Too often, Laure Calamy has insomnia. But when she happens to sleep peacefully, she begins to dream. And not just anything. From a dressing room, like that of the Montparnasse theater in which she welcomes us on this freezing January evening, with a cracked leather sofa, an illuminated mirror and purple hangings. “I saw one almost like this in my dreams, so that meant I was dying to get back on stage. » This had not happened since 2018 and “The Game of Love and Chance”, by Marivaux, which earned her the Molière for best actress. His first but certainly not his last.
“Peau d'homme”, a piece which seems to have been written for her, although it was originally a comic strip – a best-seller in bookstores –, signed Hubert and Zanzim. The director Léna Bréban adapted it obviously thinking of her lifelong friend, met at the National Higher Conservatory of Dramatic Art. “We have known each other for over twenty years. I played in his first shows for young audiences. We both really wanted to get together around a project. To share time together, to laugh and why not also argue a little, because, after all, that’s what work is,” jokes Laure Calamy.
Everything about this story fascinates her. The aspirations considered too modern of a young Renaissance woman who, having to marry a man she does not know from Eve or Adam, takes on a masculine envelope, made of flesh and hair, to meet her future husband. “It’s a bit like “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf, which is my bedside book, but in reverse. »
I wanted to experience the freedom that boys were given, to be able to get dirty, to be able to lift things and even to fight
Laure Calamy
What would she do, Laure, if for twenty-four hours she could become a man? “Well, I’ll make love!” » she answers without hesitation. “With a woman or a man? » he is then asked. “Good question!” I think I would try both! Why not at the same time? I have imagined a number of times what it must be like to have a penis! »
When she was a little girl, she was called a “tomboy”. Simply because she didn't like playing with dolls, but preferred to climb trees and roll in the mud. “I wanted to experience the freedom that boys were given, to be able to get dirty, to be able to lift things and even fight. » Daredevil, she will remain so. With the baccalaureate in hand, she leaves her native Loiret and arrives in Paris to taste what she fantasizes as “the life of adventure”. Having meetings after midnight, coming home early… “My friends were worried, they were afraid of finding me with an ax in the head. Maybe it was risky at times, but I wasn't unconscious either. »
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Talking about women's bodies is political!
Laure Calamy
In these situations, she felt pushed by a “so-called virile force”, which she has nourished over the years with the masculine figures who populate her imagination. “For example, I have always identified as much with actors as with actresses. » In his personal pantheon, we come across Sabine Azéma and Arletty, the two Isabelle, Adjani and Huppert, as well as Patrick Dewaere and Michel Serrault.
She remembers the first times she used the codes of femininity, wearing a miniskirt and high heels “to be like Madonna” and experience her power of attraction. “I felt like a tranny,” she confides, before philosophizing: “At the same time, there are a thousand ways of being a woman, just as there are a thousand ways of being a man. Why choose just one? »
-You couldn't blame him for being modest. In life as on stage, Laure Calamy evokes sexuality without taboos. “Talking about women’s bodies is political! » We remember this scene from the series “Ten percent” in which she runs naked in the streets of Paris. “I advise everyone to do the same,” she says with a burst of laughter. This recognizable laugh, which has become his signature. “I have a harder time saying “I love you” in front of a camera than showing my butt,” she continues. His body is “a working tool, an instrument, a carcass shaken in all directions”, according to the stories he is told.
People may look at me differently, but I still see myself the same way
Laure Calamy
But she wasn't always so comfortable. As a teenager, she walked close to walls and couldn't look at herself in a mirror. “When I was 14-15 years old, I was going through hell. Looking back, I think I was going through a mini-depression. » A summer in Martinique with a childhood friend saved her. There she discovered independence and experienced love: “For the first time perhaps, I had the impression of being considered, desirable, it gave me more confidence. »
Success and notoriety have not erased all his complexes: “People may look at me differently, but I still see myself the same way. Like everyone, there are days when I feel good, others not so much. » She tells us that she doesn't really like people mentioning her age in press articles. Not out of vanity, no, but so that the public can project what they want onto her, depending on her roles. “I don’t want that to be a subject. Especially since we talk about it much less for the actors. » We grant him this courtesy.
“Peau d'homme” is a musical comedy
At 4 years old, she said she wanted to be a “circus lady”. But Laure Calamy was truly born in the theater. During an improvised show at a summer camp, he was made to perform Pierrot landing the Moon. Before our eyes, she comes to life to replay this moment, putting her hands in front of her face to represent a mask: “I could observe my fellow spectators, who were waiting for something to happen. And there, I had the impression of being invested with a mission that excited me. »
This sensation, this indescribable bond with the public, she can't wait to find it again, almost every evening until May, on the stage of the Montparnasse theater. With, this time, an additional challenge: this “Peau d'homme” is a musical, Laure Calamy must therefore sing. “During the first rehearsal, I broke out in a cold sweat. Going from a spoken scene to a sung one requires a particular breath, a mental energy. Luckily, I have an extraordinary teacher, Camille Favre-Bulle, who teaches me many things, notably that the voice is a sphincter that tenses at the slightest peak of stress,” explains this incurable anxiety sufferer.
In this profession, we have seen people who worked a lot and for whom everything stopped suddenly
Laure Calamy
Although today she is overwhelmed by proposals, she retains her former fears. Those of an intermittent worker who never knew what tomorrow would bring. “My agent told me I was crazy for worrying. But, in this profession, we have seen people who worked a lot and for whom everything stopped suddenly. » Let her rest assured, if the cinema took an interest in her late in life, it no longer intends to let her go.
Between two projects, Laure Calamy sometimes manages to take a breather. She then leaves the capital to find her beloved mountain. “ [M] “We have a rustic side,” she says. There, in the middle of nature, she walks for hours, like her character in “Antoinette in the Cévennes”, to stop thinking about anything. Aside from, perhaps, imagining what her destiny would have been like if she lived in someone else's skin.
