What did you know about Sarah Bernhardt before playing her?
Sandrine Kiberlain: “I had in mind a caricatured woman, a tragedian who declaims. I discovered a woman ahead of her time, courageous, generous, politically, lovingly and friendly. She was a jack of all trades artist, she sculpted, painted. And the film resembles her, it’s a whirlwind, an invention, a scent of her. I fell in love with its strength of life, its character, its modernity. She is the one who determines her life. She runs a lot of things. Sometimes she tires everyone. Her disappointment in love brings a sudden fragility, which perhaps counteracts the fact that she was overwhelmed by her disproportionate success. »
It is said about her that she was a kind of influencer of her time? Moreover, Cocteau invented the expression “sacred monster” about him…
“She is the first big world star who did ads on her name, who sold Sarah Bernhardt soap, Sarah Bernhardt cigars. She was incredible. For the time, it was crazy. And Guillaume Nicloux has achieved the feat of bringing us into his flamboyant life, into his time, his decor, his majestic costumes with high collars which give him the look of a queen, which Anaïs Romand created. Sarah Bernhardt spent a lot, crazy about the beauty of things. »
“We can’t tiptoe around Sarah Bernhardt”
How can you capture such a strong personality without wavering?
“I never sat down during filming, because the film was made very quickly. We cannot play Sarah Bernhardt on tiptoe: we must enter her world, her friends, her lovers, her wild animals, her coffins in which she rehearses. You have to get into your madness. And I entered the set like a ring. She never stops, lives night and day. She slept little, she lived fast and hard, she made up for a childhood that was too harsh, she wanted to be loved in a multiplied way, extreme in everything. »
Does Sarah Bernhardt’s perpetual movement infuse a particular energy?
“It’s an inspiring role, which requires tackling several registers. I let go of the horses, I was loaded with lots of things that I had read, the text that I had learned so much, for two months. You cannot improvise lines as dazzling as those of Sarah Bernhardt, you have to know them perfectly, to find your truth and let go the moment you say “motor, action”. When I left the role, I felt relieved of this passion, of this energy which carried me for several weeks. »
“Laughter is freedom, we cannot control it, like tears, and she, Sarah Bernhardt, was never in control”
Was this a usual way of working on a text or did this project have special requirements?
“It was not just a question of playing a role, but of respecting lines which truly belong to Sarah Bernhardt, whom there was no question of betraying. There is also a form to preserve, a coherence which includes everything: the costumes, the hairstyle, the sets, the atmosphere. For example, there are these birds that fly while I speak, which further anchors the character in his world, which reflects his personality. This environment helped me a lot to find the exuberance of this woman. »
Where does the extraordinary laugh you found in him come from?
“One day that laugh came out. I don’t know how. It came like the rest, the approach, the voice, in the accuracy of what I imagined of her. Françoise Sagan wrote a biography in the form of fictional dialogues with Sarah Bernhard, entitled The unbreakable laughter. Laughter is freedom, we cannot control it, like tears, and she, Sarah Bernhardt, was never in control. »
Sarah Bernhardt, la Divine by Guillaume Nicloux, in theaters this Wednesday, December 18. Duration: 1 hour 38 minutes.
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