2023-11-09 14:32:48
Benoît Magimel is almost 50 years old and has a 37-year career. He hovers at the top of the Olympus of French cinema, lands the best roles and monopolizes the awards. Meeting on the occasion of the release of the lively La Passion de Dodin Bouffant, his third film presented at Cannes this year.
Benoît Magimel was born in the cinema in 1988, playing Momo Groseille in Life is a Long Quiet River. He was 13 years old. Since then, he has led the career of a popular, all-terrain actor, navigating between action films (Wasp’s Nest, Purple Rivers 2 or Special Forces) and arthouse cinema with André Téchiné, Claude Chabrol, Nicole Garcia , Barbet Schroeder or Michael Haneke. After a series of less demanding works like Mon pote or La French, or even failures (Les Petits mouchoirs), Magimel reinvented himself around 2015 with La Tête haute, then La Douleur, following Duras.
Since then, it has been almost flawless and Magimel has matured and can play anything. He is not afraid of anything and accepts a first film without even reading the script. Beautiful face, azure eyes, a now massive body, we find it in Rebecca Zlotowski (An Easy Girl), once more in Emmanuelle Bercot (In Her Life) or Nicole Garcia (Amants). He arrives, his body fills the screen, generates nuclear emotion 24 times per second. In 2022, he asserts himself as the boss and treats himself to a dream year. In Incredible but true, by Quentin Dupieux, he has an electronic dick. He went through Pacifiction, by Albert Serra, with astonishing relaxation, and won his second consecutive César, following that for In His Life the previous year. He is amazing in Revoir Paris or Le Marchand de sable, and he offers himself a solid gold supporting role in Malik Benalha’s comedy, Jack Mimoun and the secrets of Val Verde. Like Jean Gabin or Gérard Depardieu, Benoît Magimel is a body, he embodies, he is the quiet force of French cinema. The Cannes Film Festival has become his second home and this year, he had no less than three films on the Croisette: Rosalie, presented at Un Certain Regard, Omar la Strawberry, screened in midnight screening, and The Passion of Dodin Bouffant , prize for directing. Whether he’s rapping on a terrace in Algiers, a drink in hand, or preparing a stew with Juliette Binoche, he shines, steals light and oxygen, sublimates each scene. In short, Benoît is living his best years.
“BEING AN ACTOR MEANS MAKING CHOICES AND I HAD THE CHANCE TO MAKE GOOD ONE. »
On film sets, we know, you always come with your playlist and your portable speaker. Is music important?
Benoît Magimel: It allows me to get up in the morning, to find energy, emotions, to remember, to travel in the past, to dream of films, of roles… It’s a driving force! At 14, I played percussion: salsa, reggae, ragamuffin. I suspect the other band members would mute my mic when it was my solo…I was super light. I always listen to Cuban music and I always play drums. I know how to make two or three rhythms, improvise, but I would like to be freer, more precise.
THE ONE WHO WORKS_
Smiling, smoking cigarette following cigarette, Magimel shines in a photo shoot, even with a (real) lobster on his shoulder. But don’t joke regarding work. “Cinema seems extremely simple but great actors work hard. There is no secret ! »
And rap?
I always listened to hip hop, back when it wasn’t on the radio. I first listened to new wave, The Cure, which I still listen to because Robert Smith is a pure genius, then I moved on to funk and hip hop. I listened to New York rap, Public Enemy and Flavor Flav, a real slap in the face, the Wu-Tang Clan… On the West Coast, I liked Dr. Dre. Not long ago I met Mos Def, I was very impressed, he’s a legend.
And in France, did you listen to NTM?
Of course ! I loved NTM (his phone rings, and it’s the song “Still DRE”, editor’s note). This period was crazy. I was doing graffiti at the time. I was bombing in the 13th, in the Catacombs, in the metro. My blaze, and I had plenty of them, was “Kosheez the Indian”. I was 13, I was fascinated. I experienced this musical revolution. I knew JoeyStarr when he was doing graffiti, I met the whole team, he invited me to his studio. I loved this time of freedom, of carefreeness. My youth…
I have the impression that you are now the boss of French cinema, the godfather.
I’m not the boss, I’m the boss of nothing at all. Being an actor means making choices and I was lucky enough to make good ones.
Since 2017, something has been happening. Two consecutive Césars, great films, great roles and this year, three films in Cannes, a film which will perhaps go to the Oscars. It’s no longer luck!
I just followed my instinct and met some good people. Emmanuelle Bercot, it was a very important meeting, she trusted me when I needed it. When I had problems with the law, his gaze was above all that. With Albert Serra, a nice and strange guy, we met for two minutes in Cannes and he made a joke regarding a Rebecca Zlotowski film. I didn’t know who he was, I hadn’t seen any of his films, but I found him very likeable. And he gives me a sort of scenario (for Pacifiction, editor’s note). Of course, I’m going! For Omar the Strawberry, I met Elias Belkeddar, I felt that there was something very personal and I said yes following fifteen minutes, without even reading the script. We shook hands, that’s it! I like simple, generous people, I need to be certain that there is something sincere in the approach.
“QUARANTINE MAKES ME THINK OF WHEN I WAS TWELVE, IT’S THE SAME THING! »
Everything you touch turns to gold.
I am happy with what is happening to me and I don’t ask myself any more questions. For Dodin Bouffant, I am happy for Tran Anh Hung, because it took him six years to make his film. And finally, he won a prize at Cannes and this selection for the Oscars. Being young, I already knew that my forties would be a great decade. Thirties are a bit boring, you’re looking for yourself, I haven’t found what I’m looking for. 40, 50 years old is the age when you are serene, you concentrate on the essentials, it allows you to be in the present moment. Today, I can also play roles that simply require you to be yourself, to embody what you are. I found my happiness, I am much freer.
You won three Césars, and an acting prize at Cannes, at the age of 27, for The Pianist.
When the curtain fell, Milla Jovovich asked me why I was being upset. I was happy, but I mightn’t help but think of the actors who had gotten this same award and never worked once more followingward. I was suspicious, cautious.
Where is this price?
I had it stolen and I didn’t dare ask Cannes to give me one back. I think the guy sold it for 7000 euros. But I kept the parchment… My Caesars are in my room now, I no longer display them in the living room. When I look at them, I feel like I’m twelve years old, it’s a big deal! With these awards, I feel the affection, the respect of my peers, it makes me feel good. Two Caesars in a row, I didn’t even know it was possible.
Your game has changed. Like Jean Gabin, you embody.
Incarnation means no longer forcing anything, finding absolute freedom, pulling things towards yourself. From the beginning, I refused to repeat myself, to play the same roles. At 18, I started doing the splits with my characters. An action film like Purple Rivers 2 or Knights of Heaven and Haneke’s The Pianist. I make the cinema that I want to see, I experiment. Playing in Special Forces in Tajikistan, playing Musset or Louis XIV, it’s great! For Pacifiction, there was nothing written, I made it up as I went along. Serra was filming a sequence and he told me to come into the frame whenever I wanted. I might make my entrance ten minutes following the start of the take… I had fun. Forty makes me think of when I was twelve, it’s the same thing! I can play tragic while laughing just before the take.
Is work and preparation important to you?
Learning the basics of a job for a film is the little extra gift. For the cop in Purple Rivers 2, I didn’t want to look like a jerk. Don’t put your gun on! And I wanted to find a style, like Steve McQueen in In the Name of the Law who demanded a sawn-off Winchester. For The Pianist, I learned a Beethoven sonata for months… But I can’t be Louis XIV if I don’t have the costume, the wig. For Pacifiction, Albert Serra had the idea of the double-breasted suit and glasses. I wore the costume before filming and it became my second skin. For the glasses with the blue lenses, I suggested he put them on from time to time. First scene, I put them on and Albert tells me to keep them on for every movie, even in a nightclub. It was exactly what I wanted: his identity is his car, his white suit and his glasses; that’s what he confuses people with. Now I wear the same ones in the city…
Do you do this job to be loved?
To find love. When you feel desired, loved, by a director, when you feel that this person wants to enhance you, you are ready for anything! I want to work with people I like. Working with a young guy like Elias was wonderful, and his first film was in Cannes… Magnificent! Being reminded by someone you’ve already toured with is so nice. I made three films with Claude Chabrol, who taught me to relax. One day he said to me: “Listen, I did a Macbeth with Roger Hanin who had a pied-noir accent. You see, we survive everything…” He was right, of course.
You haven’t worked in the United States?
I did castings… But they don’t need French actors, except to play cuckolds or bad guys. I prefer to go to Houellebecq, to do experiments.
And La Haine, was it an experience?
It was participation. It was important to be part of this adventure. Mathieu offered me the role of the skin, but I refused, not even in a dream! He finished to interpret it. So I did my part, but everyone remembers my only line.
Who is ?
“The guy who found the gun, I don’t know who it is, but the guy who found the gun, I’d like to know who it is. » This sentence is engraved on the soundtrack and it has remained. At the time, we felt that something was happening in French cinema, very visual cinema, with young directors like Dahan or Siri who were coming to shake the coconut tree. I didn’t want to miss this. But also touring with Haneke. Or do a comedy. But it’s hard to find a good comedy when you’re twenty years old.
You are incredibly funny in Omar the Strawberry and your duet with Reda Kateb evokes Laurel and Hardy.
It works well. I didn’t know Reda, but I knew he was a good guy. When we met, it was obvious, kindness in its purest form. I don’t understand actors who try to have the most lines or the best jokes. The idea is for everyone to look beautiful. For a film to be successful, everyone has to be good, it’s a collective art. And you have to propose. All the great actors come up with things that aren’t in the script.
Do you watch your films?
Yes, I have to. But I prefer it when I have a little perspective. Five years later, I had time to forget and have new eyes. Recently, I rewatched Special Forces and I found it not bad, it holds up really well, even though I was more critical when it was released.
Why did you accept The Passion of Dodin Bouffant?
The storyline moved me, the love story is super beautiful. The film took six years to put together and Tran Anh Hung offered my role to other actors. Juliette Binoche was there from the start. When I received the script, it was obvious. We shook hands, because I never sign a contract. When I commit, I commit. Dodin Bouffant is a gourmet, someone who loves cooking, researching, finding new recipes, and who cooks for love or friendship. He is madly in love with his cook and is always looking to surprise her. And her too. His cook does not want their love to freeze and still refuses marriage. She seeks surprise and maintains love. It’s not just a film regarding food, it’s a declaration of love, a declaration that the director makes to his wife, who is the artistic director of the film. It’s a great excuse to make a film.
“WE SHAKED HANDS, BECAUSE I NEVER SIGN A CONTRACT. WHEN I COMMIT, I COMMIT. »
What do you have in common with Dodin?
The pleasure of giving pleasure.
For Dodin, did you prepare by eating?
I told Tran that cooks in movies were always fat, so I asked him to play a skinny cook. As a result, I arrived on set ten pounds heavier (he bursts out laughing). What a messer I am! To prepare, I started cooking. And to eat!
Your scenes with Juliette Binoche are magnificent.
It seems, that’s what I’m told… I worked with a great actress, a person I know so well (Magimel was her partner 25 years ago and they have a daughter together, editor’s note). Obviously, when we have loved someone, we always love them. I think we worked well and were filmed well. Tran has sublimated us.
The ending sequence between you is extraordinary.
It’s beautiful, isn’t it? In the film, my character is always looking for Eugénie, it’s even my first line “Where is Eugénie?” » And it remains elusive, it permanently retains its mystery. It moves me a lot. At the heart of the film, there is this quote from Saint Augustine who says that happiness is continuing to desire what we already have. I believe in it a lot.
What did you think of the controversy following Dodin’s Oscar nomination, when some would have preferred it to be Anatomy of a Fall?
I’ve been told regarding it but I don’t have much to say. Justine Triet made a great film, she won the Palme d’Or. I believe that when you are disappointed, it is better to keep quiet. When I have something to say, I say it on the phone to the person concerned, I don’t settle my scores in the stands. In addition, Anatomy of a Fall will perhaps be nominated in the Best Film category. You have to wait before being disappointed, she might have a nice surprise. I wish him.
You are much more relaxed than you were twenty years ago. You’re going to be 50, how’s that?
It’s weird all the same (he laughs). It pisses me off to say it. I really don’t like the phrase, “In my head, I’m still the 12-year-old kid,” but I think it’s true. At 40 or 45 years old, you understood things that you would have loved to have understood earlier. Now the years are flying by. You finally feel good regarding yourself and the years fly by, it sucks! I have ten years left in the cinema and beyond… The roles are less interesting following 65.
Do you sometimes think that everything can end?
If this stops, if I no longer have the light, if people no longer recognize me in the street, I would have my life as a man on the side. That’s why I never read good or bad reviews. And I don’t raise my head when I’m nominated for a César…
Are you expensive?
There are films on which you can make money and others where you lower your fee. We must never suffocate the film economy. It even happened to me that I gave money from my fee for an actor who wanted more, because I knew we needed this actor. What’s important is the film!
What are your projects ?
I did a small role, a landlord on Mauritius, in a film regarding slavery, Neither Chains, Nor Masters. I would like to know why there have been so few films on slavery in this country… I will perhaps do a series with Cédric Anger and the film by Antonin Baudry (Le Chant du loup) on the Second War world and General de Gaulle. Now, I would like to put my feet up to enjoy and live. I have been working continuously for three years. I don’t see enough of my friends and the people I love, but I haven’t been able to say no to Antonin…It goes by too quickly, I don’t want to earn my living by losing it.
The Passion of Dodin Bouffant, in theaters November 8
Interview with Marc Godin
Photos Axel Vanhessche
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