You publish the text of the idiots' dinner, meticulously annotated in your father's handwriting. What do his grades tell us about his personality?
They tell us his hard work, this very surgical side that he had in working on his roles. For him, comedy was serious, especially during rehearsals. The creation of Dinner for idiotsin 1993, it is all the same Francis Weber, author of high precision. You know, to play an idiot well, you have to work! Two years ago, the French teacher announced to my son, then in third grade, that they were going to study The idiots' dinner. I passed the annotated text to the teacher, to enrich his lesson. He not only gave two hours of lessons on the play, but two more on the annotations explaining the actor's work. I felt it was necessary to pay homage to him, which was rarely done at the time.
And you also had live rehearsals at home?
My father was truly a hard worker. As soon as he approached a role, the text was known, as well as the script, in its entirety. He also knew the dialogues of his partners. So he was in constant rehearsal. He worked on his voice, doing vocalizations every morning. I was woken up by this, when he walked past my room to go into the kitchen. He chose dialogues to warm up his voice, often the headlines of the day's press, in fact. He was born with this profession in mind. He always wanted to be an actor. When he was very young, he was already doing imitations.
With often funny roles, but which contrasted with a darker personality?
We're all a little neurotic. But if everything goes well, we have nothing to say. That's the flaw. Having been adopted, he wanted to know his true origins. He came to know them very late. This tormented him all his life. It was a quest for knowledge. However, he had a very rich family life, with loving parents. Raymond, my grandfather was a great man, who gave him a real education. Myself, Jacques Villeret adopted me when I was 3 years old, and he was my father, without any other question for me.
Exactly, what father was he?
When he wasn't acting, he was normal. He was a father raising his child. He played with me and monitored my homework very closely. He was strict and deliberately acted excessively serious by making me repeat my multiplication tables. He raised me to respect others, to say hello, goodbye. When he wasn't working, he was a happy person. But the problem of an actor who goes through periods without acting is that he has the anxiety of having a low point, of no longer being on stage, of no longer being loved. It always stays in the back of his mind.
Did he suffer from projecting the image of an actor who must necessarily be funny?
Suffer, the verb is too strong. With certain roles, obviously people identify the actor with the character he plays. If you are naive and stupid in a role, the viewer often imagines that you are that in life… My father was a fairly reserved, modest, benevolent person. He wasn't one bit pretentious. He was close to nature and loved fishing, for example. We fished in Touraine, his region. We brought the fish home, and he prepared it because he cooked very well. The grandfather hunted and organized large meals with these game animals. That's why my father is so natural at The children of the swamp. He was in his element. Besides, he is buried there, in Perrusson.
He conveyed the image of a concerned character. And then there was his addiction to alcohol…
We know how he left. It was written. Obviously we were worried. Alcohol is a disease, and there have been some very tough times. He had passed through to the other side… He was sadly drunk, and these are moments that we don't necessarily want to remember. When he died twenty years ago, a lot was written, a lot was said. Which I didn't necessarily agree with. We have always had great modesty regarding private life. He protected us and there was never a report on us in the newspapers.
Who were his real friends in the business?
Those of the Conservatory. There was Daniel Russo, Jean-François Balmer, Jean-François Stévenin, Jacques Weber, Francis Huster. They were the gang from the first films and we often saw them at home. They remained loyal to each other. And I don't forget Claude Lelouch, who was part of my childhood and who gave him his first roles and revealed him with Robert et Robert, The Good and the Bad, Each other, AND Dith and Marcel…
Despite a rich and convincing career, he was rejected by two major stars of French cinema… Why?
Because the current was not flowing. For The GoatFrancis Weber initially chose Lino Ventura and my father. But Ventura doesn't want my father… I guess the feeling wasn't there. Eventually, they were replaced by Gérard Depardieu and Pierre Richard. And I think it was better. The second who didn't want him was Montand when Jacques was chosen by Claude Berri to interpret Ugolin. For him, it was horrible, because he had been hired! Jean de Florette et Manon of the sourcesit was a year of filming and he had refused all other offers to devote himself to this big project. Berri had the courage to come see him to tell him. My father was devastated, and he fell further into trouble.
His addiction poisoned his private life, but his career too?
Any addiction poisons life, because it takes over everything. And in this business, there are always people to remind you of that. Of course, he worked until the end, but we see that at the end, unfortunately, he is less good. That said, we are not always on top. On stage, for The idiots' dinnerI know he wasn't always the same. The viewer doesn't realize it, but when you know people well, you know when they are a little below. I didn't dare tell him too much because I was getting yelled at. However, he asked me my feelings, knowing how he had played; you had to be careful to tell him.
What role would he have dreamed of playing?
I think he had a desire to direct because he was starting to want to get behind the camera. And we would have liked to see him in more dramatic roles. At one point, he worked with Jean-Luc Godard, with the idea of writing something together. And every time he came home, he said: “I feel so stupid next to him…”
To read: The idiot's dinner, annotated by Jacques Villeret (editions Fayard) 248 pages, 24.90 euros
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