In an icy atmosphere like Fargo by the Coen brothers but in an assumed Jura version, Dubosc manages to get the best out of his performers, waiting under Poelvoorde's apparent good nature for the moment when he will come to pick us up as a clumsy father but full of tenderness. We met him in Brussels just before the holidays, to chat about cinema and little chefs over sparkling water. Because the days are long gone when Poelvoorde could drink a bloody mary between each interview. Besides, he’s the one who drives back to Namur…
Tell us about Franck Dubosc… This is the first time you've worked with him in this film – A Bear in the Jura – which he directed…
Benoît POELVOORDE – He's in rehearsals in Iceland at the moment, it's not easy to promote it alone. I was very surprised by his rigor as a director. Dubosc is a very demanding person, which we don't really know when we think of him a priori. With him, one word is not another. It's a worry that I had at the beginning because on The Art of Being Happy by Stefan Liberski, who is a friend, there were chunks of text linked to my slightly cultural character, but I could get out text. Dubosc can make you start again with an intonation. So the first two days, I was surprised. But I realized that it's because he has everything in his head, he's an excellent director. Dubosc knows exactly what he wants to do, he doesn't try a thousand things during filming because everything is already there. When we have overtime it is for weather reasons or external reasons, very little for production issues.
There is sometimes in Franck Dubosc, beneath his handsome guy characters, a certain nostalgia. How can you relate to it?
I would rather say a melancholy like his character in Rumba. It's true that he has that. He also has human kindness and he suffers from it, I think, because people have a lot of preconceptions about him. It's something I've suffered from too, and in cinema it can be even worse than in life even if you're always a little responsible for your image. I carry around the image of a happy, drunken weirdo. He's the handsome guy in shorts, a bit like a pretty girl. He also played a lot with his physique. But I remember very well that, when I was told that Franck Dubosc had sent me a script, my first reaction was to think that his universe could not mingle with me. Also because I had never seen his films, only appearances on TV or encountered an hour on Asterix (at the Olympic Games – Editor's note). I read his script ignoring preconceptions.
And what did you think?
To tell the truth, I was expecting a hot French film and in fact not at all. It was an impeccable script. I met Franck and our discussion focused around his obvious references, blood, snow, black humor, Fargo by the Coen brothers, and our first topic of discussion was on this image that he conveys despite him. This discussion convinced me immediately. And once on set, I understood that he was going to do exactly what he had in mind. Dubosc, he's not the guy who's going to knock on your door at two in the morning, he's not a guy you're going to see at the bar acting like an asshole, at ten o'clock he's in bed. Besides, I impressed him because at the moment I go to bed even earlier than him.
Did this rigor in comedy do you any good? I wondered if you still like to make people laugh so much?
Yes, and what makes me laugh in the character of the major (the cop he plays in A Bear in the Jura – Editor's note), is that he is a man who suffers from the pathos of the ordinary. His goal is to spend the holidays with his ex-wife who left him for her dentist. While reading the script, my agent asked me if I wouldn't have preferred the role of Franck (who plays a lumberjack accused of a crime – Editor's note). I prefer my character, Roland who comes to get his Christmas tree, that's already his personal ordeal, beyond the villainous crimes he has to deal with. Humor comes from the ordinary. I still want to make people laugh for that, for everything that I couldn't embody when I was younger. I'm finally old enough to be an old fart. Besides, my relatives call me Uncle René.
This year you also played villains… The character of La Brosse in L'amour ouf by Gilles Lellouche is scary, have you noticed?
I haven't seen the film. I had trouble looking at myself. I held on until I got there and then I couldn't.
For what?
I have trouble believing in myself. Not everyone knows how to do everything. For example, I couldn't play the roles of Gilles Lellouche. I wouldn't be able to do a cop chasing someone while running.
Are you short of breath?
You're right, but it's not just that… There are actors who have charisma on screen while in life it's not obvious. An American producer said that certain actors, when they walk into a room and tell you to shut up, everyone shuts up. It's not about muscles, it's about the strength you give off. In Lellouche's film I can rely on a certain violence, I have a whole gang behind me. But I felt like it was more about that than what I could have done. The bad guy remains a cinema cliché, he's like the intelligent psychopath, he's boring. On the other hand, what I know how to do very well is little bosses, little pettiness. People with little authority but extreme power to cause harm.
Is there some Louis de Funès in you?
De Funès had the genius for characters who have all the faults and who never have any extenuating circumstances. You will never find a quality or an ounce of humanity in him. And people love him for that, because he is an outlet for all these little bosses that we recognize and that we can be ourselves sometimes. He embodies all our frustrations. I can embody that, the little bosses who ruined our lives, also because I know them well having had them at boarding school. A very small conductor on a train, those who asked us to put the mask on our noses otherwise they wouldn't serve us, I'm not talking about the caregivers, but the pettiness, the frustration of the little bosses, I do that very well, like in The Gates of Glory.
What can we wish you for 2025?
Don't wish me anything! What makes me laugh is this friend who celebrated Christmas before everyone else, to be rid of it. It's settled, you can clean up the mess. That's the merit of being an old fart.
