Artists often deplore being locked into boxes. However, it is difficult to categorize Pierre Niney as he blurs the lines, project after project. Comfortable in the comedy register (
20 Years of Gap
,
OSS 117
,
The Book of Solutions
or even
La Flamme
on television), the actor also excels in more serious or intimate films like
Frantz,
by François Ozon, or
Yves Saint Laurent,
by Jalil Lespert. Since his debut at the Comédie-Française, he has been day and night, the irresistible clown and the elegant tragedian. At 35, the actor is expected at the cinema on June 28 in the vengeful guise of the Count of Monte Cristo in a spectacular adaptation which offers him a role of unprecedented depth.
But, for now, it is through humor that he displays all his talent. In
Fiasco
, a Netflix series that he created, wrote and produced with his lifelong friend Igor Gotesman, he plays a young director who is overwhelmed, unsuitable and clumsy, whose first shoot turns into a nightmare: his childhood friend dreams of being an actor and don't let him go (François Civil, masterful ball), his headliner is a diva (Vincent Cassel), his makeup artist has bad breath, and a crow makes him sing. With this comedy with a formidable tempo, presented as part of the CanneSéries Festival, Pierre Niney confirms that he is one of the new stars of humor made in France.
Madame Figaro. – How would you define
Fiasco
’s DNA
? Pierre Niney. – Fiasco
is our baby, Igor Gotesman and me. On
Casting(s)
, the short format that we wrote for Canal+, Igor mentioned the idea of extending the experience with a “big sister”, a series about the life of a shoot. The vagaries, the egos, the intimate and financial issues, the sometimes violent relationships seemed to us to be very fertile ground for comedy. Then, we decided to push the cursors with uncomfortable situations and different topics covered. All delicate issues, disability or sexism, for example, are conducive to humor as long as the target of the attack remains the discriminator and not the discriminated. But far from us is the idea of giving lessons. We do not do politics but entertainment, and prefer squeaky laughter to moralizing laughter.
Was it always intended that you would play the leading role?
From the start. It was also written to measure. This character is my clown: I love playing the gorgeous, clumsy, awkward loser who has no social timing but wants to seem cool. This no longer represents a big effort considering my age, but I even gained a few kilos to accentuate the clumsy side of this character who is fond of the bowl cut and the duffle coat… Everything was done to make me feel bad comfortable, and when I watched the rushes, I actually found myself quite awful.
(Laughs.)
To what extent does the series draw on the reality of the profession?
We are pushing the line, otherwise I would have already changed path! But the actor with a strong personality who monopolizes power on the set, the loss of funding which turns into a disaster or the director who wants to please his actress are things that we have seen, heard or experienced.
With my friends, we reenacted the sword fights
Pierre Niney
Were you afraid of slipping into this in-between space that people in the middle are so criticized for?
It's a series of cinema people talking about cinema, but anyone who has been uncomfortable with a boss, anyone who has fallen for a colleague, anyone who struggles to find their place in their family can project themselves. A film set is a micro-society, with issues of power, trust and solidarity present in many other spheres. The series
Dix pour cent
, which was a thunderclap in the French landscape, was also proof that the profession can interest the general public.
We often imagine rivalries in the cinema industry. It seems not to exist between François Civil and you?
When Igor introduced me to François, it was love at first sight. Since
Five,
which we had filmed together, our trio was looking for a new comedy object that resembled it. With François, we love each other, we admire each other and we are lucky not to resemble each other in our game or physically. I think our desires as actors are not exactly the same either. Without any comparison, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Matt Damon have each managed to lead a successful career in Hollywood and remain friends. So why not us ? We fantasize a lot about artistic rivalries, but I don't believe that there is more competition in cinema than at EDF or Orange.
You will soon be The Count of Monte Cristo in the cinema. What does this hero of Dumas remind you of?
Edmond Dantès is our Hamlet! A true gift for an actor.
The Count of Monte Cristo
is one of the founding literary works on revenge, and offered me the possibility of metamorphosing myself, of playing with masks, multiple identities... By seeing the film, I also understood that the character offered me an outfit, a bodily dimension, a voice, an economy of movements, and therefore a gravity, which were unprecedented in my filmography. Edmond Dantès is so obsessed with revenge that he takes an almost sadistic pleasure in it. Finding this darkness was a challenge: it goes against my very nature.
Is there a childish pleasure in tackling an epic fresco?
Totally. As a child, after seeing
The Hunchback,
with Daniel Auteuil, I was like crazy. With my friends, we re-enacted the sword fights, we looked for the boot of Nevers... I keep a memory of it as strong as of my discovery of Cyrano a few years later. When I reread
The Count of Monte Cristo
, I saw the meeting of these two legends: an epic fresco with great psychological and philosophical depth, carried by a hero symbolizing both what There is something more beautiful and darker in human beings.
Fiasco,
by Igor Gotesman and Pierre Niney, on Netflix, from April 30.
The Count of Monte Cristo,
by Alexandre de La Patellière and Matthieu Delaporte, released June 28.