There are phenomenon actors who break through in a dazzling way, sometimes at the risk of exploding in flight or not going the distance.
Others settle in discreetly and permanently, anchoring their career on a solid foundation of work, talent, ethics and perseverance.
Raphaël Personnaz is of this caliber, the kind that has attracted authors as diverse as Bertrand Tavernier, Roschdy Zem, Catherine Corsini, François Ozon and, today, Anne Fontaine.
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“I like characters who don’t show everything”
After an abortive attempt on a previous film –
Gemma Bovery
, released in 2014 – the director gave him a major role: the actor plays Maurice Ravel in
Boléro
(1), a biopic on the creation of the first international hit in history (the famous
Bolero
, therefore) and portrait of an artist of contrasts, as physically rigid as musically sensual.
“Ravel sacrificed everything for his music, including his love, his sexuality, his own body.
His vibrations, his life impulses, he reserved for his work.
I like characters who don't show everything, who don't necessarily verbalize their thoughts.
I had never embodied such withdrawal or played a role requiring such technical learning.”
Also read: Raphaël Personnaz, the art of fugue by an unclassifiable actor
“We had to erase his “pretty boy” side”
Despite his pianistic foundations and his years as a trumpet player in his college orchestra, Raphaël Personnaz took piano lessons for a year – he has not stopped since – and, for four months, took piano lessons. orchestra direction.
To make Ravel's dryness his own, he also lost ten kilos at the request of Anne Fontaine: “It was necessary to erase the “pretty boy” side of Raphaël, to slim him down to hollow out his face in a more tormented way, the harden.
I did not want to fight against its beauty but to complicate it, because Ravel, despite his dandy side, is in a state of intense fragility when he composes the
Boléro
.
He was, moreover, an educated man, and I found in no one other than Raphaël this ease in playing such a stylized character.
Ravel was an educated man, and I found in no one other than Raphaël this ease in playing such a stylized character.
Anne Fontaine
The fruit, perhaps, of the family and intellectual heritage of the Parisian actor, born to a decorator-designer father and a mother who translated Greek poetry.
The love of words, travel and creation are part of his DNA.
After playing
Cyrano
's nose monologue at school, he no longer sees any future other than a life on the stage.
Smart and hardworking, he trained at the 20th arrondissement conservatory.
The cinema arrived at random meetings and castings: for ten years, he played small roles.
While he was in doubt, a decisive meeting with Bertrand Tavernier sealed his destiny: promoted to Duke of Anjou in 2011 in
La Princesse de Montpensier
, he became the hope of French cinema and, between the ages of 30 and 35, experienced a blessed period, continuing the filming with
Trois Mondes
(2011)
, A new friend
(2014)
, The SK1 affair
(2013)
, In the forests of Siberia
(2016)… Tavernier, who also called on him for
Quai d'Orsay
, released in 2013, praised his “presence, elegance, irony and intelligence”.
Daniel Auteuil, who directed him in
Marius
et
Fanny
the same year, praises “his lack of arrogance and his great human qualities”.
The “new Alain Delon”?
In the praise, her beauty often comes up.
“In cinema, it can sometimes be a handicap: it captivates and alienates.
But, in the case of Raphaël, she encounters finesse, vulnerability, animality, determination and humor,” explains Anne Fontaine.
However, in his early days, the actor with azure blue eyes was labeled "new Alain Delon", a comparison which honors him as much as it freezes him.
“There are stereotypes that must be deconstructed: we sometimes tend to associate physical appearances with social backgrounds, professions, temperaments… However, all combinations are possible.
Furthermore, French cinema likes “mouths”, which I am not.
I’m counting on age to chisel all that a bit,” he jokes, before adding: “Ten years ago, when I was wondering about my career, Benoît Magimel said to me: “ You have to wait 40 years to pass the stage of young lead or novice, for other types of roles to come to you.”
French cinema likes “mouths”, which I am not
Raphaël Personnaz
When the cinema offers become less interesting, his agent advises him to go to the theater “to play, again and again, and not to be spoiled by bad films”.
He listens, asks the right questions.
“When it started to work for me, I sometimes made mistakes through bulimia: I don't regret it, because I touched a lot of worlds, learned things, met exciting people.
But I overdid it a little.
I had to refocus.”
His ego is in its rightful place: like his idols Michel Piccoli or Daniel Auteuil, he prefers the craftsmanship of the profession to worldliness, restraint to
show off
, good words to social networks.
On the planks
On the stage, he reached a milestone and gained momentum.
First in
Scenes from Married Life
, alongside Lætitia Casta, then in
You will not have my hatred
, stage adaptation of the text written by Antoine Leiris following the disappearance of his wife during the Bataclan attacks.
Remarkable in his dignity and intensity in this one on stage performance that he carried for more than two years, the actor won a Molière in 2018. His talent and integrity paid off: the image of the young leading man disappeared, even more so with his role of dance director in the series
L'Opéra,
and today with
Boléro
.
“I believe that Raphaël discovered something about his potential with this role of Ravel, another relationship to his appearance, to the world and to himself,” explains Anne Fontaine.
He has very great possibilities, which expand with maturity and what he experiences intimately.”
This summer, the 42-year-old actor became a father for the first time.
“Focusing your attention on someone other than yourself allows you to better understand your own doubts and anxiety.
Today, also with my experience, I take greater responsibility for my qualities and my faults.
Bolero
is the film I was hoping for to finally allow myself to dream.”
(1)
Boléro
, by Anne Fontaine, with Raphaël Personnaz, Doria Tillier, Emmanuelle Devos, Jeanne Balibar… Released March 6, 2024.