Sometimes there are roles that stick to us. It's difficult to see Liam Neeson in a role other than action and Chris Hemsworth now lives in the collective imagination as Thor. On our side of the Atlantic, a few actors are known for often playing similar roles. This is the case of Gilles Lellouche. If he started in comedy, it was quickly in drama, crime fiction and thrillers that he distinguished himself the most. We find him over the years at the castings of Don't tell anyone by Guillaume Canet (2006), Point blank by Fred Cavayé (2010), La French by Cédric Jimenez (2014) and more recently in Kompromat by Jérôme Salle (2022). Darker roles that ended up sticking to him. But in 2018, he opened up to other horizons with Pupila film by Jeanne Herry broadcast Sunday November 17, 2024 at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.
Why did Jeanne Herry choose Gilles Lellouche to play in Pupil ?
“Honestly, I had no idea what the adopter's journey in France represents, even if close friends have done it, and I knew nothing of the existence of this human chain which works to find a family to an abandoned baby. I admire Jeanne for bringing this subject to light.. In the press kit for the film, Gilles Lellouche remembers this filming adventure like no other, during which he played Jean, a family assistant responsible for welcoming children into his family awaiting adoption. A role inspired by a person who actually exists. “I know that my character owes a lot to a Jean who is very real, and who works as a family assistant near Brest. Jeanne had documented my character a lot, so well written, with humor and tenderness”he confides. The director was particularly keen on this male role. “The world around adoption is already very, very feminine, so I chose a baby boy, and a male foster carer. […] Revisiting the gestures of caring for a baby by having a man perform them was stimulating and different to film. A man, and if possible a slightly virile man, who embodied a tough masculinity in the cinema, it was the assurance of astonishment for me and the spectator, of a strong image”she explains.
“I am the father of a 9 year old little girl” : the confidences of Gilles Lellouche on his role in Pupil
Because yes, the one who also played Anger in the two parts of Vice-versa was also chosen for this. “It's a body, Gilles, thick, sensual. A baby is carnal, and it works between them. And then he's not a social worker, he's a family worker chosen by the social people. C he is the everyday man, whom I had fun filming as a housewife, a solid, responsible, serious, funny masculine ideal, in a reversed couple, with a woman who works outside, earns money and who; encourages him to continue working, despite his moods”. A slightly different register therefore, for those who admit not having “many other alternatives than embodying this [qu’il est]” at the cinema. “Manly, yes, I want to, but what saddens me is when people see me as a macho or even a 'straight hunk', as I read a few years ago.” But thanks to Jean, Gilles Lellouche managed to slip into a “block of tenderness and delicacy”. With a certain lucidity about current society he adds: “I am the father of a 9 year old little girl.and the difference in attitude is such between the father that I am and my father with me that it seems like another world! All this is the material of Pupille and nourishes my character”.
