European Films

Grégoire Colin in the recent L'éclaireur. Photo (c): Cinetévé.

You are not filming today, but you still came to the set…
Yes… I was in Spa, in my room; so why not come here instead [smiles]. I only started filming two days ago, so I came to see how things are going.

How did you meet Micha Wald?
Through his casting director! [laughs.] Micha especially liked Beau travail. Something in my work for that Claire Denis film interested him. However, I hope he has seen some other films in which I starred [laughs]. So we met a long time ago, before the film went into production, before even the financing had started. I loved the script. And it is enough to see him working on set: he is very relaxed but very rigorous at the same time. He wants things to be good, which is something I appreciate. Voleurs de chevaux is sort of a “revenge movie” with its obligatory twists and turns but I like they way in which he wants everything to be correct: costumes, set design, the works. He already has this attention and rigour when it comes to detail, which promises good things to come. 

Who do you portray in the film?
I am the son of a horse thief, an orphan. I go about with my younger brother Elias, who became a cripple because of childhood accident for which I – then also a child – was responsible. I carry this burden of guilt with me. I am concentrated on two goals only:  fill our stomachs and make sure that my brother is safe; that nothing happens to him. It’s basically cutting wood to keep us warm and stealing horses to keep us eating. Then I come across two Cossack brothers and I kill one of them. The chase and revenge aspects start there. My character is quite a violent type, but that is normal [laughs]. Well it is normal for him, seen his [lack of] standing, his life in the woods. It’s a very brutal character and he has a very possessive relationship with his brother; he leaves him no breathing space. Roman wants to make a tough man out of his little brother. And on the other side, exactly the same thing is happening: Jakub [Adrien Jolivet] wants to join the Cossacks but his smaller brother [Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet], who I will kill, does not want to follow. Jakub also wants to toughen up his little sibling. The film thus works in symmetry.

You do many first films.
Yes, I know, especially at the moment – and it is not over yet! [Laughs.] It just happens that I receive these scripts and they happen to be very interesting… but I also do second films and those are better.

Colin in Gilles Bourdos' Inquiètudes.

You already worked here in Belgium for Gérard Corbiau’s L’année de l’éveil in 1991. That was your first film, wasn’t it?
Actually, the second. I started in theatre; I come from a family of travelling actors. My father [Christian Colin] worked with Ariane Mnouchkine and many others. He become a director when still quite young. I played in Hécube [Hecuba] with Maria Casarès and I was spotted by a casting director for my first film. My dad started taking care of me from an early age; he gave me some pointers and told me to make sure I believed in what I said. At the first rehearsal I was shaking like a reed [laughs]; I was playing the ghost of the youngest son of a family that had been assassinated. I was only a 12-year-old and it was hard! [Laughs.]

When I was younger still, he helped me to prepare to recite poetry for school, which should be said properly, without screaming too much. I was aware of it when I compared myself with the other kids: my poetry recital practice had been overseen by The Father. It is easier to play when one is a child; it came easily at the time. I just soaked everything up and it came to me naturally, as playing does to all children. I was little, I did some castings, I was chosen for some projects, I would do fine. When one becomes an adolescent, things grow more complicated. My parents, and especially my mother, wanted me to think things over; my child actors do not want to necessarily continue down that road. A child actor’s interest for acting might wane when he grows and changes. The playing has to change, to evolve, it is connected to these different phases.  That said, for me, very time, on every film, I start from scratch.

Which means ?
I have the impression that I need to start all over again; I have to think about the whole thing again. You have to be confident enough to play, so I try to have that confidence. But it is hard [laughs]. But then again, I am like that and will stay like that. Every time I need to work on it again, start from scratch. But with directors that I have worked with already, it is different. When I do a film with Claire, it is a continuation of something ongoing.  don’t feel like a need to start from scratch: I know what she likes, where I should try to find what she needs. Of course it also depends on the relationship you have with the director; when a director takes you on voyage elsewhere. It was in interesting when I worked with Catherine Breillat on Sex is Comedy, which, as the title suggests, is a comedy, though not as much as I first expected [laughs], but the screenplay was funny. It was nice to be able to work in that sort of rhythm. And being an actor, that is something I know how to do !    

What are your future projects?
Claire Denis is working on two projects at the moment, one of which is a comedy. She has trouble with finding the money, as usual [smiles], so I don’t really know which project will be shot first. I will also work with Yvan Attal on Cédric Anger’s first film, which is called Le Soldat (lit. The Soldier), in which I play a contract killer [smiles]. I already did a shorter project with him as part of the preparation for that. Exes from Martin Cognito will be released soon, in which I am… a psychopath! [Laughs.] With Martin, we are already working on another project; he is able to work very fast and with very little money. Gilles Bourdos is doing a film with Fidélité Production in the United States with Forest Whitaker, which will be shot in New York and Arizona. I am not sure why I am doing his publicity for him! [Laughs.] I hope I will soon do another film with him.

Note from the editor: This interview originally took place in the French language and has been translated into English by the editor.