You just played Freud and the maid. In The Notewe find you again in the role of a psychoanalyst. Do you have a thing about this job?
“It’s the privilege of age, with the beard (laughs). I love talking and listening to people. Just after Covid, I played a psychiatrist in the play Through the tip of the nosewith François-Xavier Demaison and Antoine Duléry. There, I wanted to play with Sophie Marceau. A partner like her cannot be refused. »
“It’s a piece that feels good because it speaks to everyone”
You yourself underwent Freudian psychoanalysis at the age of 40. Did she teach you a lot of things?
“I put words to evils. In the end, I knew these evils but I needed to formulate them with maturity. »
In any case, Julien, the psychoanalyst that you play in The Note, is really in bad shape. He is even on the verge of committing suicide at the beginning of the play…
“He is tired of receiving all the misery in the world and he is going to commit suicide. And his concert-playing wife arrives at that moment. A discussion follows during which he explains his job and how we live in a crazy world. It’s not a relationship problem because he’s crazy about her. It’s a piece that feels good because it speaks to everyone. »
Sophie Marceau had not returned to the stage for more than a decade (A story of the soul by Ingmar Bergman). How did the first rehearsals go?
“Sophie Marceau is an enormous amount of work. She took to the role little by little. It was a very special moment for me. »
Playing with Sophie Marceau is a total joy
You had already played a couple in Happiness never comes alonethe James Huth, and 2012…
“There is something that is so much stronger in the theater than in the cinema. In the cinema, it’s a few weeks of filming, here, we’re together for five or six months. In the theater, we drool every day, we have joy every day… It’s like in life. »
What kind of partner is Sophie Marceau?
“She’s great. Playing with her is a total joy. She plays the situation at face value and it’s very difficult to play at face value all the time. This is the first time I’ve seen this with an actress. During the hour and a half of play, I feel like I’m her husband, like I’m about to kill myself, like everything that’s happening to us is true. »
You will resume Freud and the Chambermaid, maybe also Poiret-Serrault, extra extractswith Nicolas Briançon. How do we manage to remember so many texts?
“There, I am getting back on track The Note. I realize that I have lost a lot of things and that they are gradually coming back. Freud and the maidin three or four days, it will be back. In fact, when you know you have to do a show again, you keep it somewhere in your head, I don’t know where. »
In the casting of the new film by Nicolas Vanier which comes out Wednesday
Does memory loss happen to you on stage?
” Yes of course. What’s terrible is that when you have a hole on stage, the audience thinks it’s the other person who has it. Because he is in a situation where he does not receive the text, so he cannot continue. When I was a young actor, I sometimes had holes and didn’t realize it. The important thing is to get back on your feet. In The Noteit happened that two or three lines were skipped, but this was of no consequence insofar as it did not pose a problem of understanding. »
Wednesday, you will be showing in the film It’s the world upside down ! (by Nicolas Vanier). What are your next film or TV projects?
“Nicolas Vanier’s script is fantastic. It’s a comedy with Michaël Youn in the role of a trader who finds himself in a complicated situation: the internet no longer works and nothing works, neither the telephone nor the television. We find ourselves at the beginning of the 20the century.
Afterwards, I will be in McWalter on Prime Video, in Generation Alphaa series for France Télévisions, and in a series for TF1. »
The Noteby Audrey Schebat, with Sophie Marceau and François Berléand, Wednesday February 5 at the Théâtre de Roanne (full) and Thursday February 6 at the Opéra de Saint-Étienne (prices: from 20 to 80 euros, reservations on ckelprod.com) .
“When I arrive in Saint-Étienne, I no longer recognize anything”
François Berléand was permanent at the Comédie de Saint-Étienne from 1975 to 1982. He admits that playing in this city is always a special moment: “It is in Saint-Étienne that I experienced my greatest joys. It was a very important moment in my life and the Stéphanois are lovely people. »
He was also able to see how the city has evolved over almost five decades: “It’s crazy how much has changed since the 1970s. When I arrive by train, I no longer recognize anything. There is nothing left of what I knew. Today, I play regularly at the Opera, which was formerly called the Maison de la culture de Saint-Étienne, where we sometimes performed at the time because the Salle des Mutilés de la Comédie was under construction. »
His last visit to Saint-Étienne dates back to September 22 for the show As close as possible to… with producer David Becker, at the Les Trois Ducs café-theater: “It was extraordinary because, in the room, there were two people who had seen me in Hide your joy (by Jean-Patrick Manchette directed by Daniel Benoin at the Comédie de Saint-Étienne in 1979). »
During his years in Saint-Etienne, the actor had the opportunity to discover the region: “In 1975, we played in Roanne one evening and I had lunch at Troisgros: I had invested all my savings (laughs). But it was delicious! »
Six “Great theater evenings” at the Saint-Etienne Opera
17 october : A love storyd’Alexis Michalik
28 November: Borderlinewith Daniel Russo and Philippe Lelièvre
3 December : Caroline Vigneaux in The truth in Vigneaux
27 January : One-man trapwith Régis Laspalès, Caterina Murino and Michel Fau
6 FEBRUARY : The Notewith Sophie Marceau and François Berléand
29 mars : A Streetcar Named Desirewith Cristiana Reali.
Ticket office: www.ckelprod.com.
