Gaspard Ulliel: "Je crois en l'amitié entre garçon et fille"
Le comédien joue l'un des sketches de L'Art d'aimer, d'Emmanuel Mouret. L'occasion idéale pour lui poser cinq questions choisies par lui au hasard dans une grille de 49.
Plutôt tatouage ou plutôt piercing?
Tatouage. Et ça me travaille de plus en plus. Par contre, me planter un truc dans le corps...
Peut-on retomber amoureux d'une ex?
Je pense que oui, mais il faut un certain temps, beaucoup de temps même. Cela ne m'est jamais arrivé mais pourquoi pas?
Davantage d'amis garçons ou d'amies filles?
Je dirai que j'ai davantage de garçons dans mon entourage. J'ai mis longtemps à croire à l'amitié sans ambiguité entre garçon et fille mais maintenant j'y crois.
Que voyez-vous de votre fenêtre?
D'autres fenêtres. Et à l'une, je vois une femme qui passe ses journées à jouer au solitaire sur son ordinateur. Le soir, cela fait un point lumineux vert. Cela m'intrigue... A Paris, il y a des vues sublimes, mais j'aime aussi avoir une opacité avec la ville, vivre les stores baissés.
Finissez cette phrase: il n'y a plus d'après...
Plus d'après sur le mur... Il y a la couche d'après.... Je suis en plein travaux. J'ai dessiné les plans de mon appartement, ma première vocation était de devenir architecte.
Et la question complémentaire: Voux venez d'achever le tournage de Tu honoreras ta mère, de Brigitte Joüan. Alors, quelle impression cela vous a fait de tourner en maillot de bain?
Ca n'a rien à voir avec jouer à poil!. Le côté marrant de l'histoire, c'est de voir inscrit sur la feuille de service: "aujourd'hui, amenez vos maillots." C'est une comédie sociale autour d'une mère (Nicole Garcia) et de ses quatre fils. Passer deux mois sur une île grecque, c'est moins studieux qu'un tournage bergmanien.
Un mot sur l'Art d'aimer?
Oui. Emmanuel Mouret a réalisé un film à sketches et dans celui que je joue, j'interprète William le fiancé de Vanessa (Elodie Navarre). C'est un couple libre qui ne s'est jamais trompé. Elle a envie d'essayer ailleurs, il lui donne son accord mais n'en supporte pas l'idée. C'est une vaste réflexion sur la fidélité: "Les infidélités doivent-elles restées ignorées?"
Gaspard Ulliel is a French actor. His role in A Very Long Engagement co-starring Audrey Tautou brought him stardom along with a César Award. He is currently the face of the fragrance Bleu de Chanel [ad campaign filmed by Martin Scorsese], prior to which he appeared as a model with Kate Moss in Longchamp ads. He was featured in GQ, Vogue, and the New York Times. His latest role in Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier opens in the USA today, April 15.
DS: How did you hear about Dailysingle? What are you expecting from being on the front page?
Gaspard Ulliel: From Aysegul Sert, a journalist in New York.
DS: What are the most memorable years of your life and what happened to make them so memorable?
Gaspard Ulliel: My high school years --there were no worries, classes were set and friends were always around. My life is quite different now, as an actor there is no constancy, no routine, which I sometimes miss. After working together on a set for weeks things come to an end, we wrap up, and people go their own way. You can’t help but feel a void.
DS: Where were you born and where do you live now?
Gaspard Ulliel: I was born and raised in Paris and I still live in Paris. Through my work I get to travel a lot which is a great opportunity and I love it; it’s important to move around and learn about distinct cultures and places and build new friendships.
DS: How would you best describe yourself?
Gaspard Ulliel: I know people look at me and have a set image in their minds of who I am –through their eyes -I’m a good looking confident young man. That’s what they think because of the films and photo shoots and ads, but I am different than what people expect me to be. I am quite shy and really clumsy at times.
DS: What are the must-haves in your daily wardrobe?
Gaspard Ulliel: Leather jacket --in Paris I’m always on my motorcycle. I also have a tendency to wear boots quite often.
DS: Who do people tell you you look like?
Gaspard Ulliel: Chrispin Glover in a film called "River’s Edge". A friend of mine once told me, "oh I saw you in that Keanu Reeves movie" and I was like, what are you talking about? Then, he showed me the film and it was Chrispin, and it’s true we do look alike. There is also a Canadian actor in the name of Marc Andre Grondin; he could be my twin!
DS: How did you end-up being an actor?
Gaspard Ulliel: When I was a kid I took theater classes twice a week for fun. Around 12 years old a friend of a friend of my mother’s opened an agency and was looking for young actors and asked if I wanted to go on castings and I accepted out of sheer curiosity. I had small parts, I kept on doing it, my parents didn’t want me to miss school, and so I worked on holidays. My career didn’t take off right away which was a blessing; it was a slow process, I had time to get used to the industry and see what it represented and understand how it functioned. I had my break at the age 17, and that’s when I decided to get involved with cinema for good. I never thought I would be an actor; I was mostly attracted to making movies, behind the camera. After high school, I went on to study film but dropped out as I got more and more role offers
DS: Can you tell us more about your job?
Gaspard Ulliel: For me being an actor is serving a director, on one hand you are his/her slave, on the other you are a part of the creation, you give life to a character. Acting is a way for me to experience emotions and situations that I may not be able to live in real life. It’s fascinating. I love the process of creating a character, when you figure out what a character is about, how to approach and portray it.
DS: Some quick questions: What is the first thing you do in the morning?
Gaspard Ulliel: Yawn. I have a hard time waking up in the mornings.
DS: What is your favorite word?
Gaspard Ulliel: Formidable.
DS: What it your favorite quotation? Or make your own for posterity...
Gaspard Ulliel: “Tout vient à point à celui qui sait attendre.” [Everything comes in time to the one who knows how to wait]. I can be very patient. I don’t like to do things in a hurry.
DS: What is your favorite "drug"?
Gaspard Ulliel: I would have to say cinema -I could watch 10 films back-to-back. And love. And coffee.
DS: What magic power would you like to have if you could choose one?
Gaspard Ulliel: To be invisible.
DS: What is in store for you? Any key projects for the next months? Anything you want to share? Can our readers help you with anything?
Gaspard Ulliel: A film directed by Bertrand Tavernier called “The Princess of Montpensier" with Mélanie Thierry and Lambert Wilson which opens on April 15 in both NY and LA.
DS: Anything you want to add to close this interview?
Gaspard Ulliel: I really like New York; there is a great mix of people and stories. One moment you are at a party with models and bankers and who knows what, and then you step outside and here is a hot dog stand and the lights and sounds of the street greet you. In Paris, your daily life is formed by your class and oriented by your social status. In New York, there is this sense of total freedom. I think if I lived in New York for too long I’d get tired though, everything goes so fast, there are all these temptations, the city never sleeps. Paris has a calmer pace.
GASPARD ULLIEL AND BERTRAND TAVERNIER ON THE MAKING OF A PRINCESS
While most period films hold viewers at a distance, Bertrand Tavernier's The Princess of Montpensier draws you in. Based on the a classic short story by Madame de La Fayette, the story follows Marie, played by a luminous Mélanie Thierry, as she becomes the titular princess and subsequently the object of affection for most of the French court. Telling a story of young love and lust gone awry, the film manages to avoid feeling like a history lesson. Legendary director Tavernier eschews most of the frills associated with costume dramas in favor of showing a grittier version of 16th-century France in the throes of civil war. Balancing out Thierry's coquettish princess is Gaspard Ulliel as a devoted but untrustworthy suitor. We caught up with Ulliel and Tavernier to ask about updating history for today's audience and what to avoid in a costume drama.
GILLIAN MOHNEY: What struck you about the short story when you first read it?
GASPARD ULLIEL: I had read the short story along time ago at school, but I had forgotten it. [When] I read it again I noticed [in] the short story from La Fayette—her style is sometimes quite short, and it can feel a bit stiff—
BERTRAND TAVERNIER: Austere—
ULLIEL: Yeah, and the script was the opposite. I could feel a lot of life and energy and also a lot of pace and rhythm. Also... as an actor, I could read the lines with real pleasure. It was really easy to understand for a contemporary audience and for young actors like us. It was a pleasure to work with that dialogue.
TAVERNIER: I worked with Jean Cosmos, who is a very talented screenwriter, he's one of those unsung heroes of French cinema... We respected the essence of the short story and the construction of the emotion. But I think we brought the flesh and the blood. Our job was trying to find the roots of the emotion of the short story. Madame de La Fayette just described one fact. I want to understand why that fact happened.
MOHNEY: It's a much grittier staging than most period films; how did you approach that?
TAVERNIER: A lot of people do a costume drama to show you they're doing a costume drama. I wanted to forget it. I want to keep the drama—and it happens to be costume, but it's not what's important. I've [always remembered] a line by one of the actors who worked on my second film, it was a historical film set in 1750. He said "You are doing the film like the camera had just been invented." That's the idea—let's do a period film like the camera had just been invented. When the Lumière brothers were shooting, they did things they did not know were going to become historic. They were shooting what they were seeing... I would shoot the moment of love or passion as if it was just happening—those characters don't know they're a part of history. They are just living. In many films, people do the opposite. People want to remind you that they did all their homework. The set piece and the furniture is right... The important thing is that all the actors must feel like it's normal, it's casual—it's something they do every day. Not something that will be part of a museum later on.
MOHNEY: The characters in the film are these historical figures, but they're also barely out of their teens, and it gives the film a youthful presence. How did that affect the filming?
ULLIEL: Well, for me, it was great, because I got the chance to act with a lot of actors my age. That's not always the case for me, because I started quite young working in this industry, and most of the time I was working with much older people. It was really nice to be with all those young actors... Most of the characters in the film really existed, and at that time, they were even younger than we are now. It's crazy if you think about it, because the king was only 20 years old, or he was the head of the army at 17.
TAVERNIER: Age 17 in the 17th century isn't the 17 of today. A historian will say, add four or five years to the age of the period, because they were so young when they were confronted with reality. The Duke was in the army since the age of 14... One great thing in the film is that you had all these actors of the same generation and the same age, and they loved working together. It was like a family. Every night they were having dinner together—that paid off in the film. You can see they were getting along. There is so much that can be added by creating that spirit. And Mélanie worked very, very well with Gaspard and Lambert and Grégoire. Both Mélanie and Lambert were connected. It was like seeing two soloists working on a piece of music and creating their own rhythm and beat. I love that. I had several moments when I was really moved by all of them.
MOHNEY: She was so great in the film—what made you want to cast her? She's the only female presence in the film.
TAVERNIER: Yes—yes, and surrounded by a bunch of very sexy men. She was very happy. [laughs]
ULLIEL: She was the center of attention.
TAVERNIER: She was cast in the most classical way, in a series of tests. But—I remember the first test with her was not completely successful, because she arrived late, and her story about why she was late—no one believed, but it was true!
ULLIEL: Apparently she got [a ticket] while in the back of a cab because she wasn't wearing a seat belt.
TAVERNIER: She did many tests. But right from the beginning, my wife was absolutely passionate about her."‘She's the best!" She has the exact beauty of the time. The forehead, the eyes, the color of the skin, and she has an intensity—when she got the right mood, she was totally unique. Nobody was like her. I will never forget when I picked her. I spoke with an actress who was on the stage with her and I said, "Monique, I've chosen Mélanie." And she said "Bertrand, you could not have picked a better choice. She's like a Stradivarius. She will give you everything you want."
MOHNEY: Gaspard, you were playing an historical figure—is it helpful to have his back story, or intimidating to play a real figure?
ULLIEL: No, it's great. I think it's great. When you work on a contemporary role, you have to mostly create it and sometimes you can feel a bit lost. Here, it's like you have all this food to feed yourself and create the character. Working with a historical character is great because you have all these readings you can do to get information on this man. Also, I was so thrilled to be able to discover this part of French history and to understand how they lived their daily lives. In working with Bertrand, it was great, because this is one of his great passions. He would work with a great historian, and then he would give the actors really precise references.
TAVERNIER: Nothing abstract! Fact! How you would wash or don't wash. An actor doesn't have to know the date of a treaty—
ULLIEL: Yeah, casual facts.
TAVERNIER: He has to know that during a duel at that time there was no code. You could do anything. You could bite. You could kill. You could be ruthless.
ULLIEL: Most of the work actors do, he would do it for us. He would come with all the information you need.
TAVERNIER: History isn't just dates and battles—it's made of flesh and blood.
Heartthrob Gaspard Ulliel in The Princess of Montpensier
The tres adorable French actor Gaspard Ulliel may be best known to American viewers who saw him in Hannibal Rising, or from his part in the Gus Van Sant segment of Paris Je T’aime. But anyone who saw his seductive performance in out filmmaker André Téchiné’s Strayed, or as one of the lovers in A Very Long Engagement knows Ulliel’s sex appeal.
Now starring as Henri, a dashing rogue caught in a love quadrangle in the fabulous historical costume drama/romance The Princess of Montpensier, this French dreamboat may be once again poised for breakout success.
The San Francisco Bay Times met with Ulliel to discuss his career and his character, as well as his thoughts about love, sword fighting, and his dimple-like facial scar.
(Bay Times) You are a heartthrob in France - and to American viewers who know you. Do you find that quality difficult? Do your striking good looks play into your characters, and your roles?
(Ulliel) It can be a privilege, but at the same time, it can prevent you from going to certain roles - you can be typecast. If you look handsome, or you have this image as a young, handsome guy, sometimes you want to break it and play certain characters, but you are too good looking. Some directors, have a lack of imagination. For an actor, the most pleasurable job is to work on a character that is far from who you are in real life. I think the most important thing is in your eyes and your look - it can add to your acting. But obviously, if you are born [handsome], you have to embrace your body.
It’s interesting to trigger other things by working on your body and the way you look. You can see this with many actors who transform themselves and change their whole body - like Christian Bale.
American viewers may know you best from your role as young Hannibal Lecter in Hannibal Rising. Can you discuss that experience? Were you looking for a breakout success?
I was aware of the risks when they asked me about the part. At the same time, it was really appealing to me, to play such an amazing part, and working in English, with an American team. I think I refused the first two times they came to me. It was awkward to have a French guy do Hannibal Lecter. But the thing that made me change my mind was my first meeting with the director, Peter Webber, who was really witty and clever. I appreciated his first film The Girl with the Pearl Earring. I thought it was nice and interesting idea for the producer to pick someone like this to direct this film.
But a breakthrough American success would have changed your career…
True, true. Another important thing I took into consideration was that this gave me the opportunity to work in English with a great director and to work on a fascinating character.
What appealed to you about playing Henri in Princess of Montpensier?
I was asked to meet Bertrand [Tavernier, the director], who is a great filmmaker in French cinema. It was easy to say yes before I read the script. We had a simple meeting and he talked about the project, and I read it, and I was in. The story was adapted from a famous French story I studied in school, and it was interesting to see what they did with it. The [story’s] style of writing is pretty specific - concise and elliptic - and a bit cold, and the film is the total opposite, full of energy and told at a quick pace. The sentences in the book are so dense and rich. But they did a great job in finding a way for the characters to speak in the period style, but for the audience to understand it. I never had a problem with the dialogue.
How did you research your role?
We were lucky to have Bertrand, who knows so much about so many things. He’s really precise on everything. He’s fascinated by history, so he knew a lot of really important details to help us actors get a full glimpse of daily life at that time. He asked the whole crew to read a biography of King Henry III, and in it, there were details about the way people were living at that time.
What do you like to read?
I’m reading Dostoevsky. I recently read Notes from the Underground, and I’ve always wanted to - I never did it, but I’m going to pick it up soon - to read Remembrance of Things Past by Proust. So many people have told me about it. It’s thick.
How as it work in period costume, and sword fighting in the mud?
I’m really thankful to the costumes, and makeup. The idea of having long hair and a heavy costume was quite helpful for the character, and this was Bertrand’s choice. He insisted on the fact that I let my hair grow for this part - especially for the fight scene, where I have my hair pulled back a bit like a samurai. We had to do a lot of adjustments with the costumes. When they created them at first, we just did fittings. But when we started to rehearse with the costumes, we couldn’t move the way we wanted to. We had two months of rehearsals for the fighting - this was totally new to me - and quite fun to do. But it’s more like a dance than a fight, because it’s choreographed. And riding the horse was a big load of fun. That was totally new to me as well, and I really loved it. After the film, I missed the horse so much - the feeling of freedom.
Henri is described as a man of impulse - are you impulsive?
He is in the present all the time. I’m not like that. I’m the opposite. Impulsive at some point, but I try to take a lot of distance with things. Think before I act. Sometimes, I would like to be like Henri. He embraces life fully. When you think too much, you have a lack of life…You need to be impulsive.
Your character weighs love against money. Are you more romantic or practical in your life?
More romantic I think. Well, I hope. For me, I need to experience some love in my daily life. It’s really stimulating and gives you power and confidence.
I wouldn’t be able to act like this character. At the same time, in this story, he sacrifices for other purposes, but Henri’s feelings for [the Princess] is true passion - it’s really visceral, and linked to sexual attraction. The story is a bit like a Western. The story has the same construction of a female figure in the middle of all these men. It’s a like the only rose in the middle of a desert.
Henri has a morality - he never forgets an offence. He also weeps, and admits it. Do you think he’s tough or vulnerable? How did you find his internal struggle?
When I read the script, I thought that Henri was quite direct and easy to understand as a character, but when I started thinking about it, and talking to Bertrand, I realized his personality was much more complex. He has this strong harsh appearance and at the same time, when he is facing the princess, he becomes softer, and quite weak.
What was it like working with you costars - was there camaraderie on the set?
Most of the experiences I’ve had on set [previously] were with older actors, because I started acting quite young. Here, I worked with a lot of actors from my generation, who were my age. It was moving to work with Gregoire [Leprince-Ringuet, who co-starred with Ulliel in Strayed in 2003]. He’s so different now - he became a man, so it was really nice to work with him again. Raphaël Personnaz [who plays Duc d’Anjou], was a friend, so it was nice to work with him.
You have a scar on your left cheek and in the film your character is scarred. Do you equate any meaning to that?
It was fun - it was the first time they added a scar to my face! I already have this one [indicates scar on his cheek], but it can look like a dimple. I am thankful to the surgeon. It was fun for me to have another scar, and it worked well in the story, because my character already has one scar, but adds another during a fight. So we used my scar for the first scar and they added the other one.
I think it’s a nice metaphor in the story - he wears it on his face, but his deepest scar is in his heart.
"Montpensier" star Gaspard Ulliel on Scorsese, Stunts and Scars
Americans know Gaspard Ulliel best as the young Hannibal Lecter in the 2008 prequel "Hannibal Rising" and as Audrey Tatou's costar in "A Very Long Engagement." In his native France, he's a household name who, with Kate Moss, is the face of Longchamps. And such a face: Lips to rival Angelina's, steel-blue eyes, a killer jawline. Lucky for us, the hunk can act.
In his latest film, Bertrand Tavernier's 17th-century romance "The Princess of Montpensier," Ulliel portrays the young Duc de Guise, a rakish warrior who dukes it out with the Prince de Montpensier (Gregoire LePrince-Ringuet) to win the heart of the beautiful Marie de Mezieries (Melanie Thierry). The film hits theaters this Friday, April 15 through IFC Films.
indieWIRE caught up with the charmer in Manhattan.
For a young actor, you seem to have an affinity for period films. You got your big break the 18th century-set "Brotherhood of the Wolf," worked with Jean-Pierre Jeunet for the WWI romance "A Very Long Engagement" and played a young Hannibal Lecter in "Hannibal Rising," set shortly after World War II. What's the deal?
I just choose the scripts I want to work on. I don’t know why. It’s not something conscious or that I’m doing on purpose. Maybe my physical appearance speaks more to period-style films. I think it’s a good thing, because it’s something that permits me to travel and explore history. You get a chance to learn so many things about daily life during these different periods. Especially on this experience. Working with Bertrand was so interesting. He knows so many things about so many subjects. French history is one of his main passions. He was so precise and focused on these minute details to make the film as faithful to history as possible.
Speaking of your appearance, it’s ironic to note you yourself have a visible scar on your face like the Duc de Guise, who was nicknamed Le Balafré (the scarred).
It was a total coincidence. When I first met Bertrand, I asked him if he was interested in me because of my scar. He said, “No, not at all.” He actually thought it was just a dimple. It was quite useful because all we had to do for the first scar was add a bit of makeup to my existing one. In the film, he gets a second one on the cheek.
What kind of research did you do prior to coming on set?
It’s good to have a director who knows what to give you, in terms of references. There was one major book that he gave to the whole crew. It was an amazing French biography on the king, Henry the Third. It delved into the conditions in which people were living – really small details, about how they would eat, sleep, clean themselves. It really helped fuel my imagination.
What was the training process like for the film? You seem to have done a lot of your own stunts.
The film was on standby for a couple of months due to financing issues. Suddenly they phoned everybody letting us know we had two months before the shoot began. So we had to rush through the prep.
Bertrand told us from the very beginning that he didn’t want any doubles, for anything. He also wanted to film in very long continuous shots without cutting. When I saw it finally, I was taken aback at how different it looks from current action films. You get a real feel for the pace of the fight and get a sense of the exaustion that sets in.
We knew we had to be ready for the day. We all trained for a month and a half. I had never really done anything like this before. It felt like dancing. It’s not real fighting. It’s choreography.
I hadn’t really ridden any horses before. So we had to train a lot. I really discovered something I loved. After completing the film, I kept going back to ride again. I missed it so much. It’s a wonderful feeling to be in a big landscape on a horse.
The film is notable for its attractive, young cast. What was it like working with peers your age?
It was interesting for Bertrand to pick such a young cast. Most of the characters in the film really existed and they were that young. The King wasn’t even 20 years old. He was the head of the army at 17. Bertrand was really out to cast the right age. Usually in period films you tend to see actors who are much older than the characters they’re portraying.
For me, it was great. Since first starting my career, I’ve grown accustomed to working with actors older than me. I’m always the youngest. So it was really nice to work with actors around my age. The whole experience was really enjoyable.
You were nominated three times for the César Most Promising Actor award, before finally winning in 2004 for "A Very Long Engagement." Did you feel like a newcomer by the time you won?
In a way, yes. I was still young. I still feel a bit like a newcomer. Other actors have accomplished so much, so you always feel like you’re a beginner in a way. In France, the Césars aren’t as big a deal as the Oscars, so it wasn’t something that I was craving. It was really nice and moving to get recognition from the industry. I wouldn’t care if I hadn’t won it.
I’ve had a lot of luck in my short career. I got into it by chance. I met some people who got me into casting rooms and I landed roles. I never even thought of pursuing this before. I did some theater as a kid for fun. But it was really by chance that I landed into acting.
You studied cinema, not acting, at the University of Saint-Denis, correct?
Well, it was around 11 or 12 that I started acting. I then became interested in cinema as an art form. I think I developed little by little a real passion for movies, not just acting. For all those years, I was more attracted to being on set, working on set than being on a stage. I’m a bit changed today. I think as an actor, the stage would be such an amazing experience.
After high school I decided to go to film school. When you’re so passionate about cinema, the idea to direct your own film is really appealing. That was what I wanted to do at that time and at the same time I was getting more and more offers to act in film. So I decided to stop those studies and give it a chance as an actor.
I don’t regret leaving, but sometimes I miss those moments when I would go to school and open myself up to interesting things. Even if I only studied for two years, it allowed me to discover these amazing directors from all around the world. I could have discovered them on my own, but it would have taken me more time.
Since then you've worked with some great directors -- Gus Van Sant, Niki Caro, Jean Pierre Jeunet, to name a few. You even did a commercial with Martin Scorsese for Chanel.
It was just a commercial.
But still, Scorsese!
Yeah, I mean I was just thrilled when Chanel phoned me to tell me who was directing the ad. Even if it was just four to five days, it meant so much to me. I would wake up in New York City to work with Martin and pinch myself!
With Gus, it was sort of the same story. I was such a fan of his work. I was attached to “Paris, Je T’Aime.” They were offering me different parts in different districts with different directors. It wasn’t really clear. A year passed, then someone from production phoned me saying, “We’re ready to shoot your part. We want to give you a part in Gus Van Sant’s short.” I said, “Yeah, that’s perfect.”
Though set in Paris, that was an English-language short for the most part. Any more English language work planned for the near future?
I’d love to. It’s a bit tricky. As a foreign actor, I get offers from time to time. But as a foreigner, I don’t really get interesting offers most of the time. I’m really happy with my career in France. I think you have to give a lot of your time and come here more often if you want to break this market.
But I did just meet recently with Peter Greenaway for a nice project. Nothing’s set in stone, yet.
