Guest of the show C to youthis Wednesday, December 11, the actress recounted her state of mind when faced with the challenge of playing Sarah Bernhardt, the famous tragedian she plays in a biopic soon to be released at the cinema.
After 35 years of career in cinema, Sandrine Kiberlain still manages to find challenges. This time, the 56-year-old actress takes on Sarah Bernhardt in a biopic titled Sarah Bernhardt, La Divine. Directed by Guillaume Nicloux, the film hits theaters on December 18. Guest of the show C to youthis Wednesday, December 11, the actress spoke about her state of mind when faced with the challenge of playing the famous tragedian who died in 1923.
Sarah Bernhardt, incomparable
“We had to abandon ourselves to interpret a woman that I did not imagine as we see her in the film, as free, committed, funny, spicy,” confided Sandrine Kiberlain to Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine, the host of the emission. About Sarah Bernhardt, her interpreter is full of praise. “She is a woman who was reduced to a declaiming tragedian but who was much more than that, she is at the origin of feminism,” she says. You can’t compare her to anyone.”
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“You have to leave a part of yourself”
A phrase from Sarah Bernhardt recurs in the film, “leave me, I have to leave myself”. A leitmotif with which Sandrine Kiberlain admits she also identifies, particularly when it came to playing this actress. “I really have the feeling that it sums up what it took me 30 years not to know how to formulate,” she explained. But that’s exactly what I could say, version 2024. To take on the costume of another, in particular that of Sarah Bernhardt, you have to leave a part of yourself.” What she did to the point of being inhabited by her character. “When I took off the dress at the end (of filming editor's note) I had the impression of reducing it because it was so large,” she added.
The mind of Sarah Bernhardt
We understand Sandrine Kiberlain's words all the better in light of her recent confidences about an actor against whom she did not know how to defend herself when she was younger. In an interview given to the show Nice gesture, broadcast on November 24, the actress recounted how Fanny Ardant stood up for her while the actor who gave her the line kept slapping her for real during rehearsals. It was only a matter of time before the spirit of Sarah Bernhardt inhabited him.
