What a hell of an actor Benjamin Voisin is! At 28 spring, the actor discovered by François Ozon in Summer 85 has already forged a solid career with bold choices. Aspiring journalist in Lost illusions by Xavier Giannoli, sports shooter in The Coubertin Spirit by Jérémie Sein, he is dazzling as a young man who allows himself to be recruited by the extreme right into Play with fire by Delphine and Muriel Coulin.
Between Vincent Lindon who plays his trade unionist father trying to distract him from these toxic associations and Stefan Crepon who plays his studious brother, Benjamin Voisin composes a very impressive character. “With the directors, we asked ourselves to what extent we should humanize it,” confides the actor. We didn’t want to make it archetypal.”
On the boards too
His performance is of the same intensity as that which he gives on the stages of the Théâtre de l'Œuvre during his only on-stage performance. Guerreinspired by Louis-Ferdinand Céline. He plays the author while in a trench and then sent to hospital after an injury during the First World War. “I like having emotions stolen from me at the cinema,” he says. The camera is close to the actor's intimacy, capturing things that I cannot control. In the theater, I know exactly what I'm doing. I feel in control in front of the public.”
A work as meticulous as it is relentless explains, according to him, his mastery in composing boys on edge capable of a fascinating animality. “I choose my roles instinctively,” he explains. I have to be prepared to dig into the character for weeks. Acting is something innate. What makes it interesting is the work.” The young actor carried out the investigation to understand the person he plays and the result is astonishing. The attacks of violent anger of the boy he plays are very frightening as we feel him ready to unleash himself on anyone who gets in his way.
-A nightmare for parents
“I think that this film is especially a nightmare for parents of very young children who cannot imagine that their little ones can become fascists,” he comments. Those who wonder how and in what world their toddlers will evolve are trembling. In this sense, Play with fire can be seen as a horror film. Incapable of stopping a relentless process, the father played by Vincent Lindon watches, helplessly, the loss of a child to whom he was incapable of instilling his humanist values.
Vincent Lindon won an Interpretation prize in Venice last September for Play with fire. If it is impeccable in sobriety, we remember more the latent violence expressed by Benjamin Voisin whose poorly controlled fury bodes dark tomorrows. After this very tough and very successful film, the actor changed register and not just a little. He will play in Lentseries about a cook determined to impose himself in Napoleon's France. We're licking our lips in advance.
France
