Cinema and Documentary
The year 2023 promises to be a flourishing year for Belgian actress Marie Gillain. Starring in a tender and invigorating film simple thingshere she is on the boards in Paris in a comedy, and this just following filming in Tunisia and occupying the screens in The Cadors. Brighter than ever, Marie Gillain is in her place.
Vincent, a wealthy and busy entrepreneur, breaks down with his gleaming car in the middle of the mountains. Pierre comes to his aid, a solitary and gruff man. A meeting that will transform their lives. Director Éric Besnard delivers with simple things a sentimental comedy that dissects the complexity of human relationships and the suffering that is concealed with a brave air. Marie Gillain stands out, radiant, as the revealing element of everyone’s emotions.
Paris Match. Do you switch easily from one project to another?
Marie Gillain. I feel like I’ve found a rhythm that I like and suits me well. It consists in, whatever happens, exploring the living matter of the human through various supports and characters. Going from filming in Tunisia with Alexandre Arcady to diving into a theatrical text is part of a permanent exploration in different forms.
You are currently on stage, alongside Pascal Elbé, in the comedy by Salomé Lelouch On the children’s heads. Tasty reunions?
The return to the boards fills me with happiness. In a film, the actors are links in a chain, in a collective process. Theater is also a totally collective process, but the actor’s work is at the heart of the action. We start by working on the text, the words for weeks, constantly in turmoil, an extraordinary luxury.
Especially since the project is developing over time until May and a tour is planned, including in Belgium.
The exercise requires very intense energy and concentration, you have to be there for each performance. Theater is both the art of letting go and the art of control. I better understand the approach of sports athletes because you have to pay attention to your sleeping hours, your food, the slightest annoyance, all in a completely offbeat rhythm. But the team spirit is extraordinary, Salomé Lelouch and Ludivine de Chastenet manage to bring rigor and relaxation. As for Pascal Elbé, funny and touching, he helps me form an explosive cocktail.
Speaking of explosive cocktails, the one you form with Grégory Gadebois in simple things is tasty to say the least!
This meeting was a revelation for me. Grégory has this very rare thing: when he plays, he is fully there. He has this total openness to the situation, to the partner. A real vibration emanates from him, we surprised each other. To find myself in the high mountains, with the whole team, in particular having a very intense scene with him, was a magical moment. As if all the ingredients had been brought together so that, at the moment T, nothing else exists.
We must not forget the humor and sensitivity of Lambert Wilson. How do you see the film? Like a story of love, friendship, a feel good movie?
When I discovered the finished film, I was transported by the duo formed by Grégory and Lambert, by its depth. It’s also a film regarding loneliness, the world that goes too fast, regarding the distress that can invade you in the face of everything that is expected of you. You have to be efficient, brilliant all the time… Finding yourself in a peaceful place, reconnecting with listening, going back to basics and the simplicity of things, hence the title of the film, moves us all. This story does a world of good because it brings us back to essential and sometimes forgotten priorities. It’s never too late to make up for it or to make a declaration of love. Cowards have the right to become brave.
The roots of simplicity
What does the word simplicity that seems to define you despite success mean to you?
I think this impression of simplicity comes from my roots and what built me in my childhood. I was surrounded by a lot of love, trust and freedom. I grew up on a farm in the countryside, surrounded by sheep, chickens and nature. So very early on I had a capacity for wonder and the space conducive to my childhood being able to unfold. This faculty of wonder has not left me. I undoubtedly have an ability to root myself in the concrete. If we come back to the title of the film, the simple things are not that simple, it is not given to everyone to escape and live in the mountains in full contemplation, the apparent serenity can also hide a leak. Here, the most urban and arrogant also has a truth to bring to the one who pretends to have a simple life while lying to himself.
“It’s never too late to make up for it or to make a declaration of love. »
Is it easier to say things in friendship than in love?
I don’t have a recipe and, for me, it would be quite the opposite. In a couple relationship that lasts, I tend to think that the other person becomes such a mirror of oneself that it is necessary to preserve it so that it does not become a dustbin of emotions. A couple is being able to say things to each other without hitting each other’s wounds. On the other hand, I dare less in friendship, I spare more because of the distance, you don’t live with your friends! I see friendship as a bonus while the couple is a daily job.
Isn’t your passion for your job growing?
Probably because at some point in my life I had less of it. I experienced questioning, the proposed projects no longer made me vibrate. However, the less you want, the less you arouse desire and the less you are thought of. But when the vibration returned, I understood how vital being an actress was for my intimate balance. From childhood, I needed to exercise my imagination, to invent stories. The desire has also returned because my children have grown up. As I tend to be quite whole and to be a little vampirized, my job is the right way to set limits for myself. Playing is a kind of inner barometer that preserves me. My life as an actress gives me the lifeblood that makes me feel fulfilled and alive. As a result, I manage my family and couple life better.
“The faculty of wonder has not left me. »
What did the experience teach you regarding yourself?
Whatever the field, woman or man, we need to realize ourselves other than in our family sphere. If we bet everything on our cap of parent and companion, we have no place of our own, we end up exhausting ourselves and getting lost. This is valid for everyone.
Do you recognize an undeniable comic potential, which you distill according to the projects?
It is representative of my journey. I started with quite light roles then quite strong when I was very young. I wanted to prove to myself that I might go for more dramatic roles with high stakes, that I was no longer the little teenager from the beginning but a woman, mother of two children, who had other things to tell. The major turning point was undoubtedly “La Vénus à la fur” at the theater which allowed me to reconnect with an unlimited emotional power (Molière for Best Actress in 2015. There I have the energy to give, to to make people laugh, to go far. It’s like a fire, a small flame that you must never let go out. There remains the mystery of life cycles, you have to accept to start one once more.
Are you still involved with Plan Belgium?
I am still the godmother even if I am less active at the moment. The important thing is to be present for the big meetings and to trust them for everything that has been put in place. I’m here if they need me. When I became their godmother, my daughters were still quite small.
What dream to appropriate for a very young girl in 2023?
They grew up with not always easy periods related to the entry into adolescence, they are now 18 and 13 years old and have, logically, many questions. As a parent, it takes up all the space because adolescence begins younger and younger, especially in a metropolis like Paris. I learn every day from my daughters, their world escapes me through social networks, it’s complicated to stay up to date! Children don’t want to listen to your opinions or experiences, they just need to experience it for themselves. Being a parent means managing to be in the right place, not invading them with our own concerns and providing the necessary framework. I might talk to you regarding it for hours. As for the place left to the dream, it is a question of helping them to find a place of freedom and passion. My 13-year-old daughter turned to the theater, where she can let go of her emotions. I want to say to all the children “Find your place, your interest, regardless of the judgment of others”. Admittedly, having artistic parents (Marie is the partner of actor Christophe d’Esposti) can become a burden.
