“It’s true, it never leaves me. In reality, I can’t take myself seriously. It doesn’t mean that I don’t believe in what I do, but seriousness bores me.”
When it comes to denouncing what revolts you, you do it seriously, don’t you?
“Yes, because at the moment, there are serious enough things that are still not resolved. When I think that people can’t eat enough or sleep in their cars because they can’t find a place to live, it makes me furious. I always heard that all this would be resolved. I’m going to be 80 and it’s still going on! We have to take the bull by the horns and stop wasting time on trivialities. Women and men have to live better.”
You are back in Belgium. A country that is dear to you.
“My mother was Belgian, from Ixelles. I have a tradition every time I visit: to go to the Grand’Place in Brussels. When I was a child, she would take us there before going to see family. We were amazed. This square, which I have known forever, is at once dazzling, foreign and yet totally familiar. It is unlike any other. And when I am there, I cry when I think of my mother. Often, I sit on a terrace and let myself dream, because this place is simply magical for me. I walk in the footsteps of the child I was and I come across the ghost of my mother, whom I love passionately.”
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What can you say about your show?
“I embody characters from texts that I appropriate to make a show. These are what we call “embodied readings”, that is to say that I don’t just read: I read and act out what I read. The characters in these stories exist, so I adopt their facial expressions, their way of speaking and living. It’s not a show where nothing happens, on the contrary! It’s a beautiful sharing. The character bursts out laughing, I laugh too at the same thing, like children playing. Now, in life, I like to read because it tickles my imagination. It forces me to imagine and create for myself. Someone who reads becomes co-author of the text.”
What inspired the title “The Words I Love”?
“This is the title that Jean-Michel Ribes chose, but the real title of the show is “Arditi lit ce qui l’aime”. This can also be interpreted as “this” or “those” that he loves. There are texts by Jean-Michel Ribes on one side and by Yasmina Reza on the other. It reminds me that nineteen years ago, I came to perform the play “Art” by the latter at your place. It was at the Forum in Liège. The stage is my oxygen. I could not go through life without acting and doing my job. My only career plan is my desire.”
Do you think certain words have special power, like “I love you”?
“What really has power is the way you say it. The word is just the shell of your feeling, and what really matters is the feeling.”
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What does the beauty or power of words represent for you in today’s world, where communication is often rapid and superficial?
“It is important to protect the French language. We must be very vigilant, because many people think that we should simplify it in order to focus on other things. But it is essential to take care of the architecture of the words that we use. Spelling, for example, is a living and important part of the word itself. So, to those who would like to simplify everything — and often they are business leaders — I say that they should just go back to school, it would do them the world of good!”
Does looking back at your career bore you, or does it make you nostalgic?
“Nothing at all. I never look in the rearview mirror of my career. What I have experienced is very good, so much the better, but I only see what is in front of me. Besides, I am only interested in the present and the future.”
With these words that you love, is there a message that you would like to convey to those who will come to applaud you?
“I don’t have a particular message. When I have a message to send, I call the post office.”
With everything you’ve already experienced, are there still things that manage to amaze you?
“Yes, life!”
