Meeting with the actor from Kompromat, the latest film by Jérôme Salle, to be (re)watched this Sunday on France 2.
In Kompromat, he crosses Siberia to flee the Russian police and once again faces an unbelievable story “inspired by real events”. At the beginning of September 2022, First asked some questions to Gilles Lelloucheand on the occasion of the first free broadcast of this thriller, we share his words again. Note in passing that he will return to the cinema next week as a director: after The Great Bathif adapted Love phewwith Adèle Exarchopoulos, François Civil, Mallory Wanecque and Malik Frikah.
GILLES LELLOUCHE: Hello, if it cuts out, I’ll call you back. I’m in a place where it doesn’t pick up very well…
FIRST: I too, I am in a Breton town that you know… Lanhélin.
Amazing! I spent my entire childhood and adolescence nearby. The Rock Abraham, you see?
Of course, just after the Pion Rock.
Exactly ! After Virgo… There must be two of us in the industry who know this area!
Three. Your brother too. He actually made a film about it, Our best vacations…
Yes, he wanted to tell about our summers there. I’m not going to tell you that I had fun every day, eh, but I have very happy memories. Well… it’s not to talk about Lanhélin that you’re calling me after all?
No, but I will keep the Breton connection. Was it the script by Breton Caryl Férey that pushed you to play in Kompromat ?
No way. Basically, I came across an article telling the story of this man who crossed Russia after being wrongly accused. I found it crazy. Two weeks later, a phone call from Jérôme Salle who told me that he was working on the adaptation. It was gone.
Did the fact that it was based on real events add anything?
To be frank, it’s more and more complex to have the shadow of a true story about the roles I play. From now on, I am wary and I always put things in context. And I systematically remind you that this is cinema, fiction; not a testimony or a documentary.
OK, you’re talking to us about the welcome BAC North To be…
Absolutely ! I saw how things could get out of hand. I’m bolting all this stuff on now. I don’t want to become one control freak. I don’t want to spend my time managing the writers and becoming super interventionist. But I will have to be vigilant about the way in which things can be translated and interpreted. It’s all the more a shame since I’m very proud of the film! I just don’t want to be taken back – especially in this election context. At another time, there would undoubtedly have been less controversy and fewer problems…
Kompromat: Gilles Lellouche in Jason Bourne mode [critique]
To return to Kompromat, you play an average guy who reveals himself in the face of adversity. He’s one of the recurring figures in your film…
This is the boy next door to whom incredible stories happen, yes. I love it, because I feel like it’s quintessential cinema. In any case, in the film, it echoed cinema fantasies that speak to me: The Fugitive, Three Days of the Condor… But above all there was the possibility of playing scenes that I had never performed before.
Like running in the Lithuanian forest?
No not at all. The action scenes are the easiest. When you find yourself in a pond in the middle of the forest, in disgusting water, at minus ten degrees, it comes naturally. I was thinking more of the separation scene with his wife… His loneliness had to be conveyed. That was the challenge. Fortunately I had help from the other actors.
Comme Joanna Kulig ?
I love it. I was very impressed by what she did in Cold War. I have rarely seen someone so animated and alive. It’s a whirlwind of words, of gestures and paradoxically, his playing is very minimal, very calm. She amazed me.
Phew love: “It’s just a story of kif”
