One anecdote leads to another, and memories of decoration direct him to Clovis Cornillac’s film, Colors of Fire. “I play a banker. And for a ten-second scene, we made my bust, with a monk’s head, to show that I am very rich. 1930s style: he looks like a Nazi. I put it on very high in my office, because I had a stained glass window installed. It’s impressive (laughing). And then, I didn’t want this bust to end up with a decorator and have everyone spit on it!”
“The art of being happy”: Stefan Liberski brings together a few friends (Poelvoorde, Damiens, Bibot) to mock the world of contemporary art
Straightening his black tie immediately brings him back to A Bear in the Jura and this reflection of his daughter asking him to tuck in his stomach. “Every time I’m on television, my wife says to me: ‘Oh, but stand up straight, we can see your big belly’, hence my tie. I’ve just had my blood test and I have way too much cholesterol, so I’m definitely going to go on a terrible diet. And I’m taking old people’s medications. So, that ties in with the idea of exercise. stop. I walk a lot. They tell me to go home. belly, but I buy looser clothes…”
“Every time I’m on television, my wife says to me: ‘Oh, but stand up straight, we can see your big belly’, hence my tie.”
Speaking of money, how would he react if, as in Franck Dubosc’s production, he found two million euros next to two corpses? “It’s a stupid answer: I wouldn’t take everything. They’re big bundles, I’d take, say, two. I tell myself that this money, the people’s families might really need it. To tell the truth, as a child, I had unfortunate experiences. Once, when I was 9-10 years old, a merchant gave me back 400 francs, thinking that I had given him 500. I was very happy but. my mother forced me to bring them back, telling me that he would give me a gift, especially since it was in a toy store. Another time, I brought a wallet back to the police station, and there. no reward either. I told myself that if I found another 100-ball note, I would put it in my pocket. At a reception given by Clotilde Courau in Rome, I found a 20-euro note. ringing, I declare it loudly as I enter. At that moment, I hear Johnny Hallyday who says: “I lost my luggage. I answer him: ‘It’s my day but not yours.’ before adding: ‘For me, I feel like it’s going to be a good evening.’ There, I understood. So, to answer the question, I would keep, come on, a little 50,000 euros.”
Benoît Poelvoorde: “We are unfortunately in a time where, at the slightest word, you are crossed out”
“My life is built on chance”
The conversation deviates happily, following a very tangled thread. “My life is built on chance. Before, I said: ‘I’m someone who doesn’t work by meeting, but by chance of encounters.’ It’s a total coincidence that I made films based on the probabilities, I was not at all in the conditions to make it. And speaking of probabilities, if there is one thing that suits me. annoying, it’s this fashion to throw quantum blabla everywhere, in books, plays, films. A lot of people talk to me about Oppenheimer, I say: ‘Excuse me, but three quarters of the time, we. does not understand Nothing.’ They tell you ‘nawak’, you can’t know. You have to stop blabbering about quantum physics.”
But is it really a coincidence that, for the third time, he portrays a representative of the police? “I look like a cop. And I think I would have made a good inspector. For me, the costume changes everything. I love wearing a uniform. What’s funny about Franck Dubosc’s film is that the extraordinary situations come from the very ordinary side in which it happens. A bit like in Fargo, when you look at my face, you wonder if I understood or not. That’s what’s nice about this cop. tells himself that he feels that he there is a ‘binz’, without being sure of it, Franck plays with all the clichés of this type of film, with ordinary characters, if they were crazy, there is no pleasure in watching them: it would be Mad. Max. You look at Fury, she loses an arm, no one cares…”
Stop procrastinating
While the real police officers take pleasure in controlling him. “In general, they like me, even if I had a few problems when I was younger. I have calmed down a lot: I no longer drive very fast, or with a drink in my nose. I have already said, It’s a job that I really like. The customs officers also burst out laughing when they stop me and obviously, I have the right to say: ‘Nothing to declare?’ Sometimes, like when I listen to friends whose lives are on the verge of honesty, I think I should record, and the script would be finished. I write a lot, but I don’t finish. For a few months now, one of the things that is very detrimental to me in life is procrastination. Procrastination causes anxiety and I am someone who is extremely anxious. So, I think that one of the big answers. to my anxieties will be to stop procrastination.”
Looking forward to the release of his script. Especially if he directs it. “Directing is not Chinese if you have written and you know what you want. Woody Allen said: ‘Watch four films and you know how to direct.’”
Find the review of “A Bear in the Jura” in the “Arts Libre” supplement.
