French actress glad to play crazy naked roles
Print Edition
WITH only a chair and simple light, 63-year-old Isabelle Huppert read to audiences at Shanghai Culture Square Marguerite Duras’s “L’Amante” (“The Lover”) with the most limited body language or facial expression last Sunday. Her voice was the only channel delivering the story.
It was not the French actress’ first time to read to audiences, yet it was the first time for such performance to be ever staged in Shanghai.
“I spent a year and a half preparing the reading,” said Huppert. For her, reading seems simple and can be very powerful as it is also a performance that exhibits the original world depicted by the writer.
Crowned best actress at Cannes, Venice, European Film Festival and Cesar awards, Huppert is widely recognized as one of the best of all time. She has acted in more than 110 films since her debut in 1971, including the influential “Violette Noziere,” “La Pianiste” (“The Pianist”) and “Story of Women.” Her performance in “Elle” (“Her”) last year saw her scoop a Golden Globe Award, an Independent Spirit Award and a nomination for the Academy Award.
“I dreamed of becoming an actress since a child, as I believed that it would take me ‘elsewhere’,” said Huppert. “It did take me touring the world. It also helped me explore myself, as well as the inner world of others.”
Q: You have always been shifting yourself between stage and screen in recent years. How do you see the differences of the two types of acting? Why do you persist in working on both?
A: Generally, people tend to identify stage acting as performance in front of real audiences, while movie acting as one with only the performers themselves. But I see no big differences in the two, even technically. For me, they are both about getting close to the character. The only difference may lie in the director whom I worked with. For example, I may exhibit more of my personality when working with directors like Bob Wilson who gives me more freedom in acting.
Q: In a previous interview, you mentioned that you are also in an audience of your own. Can you explain?
A: I believe that an actress or actor also needs to think when performing. And in many cases, I prefer to see my performance from another angle — an audience’s angle. When I watch a movie of others, I also tend to think what the actress or actor is really thinking when acting. It is one of my habits.
Q: In China, most actresses on screen are young and beautiful, and encounter a bottle neck after aging. But you have played various women from teens to 60s, including some especially impressive powerful roles in the last 10 years. How did you develop such changes?
A: Of course I also wish to be young and beautiful forever, yet people always change. I also played some roles of survivors and victims at the beginning of my career. Fortunately, I was born in an age with feminism growth, which granted me more opportunities to play some really strong women who fight their fate. Age is never an issue for me. It is the thought, value and fate of the role that matters. Those are what shape a character.
Q: It is said that you have played around 70 roles, 35 of them where you are naked, while another 35 where you are crazy. How do you see the characters and how do you usually prepare for these roles?
A: Thirty-five naked women and 35 crazy women. That may make me a crazy naked woman! Yes, I did play many twisted characters. I never see the roles as shameful. Rather, they are much like mirrors to people. I value the movies that reflect hidden things in people and life. Some audiences feel uncomfortable when watching, but I like it as long as it touches the audience’s inner world.
When playing these roles, I often try figuring out different features of the character, such as good, evil, innocent, powerful or fragile. I will try mixing the features together in this one particular character, so that it is more like a real person.
Q: There are always impressive details in your acting, such as Erika’s flicking her shoulder after a man running into her on the street in “La Pianiste.” Did you intentionally design those details or it was just out of subconscious acting?
A: I am more inclined to the later one. I rarely do pre-work as I believe in the magic of the moment. It involves my prompt reaction to the freshest perception. It happens often for actors or actresses that they do better in rehearsal than the real shooting. I never read “La Pianiste” before acting in it. The director told me that it was not necessary.
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