Film Courage: How did this film find the two of you? Actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart:In a very classical way, through my
agent, casting director, they contacted my age and I got the script. I read it I met
Robin at a cafe we talked and then we started to audition for the film and
that's where when I met. Was that the question? Film Courage: Yeah that was a question and that... Actor Arnaud Valois: was
Very good answer! Nahuel: Yes I'm sorry maybe it was a bit like...because there's nothing
extraordinary, so I prefer that we talk maybe further about other things because
it was very classical like agent script then you read it then you meet the
director who's nothing really like I wish I could say like "Well I found a
Robin drunk in the streets" [He's joking] and then he was like...Film Courage: No? Nahuel: He was nothing like that,
nothing like that unfortunately. Film Courage: Arnaud, I believe you have a different story? Arnaud: Yeah
Different, way yeah yeah a special one yeah I was a masseuse when I got the
call from the casting director I used to work with like 10 years ago and she said
to me over the phone "Are you still an actor?" "Nope." "Do you want
to try an audition for me?" "Do you want to have an audition for me?" "No. You know
that I'm not an actor so why?" And she said "Ok listen. The script is really
interesting. It is about AIDS in the 90s in Paris gay community. The political
aspects and everything and I say for a movie like that why not give a try?" yeah
and get maybe eventually get back to the business so many questions with that one
um you had been auditioning we were you were in Paris before you were
auditioning and then you decided to move and become a masseuse I was an actor
doing films in Paris for about five or six years and he didn't wear exactly the
way I was expecting waiting for calls having parts but very small one getting
Edition but at the very end no it's not you in the
second or the third and before being really angry or depressed or anything
like that say okay you're 25 26 you can do something else your life you can
realize yourself in another way let's find out what but let's do it so I did
several jobs in Paris and then I went to Thailand Thailand and to Bangkok first
and Alan Thai massage there at the beginning just not to have fun the
turban experience and it became serious and I liked it and after two months of
training sessions I went back to Paris with my diploma and one month after I
got the call from the casting director that's great when you decide to do
something else you know the past comes and just brought you you have to like I
think sometimes when you want too much something you're not attractive so you
have to see around what can in what can fill you with something else yeah right
you have a different energy yeah yeah I'm open to other thing because when
you're an actor sometimes it's quite easy to stay or to get focus on yourself
and that's it and it's really important to see other things maybe other
countries other people culture and just to be aware that it's not all about
movies or theater or that kind of stuff there is life and you can experience
something else as well it's not maybe the only thing you can do and that kind
of thing I guess but it's my own experience I'm not like giving lessons
it's just telling my story sure so oh that's and I think we we hear from many
actors and filmmakers and writers that they gave up and then they came back to
it and they needed that break did you ever feel you needed a break now well
for many I feel that I have breaks all the time
between movies yeah when I'm not working I just forget that I'm an actor like
right now I I'm not I can't say the same because we are doing the promotion of
the film and we keep talking about the films so at a certain point it becomes
like okay you're your life or you or your new profession is just talking
about the films that you did which is like a consequence of films right
because the films that I did last year worked and did well well now you find
yourself talking about the work that you already did but before maybe if I was
playing in some films that didn't have that much of promotion I would just feel
that it was like emptiness and just like your I was coming back to my real life
and I was not you know expecting to to be cast in a new film right away so I
would just like travel or do studies you know just study Chinese or do
parachuting or whatever I mean just life I was not in that maybe in that same
like you know over-excitement of just like keep up keep up and just continue
to do a film after a film and I'm not really good at choosing projects I mean
not I'm good at choosing projects in the sense that I just I'm very honest and I
just tried to do only things that I like and I think that that's the only way
that you can do good work you know like I'm not very professional in the sense
that I can make whatever horse try to do just so bad at networking so in that way
I'm very naive I think and I'm very like it like a kid you know I just do it
because it's fun and then when I'm not doing it well life is out there life is
here there's something else after the career you know you don't have a five
year and career I don't have a what five year plan that's very American okay
question yeah like all the questions and we liquor we are related that that we
get in the states are just like for me it's just funny I just love because I
have no consciousness at all of what I'm gonna be doing within ten years so just
or the next year I can tell you I don't know where I'm gonna be living in in
January Wow but do you like that freedom because it
feels like that lends itself to what you do when the cameras on
of course I do yeah sure it's like like a fight with what people think that your
life should be you know answering those questions are always like tiring because
you have to say well I'm not like that and then you feel that you should be
like that because all you know the the everything that surrounds you is very
conservative in a way it's like where are you based where are you today what
are your projects what is your community well you know who do you identify with
who are your references where your models it's just like everything is so
career-driven as if we were just the only the only producers of that future
and if you ask me like who I would like to work with well I'm sure that I don't
know those guys or girls yeah it's much much more like inspiring to me just
thinking that the greatest people I could work with I haven't really heard
of it's very calming that idea you know just like 'no stop just thinking about
that the best is out there you know it exists but you don't have the means to
attain it it's like frustration comes right away and nothing good from you can
can be you know produced from when you're in that stress when you're in
that stress of just like trying to chase after you know success or the right
people are the best people that you should be working with in order to be a
consolidated actor in the movie biz off to me it's just like so stifling I can't
be I can't breathe I can't be what I am I can't be you know relaxed to words
like like this kind of experience that we just try to get when we play I think
that we're not machines or at least I try to think that acting is not being a
machine it's just trying to find yourself in certain circumstances in
which you can be creative but those circumstances don't really depend on
your will do you see what I mean I do and I'm wondering how you take the
approach when you do meet a director knowing that you'd like to just be free
with it and not place too many expectations but that's how we did this
film okay we had no idea the reach out that the film could have after
so can you tell me one of the scenes and I know it's difficult without giving
away too much in the film but that you were most proud of to be a part of
because you know the two of you were probably not around for most of when act
up was ever maybe just too young you know to you know very very very young so
but but to know that you were part of sort of reenacting this history that any
scenes that you were proud of the movie made yeah yeah I mean it's difficult now
I can I can talk about scenes that were very hard to make yeah but that we
really I don't know if we enjoyed them but the result is very super proud of my
proud young result but then in in terms of pride or political pride or just like
that kind of pry that you're trying to talk about I can say that it was fun
doing the actions you know just everything was very very vivacious very
vital in the film I don't know if I can just talk about one scene it's always
great you know to be in those situations in which which you can just like shout
you're so loud and you can just do all those things that you don't really do in
life to be part of yes I think this adventure I'm very proud of but a scene
difficult to say exactly yeah okay so when you do meet with a director but
suppose you you know you have a meeting is there anything you do to prepare
beforehand or know that almost ruins it because then it's too planned it's not
spontaneous script to to learn deform soon learn your lines to learn my lines
I would like think maybe some catchphrases but not like that much and
to be rested and focus on the meeting yeah over the conversation and try to be
in the moment present you know I don't know the new
technique I think that an encounter is an encounter between two worlds and you
can't fake it you know what I mean you can maybe read of course the script
or I was thinking when you were asking the question when I worked with the
Wooster group I remember that I read a book about the Wooster group before
meeting my mentor whatever it was a grant so I had to meet this person with
whom I was supposed to work afterwards it was just to know who they were and
who their work was so if I can meet a director I can maybe watch his films
yeah sure I will do it so we can have a conversation that is not only about that
project about a conversation that can also relate the the project that we're
talking about with the work of that director yeah it's very like instinctive
kind of like just trying to know the work of the person you of the person
you're gonna meet but no more than that I think what Robin did he require a lot
of takes yeah there's certain directors that they really command a lot of takes
and and how was that it depending on the scene yes some of the scenes were very
like you know emotional and hard to repeat yeah but usually was quite a lot
yeah and the debates which the debates and doing from the beginning till the
end and again and again and again not like you know just speak up like the
beginning of the scene and then know everything and everything and everything
again and again without blocking without marks yeah or it was very free the
shooting I can say and the good thing is that we would shoot right after arriving
on the set so we were all like 20 minutes
yeah to that weird state of not knowing how things were going oh yeah
so we were just lost you know on the set and that was great because I think that
he really used that when he was editing the film you know just to take some
parts of the first takes in which we were like more fragile and then maybe
you know one take towards the end of the of the day in which we were more like
grounded in the scene so I think that that was also a great tool that Robin
played with in order to build that kind of natural led or the kind of
documentary style what people loved saying about the film even if it's just
word by word how was it to see selves after the film because some
actors will that refused to watch themselves and that's just part of their
process and then others are fine they can almost see it as a third person it's
not them it's difficult it's difficult it needs time like to really enjoyed the
the movie it's difficult for me for the first time and see all the things that
were going wrong I think on going wrong it's difficult to air your voice I kind
of stuff yeah because I'm playing in Greenwich yeah so that's like there's
like that weird distance because I don't speak French in life so it's just like
that helps me a lot it puts me in a different state you know
like less bread judicious towards my how I sound
how do you speak French in life but it's just like some moments in my life my
life is not in French okay you see what I mean oh you're like my French personal
yeah you don't think in French it's like a creation that permeability you know
what I mean it's not that that kind of like very primary physical link towards
your your voice you know how you sound everything that what like when you hear
yourself on the phone sometimes I don't understand what I'm saying in French
it's true I have to think about the script about the lines just because the
phonetics sometimes they got they get very close you know this sounds it all
the contractions maybe I don't really get the sense to me it's just like
singing at certain points you know when I play so okay all that just to say that
there's a distance a natural distance between what I am and what I do when I
play in a different language and then you know when you play in a great film
it's much easier to see yourself because it's very possible possible that your
work is gonna be good because the ensemble is very good and then when you
play in less good films I'm sure that your presence in that context is gonna
be much roar and that's when you raw because we're gonna be exposed to not in
a good way and then it's like a learning process just to learn how to see
yourself and also how to take your flaws what you
consider flaw as a quality of the character we don't have the control over
what we do all the time and I think that's also the greatness of a director
just to see your your physical reactions things that you can control and take
them as part of the character and maybe they're things that you like the least
and your personality or in the way you behave on the set
maybe maybe are going to be qualities for the character we have to be humble
in that sense you know we can control and make perfect hair characters maybe
what we don't like is what suits the best for the character but I don't like
watching myself know just to make this story short I don't really enjoy know
forgive me if this is too much of a planned question of but I'm just curious
what you want people to take away from the film I have no plan I'm not gonna
talk about that because we didn't do the film for like I don't know I don't think
that the film has a clear message no you're gonna see your film I'm gonna see
my videos you can see what you want to see which is really good I think there's
no please watch this please be aware of this come on give me my hand and I'll go
show you this it's just like in front of you and you take it the way you can how
you can so it's varicose yeah I'm most in this
film because it's a very multi-layered film in which you can identify with a
character we got attention with and sometimes you'll not or maybe sometimes
YouTube or maybe you're Shannon or another one so it's very open
yeah and politically speaking I think that it's also a very personal journey
that you do in the film some people can be ignited by the film politically
speaking and some others can be just like I'm in love with the characters and
with their energies work but I think that if you are touched by the film in a
very intimate way and not just shocked or you know when
there's like it like when the film pierces you in a very in a more profound
way I think that that's political tone that can create changes and in people's
perceptions but I like answer I like questions not answers films I think I
like films that just make me think yeah and not give me solutions
you