Paris Match. We had offered to take up “the truth” two years ago. And you had declined …
Stéphane de Groodt. Because I started in my own room! But I had said my desire to play in “La Truth”, and Pascal Legros, the director of Édouard-VII, agreed to repel this show by two years so that I can do. It forces me. Especially since Florian Zeller is an author who has shown his talent in lots of different registers, which we play in one of the most beautiful theaters in Paris and that I have three wonderful partners. In short, the team is quite strong, I have to take it on, so it's a little complicated load … (He laughs.)
What is “truth” for you?
When I read the play, there were a lot of things that made me laugh. But once on stage you have to be up to the effectiveness of the text, because it is a devilishly well written mechanics. It is a slippery terrain for an actor like me, who constantly doubts …
Basically, does Florian Zeller show that the lie is still in vain?
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It is a chronicle of ordinary life, a man who deceives his wife, is the daily life of many people … But what has gone to the scalpel here is how to get out of this situation. Because it is always complicated, if not impossible to lead two sentimental lives head -on. We often think that we master things, but in reality it is rarely the case … in life, I think you sometimes have to lie. I am convinced that there are many couples around me who live in the lie and who accommodate it. And that's why they hold on the length … If we had to swing all our truths, to open our secret garden, it would be a disaster …
Did you lie a lot?
-Oh ! Yes, a lot. (He laughs.) But I lie less and less, because the more we advance in life, the less we want to bother with complicated things. Lying is part of a social process and, for me, it is a truth in the making. When you sell it well, he ends up imposing himself as a reality … We often talk about the art of lie, never about the art of truth.
The room shows that it is the women who have the upper hand over men as a last resort …
But it's not just in the room, it's in life too! And that's why men try to burn them around the world, because they are fundamentally afraid of them. I am, alas, convinced.
“The truth”, currently at the Édouard-VII theater.
© (Paris IXE)
