Sandrine Kiberlain, the role of her life

What is the meeting of an actor and a role? What makes us suddenly imagine no one else in the costume other than him? The magic comes first from the vision of a director. Five years ago, when Guillaume Nicloux read Sarah Bernhardt, la Divine, an original screenplay by Nathalie Leuthreau, he only saw one actress to play the heroine: Sandrine Kiberlain. The latter having been able to show, in thirty-eight years of career, different faces in Masson, Brizé, Dupontel or Herry, the filmmaker knew in advance that she would be able to shine the multiple facets of the grandiloquent figure of French theater. « For me, her name evoked a somewhat dusty but grandiose personality, a tragedian with endless vibrato, notes the actress. I know this because as a child, when I did too much, people told me: “Stop acting like Sarah Bernhardt !” »

In 2019, the version of the script she received was 200 pages long and did not yet focus on the two significant episodes in the artist's rich existence: her consecration, in 1896, and the amputation of her leg, in 1915. , but Sandrine Kiberlain already saw herself there. « By feeling capable of playing a role with such a broad range, Guillaume gave me confidence. If he believed it, I could believe it, and there was a chance the audience would believe it too. »

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During the five years that followed, the actress made around ten films, showcasing her slim figure and her solid talent in comedies as varied as My Baby, by Lisa Azuelos, Chronicle of a fleeting affairby Emmanuel Mouret, or those of which Bruno Podalydès and Julie Delpy have the secret, but also in social dramas like those of Brizé (Another world) or muscular like November, by Jimenez. A long incubation period for a character who was just waiting to emerge. « By capturing my character through the text, through her outbursts, her positions, her way of saying everything that was on her heart, I little by little built a rhythm, an approach, a voice, a laugh. » The one she lends to the diva will remain engraved in memories.

All the daring

Because it is 9 months firmthe Dupontel film for which she won the César for best actress in 2014, had opened the door to exuberance, Sandrine Kiberlain was able to allow herself all the audacity with this role. Thanks to the trust of her director, but also that of Laurent Lafitte with whom she formed the duo of She loves him and who plays here Sacha Guitry, the great love of Sarah Bernhardt. By becoming a director, with the very successful A young girl who is doing well (2021), she also considered her profession as an actress in a more playful way: « by discovering editing, I understood that we could try lots of things without necessarily being good from the first take ».

A freedom that she also acquired off set, by taking time for herself, by relaxing her back in pilates, her hands in pottery (a passion inherited from Sarah Bernhardt which allowed her to place shaped terracotta fruits under the tree). with her hands) and her language in English lessons which will help her, when she meets Meryl Streep or Jane Campion again, to express her admiration in detail. So many assets which will also allow him to approach his future projects with confidence. Among them, a sentimental comedy with Pierre Lottin, the next film by Emmanuel Courcol, and the filming ofIllustrious unknownby Marc Fitoussi, where, opposite Isabelle Huppert who will play an extra, she will play an actress… the real role of her life.

ND