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Spiral's Caroline Proust: cast me as anyone but a cop Spiral's Caroline Proust: cast me as anyone but a cop
(about 5 hours later)
In a bar around the corner from Père Lachaise cemetery, Caroline Proust cheerfully discusses the song she has recorded about the end of the world. She sets out her plans for a film about the death penalty. And she assures me that the next season of Spiral will be appropriately awful for Laure Berthaud, the ragged yet dogged police captain she has played for 10 years. “Of course, it will be horrible,” she says, a grin breaking out across her gamine face. “Of course! That’s what people want, I guess.”In a bar around the corner from Père Lachaise cemetery, Caroline Proust cheerfully discusses the song she has recorded about the end of the world. She sets out her plans for a film about the death penalty. And she assures me that the next season of Spiral will be appropriately awful for Laure Berthaud, the ragged yet dogged police captain she has played for 10 years. “Of course, it will be horrible,” she says, a grin breaking out across her gamine face. “Of course! That’s what people want, I guess.”
The gallows humour is perhaps inevitable for someone who has starred for so long in the relentlessly thrilling and unflinchingly grim TV series. Spiral is known for its watch-through-your-hands crime scenes, so gruesome that Berthaud’s colleagues occasionally vomit upon seeing them. Proust explains that much of the series is filmed around this patch of eastern Paris and its neighbouring, run-down suburbs. She points to an abandoned track that the bar overlooks. “We could shoot here, you know? This is the old railway … If you’re walking here, you can meet weird people around.” I suggest it could be a future Spiral crime scene, but it turns out they’ve already filmed one nearby, for season three, in which Berthaud’s team chase a serial killer. “You remember the season?” she prompts jauntily. “Where the girl is found in a plastic bag?”The gallows humour is perhaps inevitable for someone who has starred for so long in the relentlessly thrilling and unflinchingly grim TV series. Spiral is known for its watch-through-your-hands crime scenes, so gruesome that Berthaud’s colleagues occasionally vomit upon seeing them. Proust explains that much of the series is filmed around this patch of eastern Paris and its neighbouring, run-down suburbs. She points to an abandoned track that the bar overlooks. “We could shoot here, you know? This is the old railway … If you’re walking here, you can meet weird people around.” I suggest it could be a future Spiral crime scene, but it turns out they’ve already filmed one nearby, for season three, in which Berthaud’s team chase a serial killer. “You remember the season?” she prompts jauntily. “Where the girl is found in a plastic bag?”
Spiral’s Paris is not exactly the city of Amélie and the Eiffel Tower. The show’s great achievement is to offer a comprehensive portrait of the French capital’s modern-day malaise by combining, as The Wire did in Baltimore, the fine detail of the police procedural; credible characters who we care about; and plot lines driven by vital issues. In Spiral’s case, these include drugs, sex trafficking, terrorism and immigration.Spiral’s Paris is not exactly the city of Amélie and the Eiffel Tower. The show’s great achievement is to offer a comprehensive portrait of the French capital’s modern-day malaise by combining, as The Wire did in Baltimore, the fine detail of the police procedural; credible characters who we care about; and plot lines driven by vital issues. In Spiral’s case, these include drugs, sex trafficking, terrorism and immigration.
The last of these is much on Proust’s mind at the moment. At the same time as embarking on the earliest preparations for series six of Spiral, she is currently appearing, on the other side of town, in a French-language revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Ivo van Hove. She plays Beatrice, the wife of Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie Carbone. The arrival of Beatrice’s impoverished Italian cousins Marco and Rodolpho, as illegal immigrants in New York, triggers the play’s tragic outcome. Marco’s lines about his family’s hunger, and his desperation to find a better life, sound as urgent as ever. “We are all in tragedy now,” Proust observes, “with this problem of the migrants.” She adds: ‘“I think there is kind of an empathy with the migrants from everyone, I guess – well, not from the far right, of course, those kinds of people … don’t want to share anything.”The last of these is much on Proust’s mind at the moment. At the same time as embarking on the earliest preparations for series six of Spiral, she is currently appearing, on the other side of town, in a French-language revival of Arthur Miller’s A View from the Bridge, directed by Ivo van Hove. She plays Beatrice, the wife of Brooklyn longshoreman Eddie Carbone. The arrival of Beatrice’s impoverished Italian cousins Marco and Rodolpho, as illegal immigrants in New York, triggers the play’s tragic outcome. Marco’s lines about his family’s hunger, and his desperation to find a better life, sound as urgent as ever. “We are all in tragedy now,” Proust observes, “with this problem of the migrants.” She adds: ‘“I think there is kind of an empathy with the migrants from everyone, I guess – well, not from the far right, of course, those kinds of people … don’t want to share anything.”
Van Hove’s groundbreaking production was first seen in 2014 at the Young Vic in London, with Mark Strong as Eddie and Nicola Walker as Beatrice. Proust saw it when it transferred to the West End earlier this year. The Paris production is staged at the Ateliers Berthier, a former warehouse for sets that became a temporary home for the city’s Odéon theatre when it was being renovated, and has since served as the Odéon’s second stage. An unfussy space with exposed metal beams, it perfectly suits Van Hove and designer Jan Versweyveld’s bold reinvention of the play, told on a starkly lit thrust stage. The Carbones’ apartment is, as detailed by Miller’s stage directions, clean and sparse – but the similarities end there. The stage is largely empty, the actors perform barefoot, and the tragedy unfolds to a trance-inducing loop of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, occasionally broken by deathly drum beats.Van Hove’s groundbreaking production was first seen in 2014 at the Young Vic in London, with Mark Strong as Eddie and Nicola Walker as Beatrice. Proust saw it when it transferred to the West End earlier this year. The Paris production is staged at the Ateliers Berthier, a former warehouse for sets that became a temporary home for the city’s Odéon theatre when it was being renovated, and has since served as the Odéon’s second stage. An unfussy space with exposed metal beams, it perfectly suits Van Hove and designer Jan Versweyveld’s bold reinvention of the play, told on a starkly lit thrust stage. The Carbones’ apartment is, as detailed by Miller’s stage directions, clean and sparse – but the similarities end there. The stage is largely empty, the actors perform barefoot, and the tragedy unfolds to a trance-inducing loop of Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, occasionally broken by deathly drum beats.
After reading the play, Proust had her doubts about playing Beatrice. “When Ivo proposed the role to me, I asked … if I could speak with him to understand more than I read,” she says. “I was very lucky last year. I played in August: Osage County [a touring production of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer prize-winning drama]. It’s a great play and I had a great part … I was wondering if I could be happy with this part.” She needn’t have worried. In Van Hove’s production, the tragedy is convincingly shared by Beatrice and all of the characters – it does not just belong to Eddie.After reading the play, Proust had her doubts about playing Beatrice. “When Ivo proposed the role to me, I asked … if I could speak with him to understand more than I read,” she says. “I was very lucky last year. I played in August: Osage County [a touring production of Tracy Letts’ Pulitzer prize-winning drama]. It’s a great play and I had a great part … I was wondering if I could be happy with this part.” She needn’t have worried. In Van Hove’s production, the tragedy is convincingly shared by Beatrice and all of the characters – it does not just belong to Eddie.
We are all in tragedy now with this problem of the migrantsWe are all in tragedy now with this problem of the migrants
Miller’s tragedy had its Broadway debut 60 years ago in a one-act version that the playwright himself said was “regarded as rather cold” by audiences. He expanded the play, developing the female characters, and a two-act version premiered the following year in London, directed by Peter Brook. That version went on to Paris. So it was Europe that made the play’s reputation and it is Van Hove’s version, in these two capitals, that has redefined that reputation. (Strong and Walker will now reprise their roles in a Broadway transfer, which starts previewing this week.)Miller’s tragedy had its Broadway debut 60 years ago in a one-act version that the playwright himself said was “regarded as rather cold” by audiences. He expanded the play, developing the female characters, and a two-act version premiered the following year in London, directed by Peter Brook. That version went on to Paris. So it was Europe that made the play’s reputation and it is Van Hove’s version, in these two capitals, that has redefined that reputation. (Strong and Walker will now reprise their roles in a Broadway transfer, which starts previewing this week.)
Seeing the play in Paris is every bit as electrifying as it was at the Young Vic. One of the most powerful scenes, in both stagings, comes when Beatrice confronts her husband about their dormant sex life and asks him when she will become a wife again. Proust, whose habitual Spiral attire is a grubby vest and a leather jacket, wears the same design of drab blouse and skirt worn by Walker when she played Beatrice in London. But Proust explains that she decided to paint her toenails for this barefoot production. “It’s a grey varnish, very light. But I wanted Beatrice to have this. She is definitely trying to keep her husband back, in her bed. We need to see that she’s still feminine.”Seeing the play in Paris is every bit as electrifying as it was at the Young Vic. One of the most powerful scenes, in both stagings, comes when Beatrice confronts her husband about their dormant sex life and asks him when she will become a wife again. Proust, whose habitual Spiral attire is a grubby vest and a leather jacket, wears the same design of drab blouse and skirt worn by Walker when she played Beatrice in London. But Proust explains that she decided to paint her toenails for this barefoot production. “It’s a grey varnish, very light. But I wanted Beatrice to have this. She is definitely trying to keep her husband back, in her bed. We need to see that she’s still feminine.”
Related: Voyeurs of tragedy: the intimate designs of Jan VersweyveldRelated: Voyeurs of tragedy: the intimate designs of Jan Versweyveld
Van Hove tells me that Proust “understands very well the broad scope of Beatrice’s emotional inner world. She can switch smoothly between the loving woman and a tough lioness.” In some scenes, she alternates between despair and fury in a heartbeat. Her body language – stiff, awkward, uneasy – makes a counterpoint to the relaxed, tactile affection shared by Eddie and his 17-year-old niece, Catherine, for whom he harbours unspeakable feelings and who he will not let grow up. Proust recognises that Beatrice is a “submissive woman” and remains a character stuck in the 1950s, but points to how she “helps Catherine to be a woman, to have work, and to be independent”. Van Hove tells me that Proust “understands very well the broad scope of Beatrice’s emotional inner world. She can switch smoothly between the loving woman and a tough lioness.” In some scenes, she alternates between despair and fury in a heartbeat. Her body language – stiff, awkward, uneasy – makes a counterpoint to the relaxed, tactile affection shared by Eddie and his 17-year-old niece, Catherine, for whom he harbours unspeakable feelings and who he will not let grow up. Proust says that Beatrice is a “submissive woman” and remains a character stuck in the 1950s, but points to how she “helps Catherine to be a woman, to have work, and to be independent”.
Proust says she was 17 when she decided to be an actor. She has twin 14-year-old daughters who are, themselves, “wondering what kind of work to do. They don’t know yet what they will become.” Their father, and Proust’s former husband, is the César award-winning actor Clovis Cornillac, best known for playing Asterix on screen and for starring alongside Audrey Tautou in A Very Long Engagement (2004). Proust and Cornillac co-starred in several films, including the ultra-violent Scorpion (2007), in which she plays a journalist and he is a washed-up kickboxer making a comeback.Proust says she was 17 when she decided to be an actor. She has twin 14-year-old daughters who are, themselves, “wondering what kind of work to do. They don’t know yet what they will become.” Their father, and Proust’s former husband, is the César award-winning actor Clovis Cornillac, best known for playing Asterix on screen and for starring alongside Audrey Tautou in A Very Long Engagement (2004). Proust and Cornillac co-starred in several films, including the ultra-violent Scorpion (2007), in which she plays a journalist and he is a washed-up kickboxer making a comeback.
Her CV is littered with such thrillers and crime movies. Proust been typecast for years, not just because of Spiral but also because of her earlier role as a police officer in the film Le Cousin (1997), directed by Alain Corneau. “I was worried about my capacity to be a cop,” she remembers. “I said, ‘I don’t know how to carry a gun. I don’t know anything about being a cop.’ [Corneau] said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll prepare you. So I went to police school, I worked with real policemen.” She went on stakeouts and underwent physical training. “And then I did my job, and people believed that I was a cop. And after that I was proposed on TV for cop characters … Give me nurse, give me everything, but not cop.”Her CV is littered with such thrillers and crime movies. Proust been typecast for years, not just because of Spiral but also because of her earlier role as a police officer in the film Le Cousin (1997), directed by Alain Corneau. “I was worried about my capacity to be a cop,” she remembers. “I said, ‘I don’t know how to carry a gun. I don’t know anything about being a cop.’ [Corneau] said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll prepare you. So I went to police school, I worked with real policemen.” She went on stakeouts and underwent physical training. “And then I did my job, and people believed that I was a cop. And after that I was proposed on TV for cop characters … Give me nurse, give me everything, but not cop.”
Even her first English-language role was in a crime series, albeit a cosy one. In 2014, she joined a classy cast including Nikki Amuka-Bird and Pippa Bennett-Warner for an episode of the BBC1 Caribbean whodunnit Death in Paradise. Proust played the stony-faced personal assistant of an unscrupulous property developer who is murdered at his luxurious island home. The gig brought, at the very least, a nice view. “It was very fun because they shoot in Guadeloupe. It was interesting to shoot in English but it was my first time so I was a bit worried. We did it very quickly … and I was not so happy at the end.” She is quick to praise her co-stars and the director, but says: “You don’t have any time to prepare. That’s always the case – that’s the difference between TV and film.” She expresses particular horror at the number of outfits she was allowed to choose from.Even her first English-language role was in a crime series, albeit a cosy one. In 2014, she joined a classy cast including Nikki Amuka-Bird and Pippa Bennett-Warner for an episode of the BBC1 Caribbean whodunnit Death in Paradise. Proust played the stony-faced personal assistant of an unscrupulous property developer who is murdered at his luxurious island home. The gig brought, at the very least, a nice view. “It was very fun because they shoot in Guadeloupe. It was interesting to shoot in English but it was my first time so I was a bit worried. We did it very quickly … and I was not so happy at the end.” She is quick to praise her co-stars and the director, but says: “You don’t have any time to prepare. That’s always the case – that’s the difference between TV and film.” She expresses particular horror at the number of outfits she was allowed to choose from.
Recently Proust was in the running for a comedy but didn’t get the part, she says, because it was felt that she was too associated with drama. “I’m not a cop,” she sighs once more. “I’m an actress, I can do many things.” It’s why she’s taking matters into her own hands and originating more projects. Just before we meet she has been in discussions with her producers. “We are preparing a movie which I’m participating in writing. I brought the idea. It’s a love story and a thriller. It’s about the death penalty. A story between a French woman who married a man who is on death row.”Recently Proust was in the running for a comedy but didn’t get the part, she says, because it was felt that she was too associated with drama. “I’m not a cop,” she sighs once more. “I’m an actress, I can do many things.” It’s why she’s taking matters into her own hands and originating more projects. Just before we meet she has been in discussions with her producers. “We are preparing a movie which I’m participating in writing. I brought the idea. It’s a love story and a thriller. It’s about the death penalty. A story between a French woman who married a man who is on death row.”
Like most of the principal actors in Spiral, Proust started out in the theatre. She has described herself as a child of Edward Bond, and she cites the directors Patrice Chéreau, Peter Brook, Giorgio Strehler and Deborah Warner among her inspirations. Her stage roles have included Ophelia, in a 1996 Hamlet directed by Philippe Adrien for Théâtre de la Tempête. She came in as a last-minute replacement, with one week of rehearsal. “I tried to understand the madness of Ophelia. And I understood that she was raped by her father,” she says. “I think Polonius raped his daughter and his son … I think Hamlet is about paedophilia.” A couple of years later she was in Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance, directed by Jean-Pierre Vincent. Its tour went to the Barbican in London, as well as to the US. She smiles: “Marivaux is delicious to play.” More recently, she was in a Parisian production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore, written by Nora and Delia Ephron.Like most of the principal actors in Spiral, Proust started out in the theatre. She has described herself as a child of Edward Bond, and she cites the directors Patrice Chéreau, Peter Brook, Giorgio Strehler and Deborah Warner among her inspirations. Her stage roles have included Ophelia, in a 1996 Hamlet directed by Philippe Adrien for Théâtre de la Tempête. She came in as a last-minute replacement, with one week of rehearsal. “I tried to understand the madness of Ophelia. And I understood that she was raped by her father,” she says. “I think Polonius raped his daughter and his son … I think Hamlet is about paedophilia.” A couple of years later she was in Marivaux’s The Game of Love and Chance, directed by Jean-Pierre Vincent. Its tour went to the Barbican in London, as well as to the US. She smiles: “Marivaux is delicious to play.” More recently, she was in a Parisian production of Love, Loss, and What I Wore, written by Nora and Delia Ephron.
Since starting Spiral, Proust has managed to fit in half a dozen stage roles, alongside the movie and TV appearances. It takes between seven and nine months to film a season and the episodes are often shot in two or three batches to accommodate late changes to the scripts, which are inspired by real cases. The showrunner, Anne Landois, consults the police, prosecutors, lawyers and a judge while researching the series. “The sixth season,” says Proust, “will be about corruption” – in the law, the police and in the characters’ personal lives. “We will start shooting in May so you have to be patient.” This means UK audiences are unlikely to see it until 2017. At the end of season five, the pregnant Berthaud suffers a severe stab wound. Is she going to be OK? “What do you think she could be?” laughs Proust. “You think that she could be happy? You think we are going to tell a story about, ‘Oh, everything is nice in our nice world, our pink world’? … It’s not possible.”Since starting Spiral, Proust has managed to fit in half a dozen stage roles, alongside the movie and TV appearances. It takes between seven and nine months to film a season and the episodes are often shot in two or three batches to accommodate late changes to the scripts, which are inspired by real cases. The showrunner, Anne Landois, consults the police, prosecutors, lawyers and a judge while researching the series. “The sixth season,” says Proust, “will be about corruption” – in the law, the police and in the characters’ personal lives. “We will start shooting in May so you have to be patient.” This means UK audiences are unlikely to see it until 2017. At the end of season five, the pregnant Berthaud suffers a severe stab wound. Is she going to be OK? “What do you think she could be?” laughs Proust. “You think that she could be happy? You think we are going to tell a story about, ‘Oh, everything is nice in our nice world, our pink world’? … It’s not possible.”
Proust is passionate and proud when talking about Spiral, and clearly loves Berthaud and her co-stars dearly, but she admits she is exhausted when they get to the end of filming a series. I’d heard that she enjoys singing – perhaps she could take time out to record an album? “I don’t have time to do everything,” she says. “But I’d really love to do that.” A while back, with a guitarist friend, she recorded the Beatles’ Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby, as well as a couple of Serge Gainsbourg songs. Those covers led them to record a track responding to the Fukushima disaster and a poem about, she says, “the end of the world”.Proust is passionate and proud when talking about Spiral, and clearly loves Berthaud and her co-stars dearly, but she admits she is exhausted when they get to the end of filming a series. I’d heard that she enjoys singing – perhaps she could take time out to record an album? “I don’t have time to do everything,” she says. “But I’d really love to do that.” A while back, with a guitarist friend, she recorded the Beatles’ Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby, as well as a couple of Serge Gainsbourg songs. Those covers led them to record a track responding to the Fukushima disaster and a poem about, she says, “the end of the world”.
What about something a bit lighter, a bit of a song and dance on stage? Her eyes sparkle: “I’d love to be in a musical.” She remembers the joy of hearing those songs she recorded with her friend. “When you are an actor, you see yourself on the screen and you say, ‘I’m like that? I’m walking like that? I’m talking like that? I’m awful! I hate me!” She screws up her face in disgust. “But when I heard my voice? I liked it. It was very surprising …”What about something a bit lighter, a bit of a song and dance on stage? Her eyes sparkle: “I’d love to be in a musical.” She remembers the joy of hearing those songs she recorded with her friend. “When you are an actor, you see yourself on the screen and you say, ‘I’m like that? I’m walking like that? I’m talking like that? I’m awful! I hate me!” She screws up her face in disgust. “But when I heard my voice? I liked it. It was very surprising …”