They met on the set of
Rock'n Roll
: Yvan Attal had let Guillaume Canet know that he would love to be part of the adventure.
The director had offered him the role of one of his producers.
They immediately recognized each other, united by the mutual respect they have for each other and many points in common: their dual roles as actor and filmmaker, their love of American cinema from the 1970s, the eclecticism of their filmography - which they play or direct -, their Algerian roots, their private life shared with two famous actresses... No wonder these two wanted to reconnect, but, this time, by reversing the roles.
It is Yvan who directs Guillaume in
Un Coup de Dés
, a paranoid thriller in which they play two inseparable friends, whose relationship is tested by a story of adultery that goes wrong, and forces them for the first time to lies and cowardice.
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Also read “I took out my thing”: when Yvan Attal recounts the embarrassing “museum anecdote”
Madame Figaro.
– Was finding you obvious
?
Yvan Attal.
–
Totally.
Everything was smooth and caring, and we laughed a lot during the filming of
Rock'n Roll
.
But as Guillaume never took me back in a film despite my strong calls, including for
Asterix and Obelix
: the Middle Kingdom
, where he nevertheless directed a billion actors, I called him for
Un coup de of
the.
And above all, I really wanted to film it.
Guillaume Canet. –
Yvan and I have so much in common that we found each other immediately.
It was long before I knew you, but I loved
My wife is an actress
!
The scene at the cinema where he sinks into his chair because his wife is playing an intimate scene with an actor, I experienced it in my flesh.
YA –
You know that when I wrote this scene, I hadn’t really experienced it yet.
And then there was the screening of
Antichrist
in Cannes.
Imagine me, in my too tight shirt, with Charlotte masturbating on the big screen...
GC –
I sympathize… but we are going astray.
To come back to the question, I also love working with actor-filmmakers.
They understand our acting skills, our ego, certain concerns, and know how to reassure us delicately.
I am curious about all genres, I have no snobbery
Yvan Attal
How did your film buffs develop
?
GC –
As a kid, I was insomniac and, at home, there was no little bedtime story ritual.
My parents would sometimes watch movies on TV, and I would go down the stairs, hide between the bars, and watch the movie from afar, with muffled sound.
It was my little stolen moment of sharing with them, the birth, perhaps, of my love for cinema.
YA –
My parents left me on Saturday afternoon at the Créteil cinema, the Gemini, and came to pick me up after work.
I was the little darling, the usherettes gave me candy, and I saw the same film three times in a row which, sometimes, was not addressed to me at all.
It went from Bruce Lee to Pialat.
This has undoubtedly shaped my outlook: I am curious about all genres and have no snobbery.
GC –
That’s what your filmography says.
You can act like Dany Boon, make a sketch film (
They're everywhere, Editor's note
) or this thriller.
I grew up with this same openness: as a teenager, I was fascinated by
The Rules of the Game,
by Renoir, which, on paper, was not intended for me, and then I opened up, nourishing a great passion for New Hollywood with Scorsese, Coppola…
I did the Florent Classes for one reason: there were 90% girls, 10% boys, and of these 10%, 99% liked men.
Yvan Attal
Then, you both learned the trade at Cours Florent…
YA –
I’ll tell you one thing: I went to this school for one reason.
There were 90% girls, 10% boys, and of those 10%, 99% liked men.
Certainly, in the remaining percentage, there was Olivier Martinez, who had a hell of a good face.
But these were still the best years of my youth!
GC –
I wanted to direct, but when I arrived in Paris at 17, I thought that an acting internship would help me to direct them better.
And then, one day, in improv, I told a sordid story about the loss of a fiancée.
Everyone believed it was true, I understood the power of the interpretation and I began to consider comedy.
As I had to pay for school, I took on odd jobs - I was a clown at birthday parties - and I went to castings.
I had very bad skin and I experienced excruciating but formative humiliations... At that time, I also understood this: for things to happen, you have to be willing and work again and again.
YA –
I was probably more of a dilettante, although always willing to go on stage.
In my time, it was a bit messy, we had the keys to the school, we rehearsed little plays that we put on…
As a teenager, I had very bad skin and experienced excruciating but formative humiliations
Guillaume Canet
GC – Did you first want to be an actor
?
YA –
Yes, until the day I wondered how Robert De Niro, by doing almost nothing, provoked so many things in me.
I then understood that there was a conductor and a team: the director became my God.
But I had given up so much in high school after the second year that I couldn't get into film school.
Training as an actor was more accessible to me… The desire to direct came back later.
After
Les Patriotes,
the offers weren't all interesting and I wanted comedies that weren't offered to me.
My Wife is an Actress
was born, among other things, from this frustration.
Your roots are also common
: Algeria.
What do you keep from it
?
GC –
My mother comes from a family of Spanish immigrants settled in the Oran region: like many, they left with nothing after the events, without even photos, with a suitcase.
Throughout our childhood, our mother told us about her trauma, the reception of the pieds-noirs in France, etc.
I was almost saturated with it.
But my outlook changed with the arrival of my children, the work of my sisters with a genealogist, and the reading of
The Postcard
, by Anne Berest.
Today, my family history questions me more and more.
Maybe I'll make a film about it one day?
YA –
What I want is to go there.
My parents told me about the country but my view will inevitably be different from theirs.
The last few years have been so traumatic for them that the story of their lives before was perhaps also a little idealized.
Today, my family history questions me more and more.
Maybe I'll make a film about it one day?
Guillaume Canet
Rock'n Roll
and
My Wife is an Actress
are depictions of your couples.
Why this need to tell you
?
GC –
I was fed up with people talking about my image and my relationship instead of me.
I heard so much bullshit that I wanted to re-appropriate this story, to laugh with the public at what he was projecting of us: Marion who lives in Los Angeles, the marketer who calls me Monsieur Cotillard...
YA –
With this scene, you instantly became a brother.
When I'm in a hotel and a guy says to me: "Hello Mr. Gainsbourg", I want to murder!
Me
, My Wife is an Actress
was born from a strange observation.
One day, I said to myself: “It’s weird to see your wife go and shoot a love scene with someone else.”
I wanted to laugh at this situation, and then I extrapolated, like I did in
My Stupid Dog
.
While reading the book, I saw myself with my children and my wife, my questions… It was a way of telling the story of the 50-year-old man that I had become.
GC –
I understand.
When I made
Him
, I had scores to settle with a part of me that I don't like and that makes me doubt.
This character affected me so much that it became almost unbearable.
I started talking to him, and the film was born, like therapy to get rid of my inability to be satisfied with things.
Also read “He wants to do this job”: Guillaume Canet reveals rare confidences about his son Marcel
YA –
Finally, what director doesn’t want to talk about himself, to exorcise himself through his films?
Sometimes we even think we're telling someone else's story, before realizing that it's actually ours.
You play two friends, two brothers, in
Un Coup des dé
.
What place does fraternity have in this profession
?
GC
–
I never felt rivalry, but frustration sometimes.
Because I wanted to work with a director who didn't want to meet me.
But, as I don't give up, I used it as motivation to look for something else, another energy.
And it sometimes paid off.
YA –
With the excitement of the beginning, we can feel rivalry, but it can be fertile: it also serves to test one's determination, to surpass oneself.
Then, we get older and we understand that everyone is in their place.
On the other hand, I find that there are not enough exchanges between directors.
When I direct, I sometimes wish I had another perspective.
When we know that Scorsese passed on
Schindler's List
to Spielberg because he couldn't see himself doing it after
The Last Temptation of Christ
, we realize how artistic complicity can also lead to great things.
GC –
We are all a little too much in our own bubble.
It reminds me of Jean Rochefort, who liked to say that they passed the scripts on to each other with Philippe Noiret and Jean-Pierre Marielle.
And that didn't stop any of them from having a long and successful career.
Are you asking yourself the question of longevity and aging
?
YA –
Not in those terms.
But when you realize one day that you're not the youngest on set, or even that you're the oldest, it's weird.
However, I wouldn't go back.
The roles are generally more interesting today.
As for physical markers, I am resisting liposuction and Botox for the moment so as not to end up like Guillaume in
Rock'n Roll
...
GC –
During the promotion of the film, I said that I had no problem with getting older.
Today I understand that it is not that simple.
Physically, I don't care, but I see roles slipping away from me.
Other possibilities open up, but we always wonder if we would not have liked to explore in more depth what is no longer accessible to us.
Recently, during a production meeting, I volunteered for a little something and I felt the awkward stares: I was no longer old enough and I didn't want to see it.
But you have to accept.
I will no longer play the first emotions like at the time of
Children's Games
.
YA –
Yes, but with a 50 year old actress.
I understand that we need to rebalance age relationships in fiction, but I would also like to be able to imagine a movie couple with an actress who is twenty years younger, without it being perceived as scandalous.
Besides, this is precisely what I am writing.
I would have loved to grow old in the old days, when we were also allowed to film with young actresses.
(Laughs.)
It will please your wife…
YA –
But I also wish her to play love stories with young people!
Poor thing, she's working with an old man in a Benoît Jacquot film at the moment: a certain Guillaume Canet.
A roll of the dice,
by and with Yvan Attal, Guillaume Canet, Maïwenn… Released January 24.