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Now 43 years old, Swann Arlaud has long been confined to supporting roles on the small and big screen. But in 2016, his career took a turn, when he starred in the films Neither heaven nor earth by Clément Cogitore and The Anarchists by Élie Wajeman, obtaining a nomination for the César for Most Promising Actor for the latter. He also won the César for best actor in 2018 for his performance in Little Peasant then twice won that of best actor in a supporting role: first in 2020 with the drama Thanks to Godthen in 2024 for Anatomy of a fall. He also gave of himself to obtain a role in You only want me, alongside Emmanuelle Devos.
This Wednesday evening, he can be found on France 2 in the series In the shadowsin which he plays one of the main roles. He also gave 100%, so much so that he experienced a rather difficult shoot, as he explained for Tele-Leisure : “We have no visibility on the impact that a series can or will have before its broadcast. Afterwards, I didn't get over it at all! I spent three months on set being sick all the timeI had a real inner conflict regarding my character. We had some interesting discussions on this subject. Indeed, we are actors, we play roles and we are not obliged to share the opinions of our character, otherwise we would not play much. But my experience, and I don't really know why, is that It was complicated for me, until the end.“
Swann Arlaud in great difficulty with his character
“It never happens to me but here, I had a problem, it was that I had difficulty liking my character. It's really a conflict with myself and I'm still there. A priori, we need to like our characters because we need to defend them. But I didn't want to defend him. I don't know why… He's not bad, and yet I did everything to make him so, that's what's crazy. Jacques, the cinematographer, told me 'be careful, you have wrinkles in your neck'. I wanted it to be ugly, I did everything to (laughs, editor’s note)“, he added.
In the shadows is as a reminder the eponymous television adaptation of the novel written jointly by Édouard Philippe and his former close collaborator Gilles Boyer, created and directed by filmmaker Pierre Shoeller (L'Exercice de l'Etat). The former Prime Minister is played by Melvil Poupaud in this series.
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