Fanny Ardant: "Daring, it's alive"

Carine Tardieu, the director, says that it took courage to accept this role.Do you share this feeling? Fanny Ardant - No, because I am an actress and I can play everything, even the number one public enemy.And then, what is courage?Show up to others without eyeshadows?I don't believe because when I play, I don't think of others.I live.And I am at the service of a filmmaker.In this case, Carine wanted Shauna to be a woman without seduction, not a cougar.She used me with my age, with what I am, filming myself with my ugliness, without conceding compromise to the artist on makeup or light.I liked that this bias refers to the intelligence of men: we start too often from the principle that they are a little stupid and can only fall in love with a 25 -year sculptural woman.It’s very contemptuous about them.

It is the intelligence of this look that conquered you? Fanny Ardant - is it absolute love between this woman and this man, who goes beyond prejudices, who goes against reason, who hinders our society...Their alchemy goes beyond "common sense".Their love is like an enchanted castle in which no one can enter.I find it crazy that in 2021 stories like this continue to shock.However, they have always fulfilled literature, from Oedipus to Balzac.It's old as the world, even if the cinema may have shown it less.That said, when I shoot a film, I don't interest me to support a thesis or to make a morality.I am not here to educate citizens.I don't care about the currents of thought, freedom is located elsewhere for me.

That is to say? Fanny Ardant-she speaks in a course and a freed reasoning of the lines of force of our moralizing and standardized society.Young, I already said to myself: "You are not going to get your head upside down for glory, power or money."For love, however...I have always only interested myself in the romantic.We do not all put the intensity in the same place of our lives, but, for me, the one who lived is the one who loved the most.It is better to go there, even if it means burning your wings, because no one is immune to surprises or first times, whatever the age and the context.This is what Shauna is learned with her lover.Initially, she refused to train this man in the deconfiting of the disease, but it is not linked to his age: at 40, we no longer want to manhandle a love through an ordeal like thisthis.

You had reluctance before accepting the film.Why? Fanny Ardant - I never undressed in the cinema, even when I was young, and the intimate scenes made me uncomfortable.When I see an actor or a famous actress get naked, I go out from the film, I watch how it is made.What does not happen with an actor that I don't know.I also hate what is complacent in the cinema, and the naked, which in itself does not bother me, is too often.But Carine explained to me how she would turn and never betray me.These scenes are sensual without us becoming, Melvil and I, pieces of meat on a display.

Which partner was, precisely, Melvil Poupaud? Fanny Ardant - Intelligent, attentive, protector.Under my freed air, I am very shy.One day, I even slipped him into the ear that I wanted him to take power.I am quite the opposite of a predator, and I needed him to help me down the mask.He took matters into his own hands, as his character does with Shauna.A welcome abyss.And I was incredibly happy on this shoot.

Have you always been in your career? Fanny Ardant - I often say that I am not a promotional actress, because I only interpreted roles that I loved.Some films have been bad or without success, but I don't care because, except perhaps twice, I have always appreciated the experience, I went there for good reasons.I have never accepted a character for money.Since Homer, all the stories have been told, but I love to go into the obsession of another.I myself am obsessive and I would spend my time repeating myself if the filmmakers did not encourage me to escape my torments.

Do you fear that their desire will weaken over time? Fanny Ardant - no, because one of the great virtues of old age is insolence.If there is a moment to exclaim "go to show you", this is this one.As Anna Magnani or Simone Signoret could have done, which I admire a lot.Our society becomes crazy and imposes on many actresses the illusory quest for eternal youth, but I have a certain enjoyment in not being where the century awaits me.I find it more flattering to be loved without trying to please.If you have to go to the surgeon to continue, well too bad, I will not play anymore!I will always remember Ettore Scola when he told me: "It's a drama.Soon, we will no longer be able to film old ladies."And then, more empirically, it seems easier to leave life when you are marked by time and has been prepared for it, rather than trying to enter intact in your tomb.My mother and grandmother, my headlights in life, have aged in harmony with their face and their body.It sounds very strong in me today.I may be told that it was another era, but it is a shabby justification to explain the current drifts.

The gaze of others seems not to reach you...Fanny Ardant - In my life as in my job, I have always assumed the consequences, I have never been a savings bank, I have never been afraid to suffer.And in sorrow, I never considered myself a victim.I played, sometimes I lost, but I have more remorse than regrets.That of having made me suffer, for example.And when I am held up: "God will punish you", I answer that he has already done it.Perhaps there are still a few setbacks for me, but it's part of the game.

Have you instilled this philosophy to your children? Fanny Ardant - very small, my father taught me that any authority was questionable.I may be a bad pedagogue, but I have, for example, always warned my daughters that they had the right to contradict a teacher, even if it means picking up a glue.Daring is being alive.I never refused a role for fear of missing it.When Franco Zeffirelli offered me Callas Forever, I was paralyzed, but I trained like a boxer so that the pleasure of the game was not started by my insecurity.

A word on your projects? Fanny Ardant - I hope to make my next film soon.I also filmed in colors of the fire, the adaptation of Pierre Lemaitre's novel by Clovis Cornillac.My character, opera singer, has a short but very strong bow.And I found Gérard Depardieu in the green shutters, by Jean Becker.Playing with Gérard is one of the greatest pleasures of my life.He has this impossible character that I learned to tame, but he especially has this laughing and melancholic eye that I will never get tired of.

Young lovers, from Carine Tardieu.Release on February 2.

>A découvrir également : Sandrine Kiberlain : « Maintenant, j’ose davantage »