Clotilde Hesme talks about her role and her desire to work in England
As Angéle and Tony prepares for it’s May 4 release in Britain – The Fan Carpet caught up with Angéle herself – Clotilde Hesme, in an exclusive interview with Stefan Pape.
The film, which centres on the turbulent and unlikely romance between the beautiful Angel (Clotilde) and the fisherman Tony is a poignant drama and earnt Hesme a César award for Most Promising Actress.
The 32-year-old French actress speaks of her delight at working alongside her close friend Grégory Gadebois as well as the enjoyment at playing a quite vindictive character. She also reveals her desire to one day work over here in Britain.
Firstly, congratulations on the film and your César award, you must be thrilled with everything at the moment?
It’s good, and I take it. I’m delighted – it’s fantastic for the film, and for Grégory and me. You never know at first when you do something, you don’t make plans about it’s success, we really did this film with our heart and we really did it the way we wanted to do it, with little budget, so it’s great. And you can see that in France, the films that were successful at the awards were not because they were made to a formula, they weren’t planned that way.
Has the reaction surprised you at all – particularly in England?
It hasn’t surprised me much because I knew that Australian people really loved it and I was over there for the film and I knew that it would cross the borders and be universal enough to touch people, and not just French people. It’s really not a French film for French people, it’s universal.
What first attracted you to the role? How did this all come about for you?
It was a long trip to finally working together on this film, because she was not thinking about me at first, she didn’t know who to choose and I was kind of casting director for the film because we were talking about the casting and the film together. It was not for me at first but it was okay like that – I had other projects and we are friends so it was okay, but at one moment she asked me to do it, so yeah I did it and actually I asked her that if she chooses me, she has to trust me – don’t worry I am going to do the job, but don’t tell me any more that I am not Angéle. She was thinking I was too far from this character. She had a naturalistic idea of a woman who comes out of jail and I don’t know, I mean I could go in jail – it’s possible. You don’t need to choose somebody really rough.
The character of Angéle is very complex and has quite a turbulent past – how do you get into the head of such a character and did you have to do much resarch?
I started by researching women who were in jail and I had this idea that when you just go out from jail you need to get your femininity back so I just coloured my hair and I was looking for some clothes, maybe not the clothes I used to wear, so yeah it was about a certain femininity because she has a certain relation to her body. She is very aggressive sexually and other ideas like that. At first you think about many things but when you do it you don’t think any more and just being in the moment and being as instinctive as possible.
And tell me about working with Grégory – you went to school together which is very apparent as you have a wonderful and very sincere chemistry – do you think that’s due to being old friends?
Yeah we are very old friends and for me he is the biggest actor of his generation at the moment – he really is a great actor, he is not only my friend but one of my favourite actors and we don’t need to talk together to have chemistry, maybe that’s why there was little dialogue in the script because Alix saw us together and thought we don’t need to explain anything, it’s going to happen and she let go and just let it happen.
Was it the first time you had worked with Grégory?
We have worked together at the theatre, on stage. And actually Alix saw him on stage when we played together as a couple already and she really wanted to make a film with him.
It’s fair to say your character is quite difficult to like at the beginning, or for at least half of the movie – did you enjoy playing someone like that?
It’s joyful and it’s fun. Actually it is exciting and pleasant and a thrill. To play someone who is unpleasant and not trying to be kind is fun and I love it when people tell me they don’t like her at first, its a good thing because she won the trust of Tony and she won the trust of the public.
What’s next for you, have you got anything else lined up? Any ideas of working in England?
I would love to be able to work in England but I don’t know if that’s possible at the moment, but I am really open to that.
ANGEL AND TONY IS OUT TOMORROW