Niels Arestrup, three-time Caesarean actor, bowed out this Sunday, December 1, 2024 following an illness. If Jean-Marie Périer paid him a strong tribute evoking “a good guy”, many actors are in embarrassment. In 2017 Clovis Cornillac even admitted to “hating this man” and for an excellent reason.
Separating the man from the artist, a gymnastics in which French cinema has begun to become expert in recent years, notably with the Depardieu case. This December 1, Niels Arestrup died at the age of 75 following an illness. It was his wife Isabelle Le Nouvel, mother of his twins, who was responsible for announcing his death. “I am extremely sad to announce the death of my husband, the immense actor Niels Arestrup, at the end of a courageous fight against illness. He passed away surrounded by the love of his family.” wrote his wife, playwright, in a press release.
Personalities wished to pay tribute to the memory of the actor of Danish origin, such as the Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who underlined “the strength of his game” et “his magnetic presence in front of the camera”. Jean-Marie Périer, the photographer to the stars, paid tribute to “a good guy”. “Much more of a comedian than an actorhe didn't like talking about himself. He wanted to disappear into the roles and not pull the cover on himself.”he wrote in a long message posted on Instagram.
But after the praise for the actor comes the criticism for the man. Cinema has memory when it wants to. In 1983, Isabelle Adjani suddenly abandoned her role in August Strindberg's play Mademoiselle Julie after receiving a violent slap from Niels Arestrup. A few years ago, on the set of The Evasion he has “burst Miou-Miou's eardrum with a slap during filming” et “Broken Maria Schneider's tailbone“, and this, on the same day. He himself mentions the facts in Liberationin 2007. “incidents” which he minimizes claiming to hate “brutality”.
“We avoid crossing paths, I think it’s better”
If Patrick Bruel salutes “the actor's look and kindness” in a post on Instagram on the evening of December 1, we will probably not hear Clovis Cornillac singing the actor's praises. In 2017, on the airwaves of Europe 1, questioned about the nominees for the César for best supporting actor, the actor said frankly what he thought of Arestrup. “I hate this man. It's one of the rare ones. He knows why and there's no problem about it.”he had sworn before specifying despite everything that this one was a “great actor”. Evoking “personal reasons”the actor who plays Orpi in A little something extra had explained: “There are people who behave badly and in general, those who behave badly, I don’t like them”before adding, in complete transparency: “We avoid crossing paths and I think that’s better.”. It is a safe bet that this enmity between the two men dates back to 1997, that year Clovis Cornillac's mother, the actress Myriam Boyer, went on stage with the Franco-Danish for the play Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? A collaboration which ended badly, the actress having been brutally ousted from the project and replaced by Catherine Arditi. “I discovered, with Niels Arestrup, what perversity was. After outbursts of violence, he ensured that I was fired.”she assured TV 7 days. Separating the man from the artist is definitely complicated work.
