Julia, you say that you “felt that you were no longer quite the same” after filming, and that you “changed certain things” in your life. At what level?
Julia de Nunez. I feel a real concordance with Clara, her journey and her courageous decision to go to the unknown. This film asked me for courage too, at a personal level. It may be stupid, but for me, flying, it was huge. Even dizzying. If I was able to do fifteen hours of flight, it is thanks to Régis. I was on the verge of not getting on the plane, it was my phobia. So, he gave me a little joke saying to me: “Don’t worry, I’m in the hold with you. I still laugh, but at the time, that’s really what allowed me to leave. By thinking about it now, I find this phobia very revealing, as if I prevented myself from leaving too far. Thanks to this film, I traveled alone for the first time, after filming.
Régis Wargnier. When we went back to Taiwan to present the film, you have not returned with us. I saw you take other tickets to chain with another destination.
Julia de Nunez. I left alone on a desert island in the Philippines. I would never have imagined doing this before.
Julia de Nunez in Repair.Nour Films
Julia de Nunez in Repair.Nour Films
How did you find the actor perfect to play Antoine?
Régis Wargnier. For Julien, it’s different. I had written an older character imagining that Clara’s father would even less support the situation. I was in contact with an actor who wanted to play this role but suddenly, I didn’t have any news. In fact, he knew that I had hired Julia and did not want to play a love story with such a young actress. We had to meet other actors and I turned to younger profiles. I had seen Julien in Stop with your lies and in Paradise. I stayed until the credits to know his name. I asked to meet him and I was immediately seized by his youth. I even remember having said to him, “Let me get used to your youth, leave me 48 hours to adapt the scenario to this effect. Finally, the story is even more intense for these two juvenile characters. What they live is a gift. At one point, perhaps well-intentioned producers told me that it would be easier to have the film financed by choosing thirties actors, with more notoriety, etc. The story would have lost the strength of this first love. Clara and Antoine are twenty years old, life in front of them and they do not want the fate that we are trying to impose on them.
Julien, how did you understand this new actor management experience with Régis Wargnier?
Julien de Saint John. I discovered an unprecedented working method, of absolute precision. With Régis, everything is written to the close comma, the plans are thought very upstream. On the set, he puts himself in the place of his actors to say their text aloud, give him body. I worked a lot of my rhythm of speech, my breaths, to adopt his slower tempo. By dint of work, these constraints offered me a freedom of play that I had never experienced. I was able to let go to deliver the emotions and the impulses of the youth he was looking for. I felt very encouraged to express strong and very confident feelings to collect his opinion.
Régis Wargnier. In addition, I am never far from you for that.
Julien de Saint John. It’s true, you are never behind the combo [retour de l’image filmée sur un écran, en direct, ndlr] But near the camera, so we can have a direct and honest return.
Régis Wargnier. When an actor delivers a strong emotion, as soon as the scene stops and hears “Cut!” “, He is looking for a look. He wants to know if the emotion is right, if it should be done again, etc. Today, with the combo, he sees only one wall. He just hears a voice, often coming from another room, which shouts “it’s good” or “we do it again”, without even taking the time to move and explain what we do, why, how. It’s not my culture.
