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| Adèle Haenel: ‘Recycling cliches is a sign that a film lacks courage’ | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| French actor Adèle Haenel stars in The Unknown Girl, the latest film by Belgian duo the Dardenne brothers. She plays a doctor facing up to her feeling of responsibility after the death of a young African woman near her surgery. Her other films include Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies, Katell Quillévéré’s Suzanne, Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room and survivalist comedy Les Combattants, which won her a César award for best female performance in 2015. | French actor Adèle Haenel stars in The Unknown Girl, the latest film by Belgian duo the Dardenne brothers. She plays a doctor facing up to her feeling of responsibility after the death of a young African woman near her surgery. Her other films include Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies, Katell Quillévéré’s Suzanne, Guy Maddin’s The Forbidden Room and survivalist comedy Les Combattants, which won her a César award for best female performance in 2015. |
| There’s a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe | There’s a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe |
| Playing Dr Jenny Davin in The Unknown Girl, you’ve clearly absorbed the body language of a GP – we see you taking pulses, filling in forms, doing a lot of routine daily stuff.That felt like the basic minimum I had to do. The Dardennes have a certain way of working – you rehearse all the scenes for a month on the actual locations. I trained with a woman who taught me the right way to hold a stethoscope, give injections, the lot. If you could tell I was having trouble getting such and such a movement right, that would screw up the whole language of the film. | Playing Dr Jenny Davin in The Unknown Girl, you’ve clearly absorbed the body language of a GP – we see you taking pulses, filling in forms, doing a lot of routine daily stuff.That felt like the basic minimum I had to do. The Dardennes have a certain way of working – you rehearse all the scenes for a month on the actual locations. I trained with a woman who taught me the right way to hold a stethoscope, give injections, the lot. If you could tell I was having trouble getting such and such a movement right, that would screw up the whole language of the film. |
| It’s very much an existential story. We know the doctor is having a crisis of conscience, we see how she responds and we see her at work. Otherwise, we know nothing about her. Did you need to know her backstory, the way a lot of actors do?No. That approach always seems so 19th-century to me – constructing a character as if they were a real person. For me, it’s much more important to say: this character is me placed in a particular situation, and it’s that situation that makes the character exist. She doesn’t exist outside the film. For me, she absolutely isn’t a hero and I knew I shouldn’t make her a hero. She’s just someone – she could be anyone – who suddenly wakes up to things. It’s about the minimum of humanity that can affect any of us – the fact of waking up to the needs of others. | It’s very much an existential story. We know the doctor is having a crisis of conscience, we see how she responds and we see her at work. Otherwise, we know nothing about her. Did you need to know her backstory, the way a lot of actors do?No. That approach always seems so 19th-century to me – constructing a character as if they were a real person. For me, it’s much more important to say: this character is me placed in a particular situation, and it’s that situation that makes the character exist. She doesn’t exist outside the film. For me, she absolutely isn’t a hero and I knew I shouldn’t make her a hero. She’s just someone – she could be anyone – who suddenly wakes up to things. It’s about the minimum of humanity that can affect any of us – the fact of waking up to the needs of others. |
| This year, you appeared in a film that was very controversial in France – Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, about a young terrorist cell. You play a woman who witnesses the aftermath of a bombing and says: “Sooner or later, it had to happen.” What is that line about?It’s not for me to explain – it’s not my line, it’s the film’s. But for me, the film is saying that things don’t come out of nowhere, they always emerge out of some past friction. In France right now, it’s really difficult to talk about that. It’s a year since [the attacks of] 13 November, and everyone gets really stressed talking about that because they feel they have to take sides. Perhaps now it’s a question of being able to think clearly again. | This year, you appeared in a film that was very controversial in France – Bertrand Bonello’s Nocturama, about a young terrorist cell. You play a woman who witnesses the aftermath of a bombing and says: “Sooner or later, it had to happen.” What is that line about?It’s not for me to explain – it’s not my line, it’s the film’s. But for me, the film is saying that things don’t come out of nowhere, they always emerge out of some past friction. In France right now, it’s really difficult to talk about that. It’s a year since [the attacks of] 13 November, and everyone gets really stressed talking about that because they feel they have to take sides. Perhaps now it’s a question of being able to think clearly again. |
| We’re talking just a stone’s throw from the Bataclan. How has life changed in Paris in the past year on an everyday level?There are soldiers everywhere, the power of the police is crazy. There’s something really wrong about the current state of emergency. They can search your bag at any time, and they say: “If you have nothing to hide, what’s the problem?” But that’s the real danger – imposing a way of talking about things which claims to be rational, but that’s really a collective mindlessness. There’s a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe – people call you a dreamer if you try to think about anything other than pursuing the boundless expansion of capitalism. | We’re talking just a stone’s throw from the Bataclan. How has life changed in Paris in the past year on an everyday level?There are soldiers everywhere, the power of the police is crazy. There’s something really wrong about the current state of emergency. They can search your bag at any time, and they say: “If you have nothing to hide, what’s the problem?” But that’s the real danger – imposing a way of talking about things which claims to be rational, but that’s really a collective mindlessness. There’s a sense of political defeat right now, not just in France but across Europe – people call you a dreamer if you try to think about anything other than pursuing the boundless expansion of capitalism. |
| You’ve just appeared in a Belgian film, made another in German and acted on stage in Harold Pinter’s Old Times. Do you feel as European as much as French?I never thought about it much before working abroad. I never thought of myself as French beyond the fact that I speak French. I have an attachment to my nation without necessarily being a patriot, it’s just my culture – nothing to do with walking around with a baguette under my arm. But our history in France is about lots of different histories coming together, and when I see a magazine cover with some shitty politician, some white guy proclaiming, “My France – Without Islam”, that really depresses me. | You’ve just appeared in a Belgian film, made another in German and acted on stage in Harold Pinter’s Old Times. Do you feel as European as much as French?I never thought about it much before working abroad. I never thought of myself as French beyond the fact that I speak French. I have an attachment to my nation without necessarily being a patriot, it’s just my culture – nothing to do with walking around with a baguette under my arm. But our history in France is about lots of different histories coming together, and when I see a magazine cover with some shitty politician, some white guy proclaiming, “My France – Without Islam”, that really depresses me. |
| I like to think if you do things sincerely, it’ll connect with people. For me, [coming out] was simple, no big deal | I like to think if you do things sincerely, it’ll connect with people. For me, [coming out] was simple, no big deal |
| It’s always traditional to ask young European actors when they’re going to make their first Hollywood film. But judging from your interviews, you couldn’t be less interested in that.It’s not my thing. People say: “Oh, you’ve got to reach the maximum number of people…” What’s the difference if I reach 3 million people, or 20 people, or three? The great thing is when teenagers say to me: “Wow, that really made me want to see this, or read that, or do that for myself.” That’s what really gets me. | It’s always traditional to ask young European actors when they’re going to make their first Hollywood film. But judging from your interviews, you couldn’t be less interested in that.It’s not my thing. People say: “Oh, you’ve got to reach the maximum number of people…” What’s the difference if I reach 3 million people, or 20 people, or three? The great thing is when teenagers say to me: “Wow, that really made me want to see this, or read that, or do that for myself.” That’s what really gets me. |
| You’ve just shot a film in which you play an activist in the early years of the direct action group Act Up [Aids Coalition To Unleash Power]. And when you came out on stage at the César awards you proclaimed your love for your partner, director Céline Sciamma. Do you hope this will also inspire your young viewers?That’s possible, but for me it’s about the whole thing. I like to think if you do things sincerely, it’ll connect with people. For me, [coming out] was very simple, really no big deal. I have to say, I’m kind of a pain in the arse – I’m pretty rash, I just act on instinct. | You’ve just shot a film in which you play an activist in the early years of the direct action group Act Up [Aids Coalition To Unleash Power]. And when you came out on stage at the César awards you proclaimed your love for your partner, director Céline Sciamma. Do you hope this will also inspire your young viewers?That’s possible, but for me it’s about the whole thing. I like to think if you do things sincerely, it’ll connect with people. For me, [coming out] was very simple, really no big deal. I have to say, I’m kind of a pain in the arse – I’m pretty rash, I just act on instinct. |
| Are theatre and film very different for you?Right now I’m doing another play, by Dennis Kelly – The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas. I love theatre. For me, it’s like total acting, it’s a laboratory for exploring the possibilities of performance. A lot of cinema actors feel awkward about themselves – we know we’re really not that great, and theatre gives you a chance to work on yourself. The one thing they can’t take away from me is my stage work – it’s smaller, it’s more modest, but it belongs to me. | Are theatre and film very different for you?Right now I’m doing another play, by Dennis Kelly – The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas. I love theatre. For me, it’s like total acting, it’s a laboratory for exploring the possibilities of performance. A lot of cinema actors feel awkward about themselves – we know we’re really not that great, and theatre gives you a chance to work on yourself. The one thing they can’t take away from me is my stage work – it’s smaller, it’s more modest, but it belongs to me. |
| France probably has more female film-makers than anywhere else in the world, yet French cinema still abounds with stereotyped female roles. Is that a problem for you?I try not to make those films. Recycling cliches is a sign that a film lacks freedom, lacks courage. I like films that are in revolt against the previous generation. It’s a question of saying: “This is the world we live in, this is how it is” – and maybe saying it in a way that’s like screaming out loud. Just following the same old codes is a kind of submission. It’s like, “Thanks for leaving the world exactly as it is so I can carry on telling the same old boring stories.” | France probably has more female film-makers than anywhere else in the world, yet French cinema still abounds with stereotyped female roles. Is that a problem for you?I try not to make those films. Recycling cliches is a sign that a film lacks freedom, lacks courage. I like films that are in revolt against the previous generation. It’s a question of saying: “This is the world we live in, this is how it is” – and maybe saying it in a way that’s like screaming out loud. Just following the same old codes is a kind of submission. It’s like, “Thanks for leaving the world exactly as it is so I can carry on telling the same old boring stories.” |