Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Monday April 8, 2024: actress and writer Anne Parillaud. She will be at the Antoine theater in the play written by Annick Cojean: “I would not have gotten there, if…” from April 23.
Published on 04/08/2024 12:07 Updated on 04/08/2024 13:44
Reading time: 20 min Actress Anne Parillaud during the Deauville American Film Festival (Calvados), September 9, 2022 (LOU BENOIST / AFP)
Anne Parillaud is this inhabited actress, inseparable from her role of Nikita, engraved in all memories, directed by Luc Besson. Interpretation and even incarnation that she assumed, which she carried and which allowed her to obtain the César for best actress in 1990 and to be spotted in the United States. There, there is a new challenge that she takes on with the piece, I wouldn’t have gotten there if… By Annick Cojean, under the direction of Anne Bouvier at the Théâtre Antoine in Paris from April 23 to June 1.
franceinfo: The starting point of this piece is a question posed to around thirty women, including Christiane Taubira, Amélie Nothomb, Juliette Gréco, Joan Baez: “What chance, what meeting, what accident perhaps also, spurred your life ?” What did you answer to the question: “I wouldn’t be here if…”?
Anne Parillaud : I tried to translate more of an injury because it can also come from an injury, the triggers. And from an emotional lack and a dysfunctional family which pushed me to throw myself into theater and cinema to free myself from all the life that was stifled in me and to exorcise the wounds.
“It’s true yes, I don’t think I would have gotten there if I had been loved.”
Anne Parillaud
at franceinfo
The testimonies expressed there are obviously very strong and indeed, we realize to what extent there is always a correlation with the childhood we experienced. Is that the key in your opinion?
I think that everything is at stake there and that indeed the construction of an individual is really in this period because a child arrives with virginity, with innocence, with openness, and he absorbs everything that his family and his educators, schools, institutions will transmit it to him. And the problem is that if we haven’t given him benchmarks, if we haven’t given him references, he keeps his data for a very, very long time, thinking that it’s the company.
In 2021, you released your first novel, The abused. You recounted the incest of which you were the victim, just like your sisters, at the hands of your father. Does reading these testimonies, which for the most part also corroborate with murderous injuries that other very well-known women may have experienced, reassure you? Does it comfort you to know that you are not alone?
Absolutely. In fact, I have a lot of difficulty exposing myself and positioning myself on societal battles, head-on. And that’s why it’s actually so wonderful to be an artist because you have this field of catharsis that a lot of people don’t have. And that’s why I think we have a kind of mission or duty to fill this position by being able to speak on behalf of all those who cannot. Me, for example, I have never positioned myself, am I a feminist? Not feminist? And indeed I am. But now, I can allow myself to talk regarding it because next to me, there is a show, a book or a work that allows me to associate myself.
I would like us to talk regarding mothers. They are also very present in these testimonies. What did your mother give you?
In fact, it’s what she didn’t give me that got me to where I am. But the mother is blamed for many things. Me, I don’t blame my parents and I don’t blame my mother because I am capable of making a declaration of love to my mother, despite everything. Finally, if I look at my mother’s journey, there is a consistency with what she did not give me because she herself was violated and damaged. Forgiveness is something very important in the journey of life, but it traces paths that allow others to say: “Well, I didn’t have that, but maybe I would have that and I’ll have a not boring existence, that’s for sure“.
It took you a long time to have confidence in yourself and it’s incredible because Jacques Weber, Alain Delon, Luc Besson, Diane Currys, everyone had confidence in you very quickly, very early, but not you.
When you say that it finally took me a lot of time, I still don’t have it and in fact, I give confidence to my characters. If my characters appeal to the public, then it will reflect on me and then I will have won the game.
“I don’t seek to have a direct relationship with myself either because I’m not sure it’s possible.”
Anne Parillaud
at franceinfo
I wondered what going on stage meant since theater is something different from cinema. I have the impression that you really enjoy going on stage at the theater.
It’s true that I missed the scene followingwards The winner. I missed it dearly. In the carnal, it is indeed the relationship with this other partner. They really are partners. This is why a performance is never identical because they are never the same and when you are on stage with your partners, there is really this fundamental partnership and it is this: there, I think, which is missing when we are no longer in the theater.
Watch this interview on video:
