he is a friend of Yvan (

).

Not only is he a generous and benevolent man, faithful to what he is on screen, but I saw the pleasure that Yvan had had working with him in

and

.

As I really wanted a popular comedy, I gave him a foot call to which he responded.

It amused me a lot to play the nymphomaniac and cheeky side of the character, to the point that I asked him to push the cursor.

I believe I can allow myself to go very far without being vulgar thanks to this naivety, this awkwardness and this reserve which characterize me and which I share with Dany.

As I don't know how to clown, it is in this temperament that I draw comedy.

Whatever the role, I do anyway with what I am, what I have.

In this case, there was an obvious parallel between this woman who invents a double face for a man who softens her, and me, an actress, who comes out of her comfort zone in front of Dany, an actor who touches me enormously."

Read also“My voice trembles when I talk about it”: Ben Attal speaks about his complex relationship with his mother Charlotte Gainsbourg

Hindrances

“For a long time, comedy was an impassable mountain: it seemed to me that it needed a rhythm and an awareness of comedy that I did not have.

I was so afraid of ridicule.

On the set of

, I was totally ankylosed, ill at ease.

Yvan, who knows my laughs and my real bursts, did everything to try to free me, he made me climb on tables, shout the text, but I didn't manage to give what I wanted.

Even though I love the film, I had a great feeling of failure, very frustrating.

Whatever the genre, I also had the impression of being entangled up to

who pushed me to my limits.

It was a lot of gaming discomfort;

at the end of the day, I didn't know what I had done, but Lars von Trier knew how to find the words to unlock something in me."

I can't stand, on the other hand, it's being said of me that I'm "wise"

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Lightness

“When I returned to France after my years in New York, I followed

, a heavy subject, and

, a melancholy film that awakened the shy in me.

I'm not very Actors Studio, the characters don't accompany me beyond filming, and, despite the love I have for these films, I wanted to move away from heavy registers.

I've been hoping for comedies for a long time.

I had expressed my desire to Alain Chabat, with whom I had loved to shoot

but in vain.

And then Dany arrived and, in the process, Nicolas Bedos offered me

, a black, funny and mean series with Jean Dujardin, for Prime Video.

At the moment, I'm also shooting with José Garcia in

, Florent Bernard's first film, a tender and funny comedy about a

rotten family

Everything comes at the right time to who knows how to wait in the end.

Roles never happen by chance.

They correspond to an evolution, to a state of mind, to what we release.

Prejudices

“A certain image of fragility sticks to my skin, no doubt because of my voice, my physique.

That said, this a priori protects me from certain attacks and is not based on emptiness: my mother herself is often afraid for me, because, due to a lack of caution, I regularly have small accidents.

What I can't stand, on the other hand, is people saying that I'm “wise”.

I do not do this job to be wise but to “provoke myself”.

I find our time more distressing than conducive to daydreaming

Charlotte Gainsbourg

Privacy

“Extremes don't scare me, because I know where my limits are, and I'm not afraid to express it.

But I had the chance to work with benevolent directors who allowed me to work in full consciousness.

Lars von Trier, for example, explained everything to me with a storyboard and respected my choices, including when I refused to shoot a scene with a porn actor who was dubbing Willem Dafoe and had to be erect in front of me.

It was too much.

I believe that the excesses are born of the unknown, of the vagueness, and of the fear that some still have of saying no.

It is for them, and for the younger ones, that the intimacy coordinators can be useful, for example.

But I started at a time when there weren't even panties for intimate scenes.

The first time I got one was for

with Heath Ledger.

I found that very good for our modesty, but strange.

It peeled off all the time, it was grotesque.

But we got used to it.

The cinema and its uses change with the times, and, if that secures, so much the better.

But we must also be careful not to fall into censorship, puritanism, standardization.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, in a viscose dress, Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello.

Photos Studio L'Étiquette/Art and Commerce/H&K

artistic freedom

“In

, the character of Dany marvels at everything.

Unfortunately, I do not have this faculty, because I find our time more agonizing than conducive to daydreaming.

Cinema can still have this power, but it still has to be unrestricted.

We are going to countries that are not always promising: I have the feeling that we have to censor ourselves more and more for the projects to exist.

I recently saw

with my daughter, and I wondered if, today, in the age of political correctness, this unbridled comedy could exist… Not everything is negative, however.

I recently felt at the cinema emotions that I had not known for a long time by seeing

with Pierre Arditi and Yvan.

It was the day of the anniversary of the death of my sister, which obviously also echoes that of my father, and this film on the father-son relationship, which also reminded me of Yvan's link to his father, resonated intensely with me.”

Read alsoCharlotte Gainsbourg looks back on her estrangement from Paris after the tragic death of her sister Kate Barry

Young love

“In love, we start with a premise that is never enough.

You have to take new breaths so as not to get tired.

I believe in the fact that a couple must have several lives to last and, with Yvan, we have often reinvented ourselves.

At 18, when I met him, he carried me after my father died.

Then there was the rebound, the children, the films, the new places to live, the tragedies that bind us together.

And, today, we have the chance to remember what unites us, the path we have traveled together.”

There was the rebound, the children, the films, the new places to live, the tragedies that bind

Charlotte Gainsbourg

my life for real

"It looks like a race against time: I want cinema, I'm still working on my next album, which should have been released a year ago, I preserve the privileged moments with my family, I rehabilitate the rue de Verneuil … This accumulation is a remedy against boredom, but it also saves me from having to draw up an inventory which worries me.

I'm afraid of the passage of time.

It is no coincidence that I chose a job that allows me to escape “life for real”.

Integrity

“I find the era mean and cowardly.

People are lynched by hiding behind their smartphone, public opinion has replaced justice, and there is no longer any possible recourse once the digital sentence has been passed.

I also find it regrettable that the provocateurs no longer have a voice.

If my father was still here, I hope and believe he would have been true to himself.

At the time, he was already taking it seriously, but never betrayed his deep nature.

As for me, I try to preserve myself without falling into paranoia.

I know what I'm doing, but I also have an entourage that protects me: as the slightest sentence can be highlighted on the networks, it is sometimes necessary to border, to validate images or interviews that we give … I regret it, but the

Transmission

“We are in the starting blocks for the opening of my father's house, on September 20 normally.

It is my voice that will guide visitors to the site, but I hope that there will also be a route made by my mother or by Bambou, for example.

This project has been vegetating for a long time because there was a lot of work and I can't devote my days to it: it's too emotionally charged.

Besides, I still don't have the generosity to say that I want to share this place, which however has never been at home.

But preserving it for thirty-two years allowed me not to mourn, not to tell myself “it's over”, not to have to sort through my father's papers and belongings.

It's a chance… or not.

It might have been desirable for me to look his death in the face earlier, to grow, to assert myself, to assume myself.

Today is now or never, it's sad and liberating.

I hope not to be pompous in saying this, but I do this job to convey emotions and, with this project, I extend this approach which was also that of my father.

Life for Real,

by and with Dany Boon, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kad Merad… In theaters now.

On video,

Jane by Charlotte

, the trailer