By Marta Balaga
According To The variety French actor Vincent Lindon often plays well-meaning characters. But he can’t take credit for their selfless choices, he stressed.
“When I made ‘Welcome’ [about a man helping Kurdish refugee] there were people in the street who shook my hand and said: ‘Thank you very much for what you do for the migrants. Really, Mr. Lindon, bravo.’ I replied: ‘Thank you, but it’s not me’
“When I made ‘The Measure of a Man,’ they said: ‘You’re really brave.’ They confuse what I do in films with who I am in real life. But my small contribution is that I’m still making them. I could’ve been making bigger films, earning more money and taking fewer risks.”
Speaking at Torino Film Festival, where he’s set to pick up the Stella della Mole award during the closing ceremony, Lindon opened up about what drives most of his choices.
“If a film I’m in can change even one person, if it can change the opinion of someone who’s racist, anti-Semitic or homophobic, then it’s good that I’m doing this job.”
He said that some of his roles have “prevented him from behaving badly in life.”
“I can’t speak badly to those who serve me in restaurants. I can’t go on holiday to Saint-Tropez or drive a convertible. I have to behave like my characters, because there’s nothing worse than making people believe in something yet being the opposite in real life.”
He added: “Famous people like to preach, yet they still use their private jets and eat in palaces. That’s fine, everyone has their own conscience, but then don’t talk to me about carbon dioxide pollution.”
I’m a human being: I am weak. These films force me to be stronger, if only a little.” At the fest, Lindon presented Stéphane Brizé’s “At War,” about a factory strike: “It’s one of my favorite films, and I shot it with my favorite director.” They’ve also made “The Measure of a Man,” which won him a César and an award at Cannes, “Mademoiselle Chambon,” “A Few Hours of Spring” and “Another World.”
He also introduced the audience to Jean Boronat, one of the non-professional actors from the set, who praised Lindon for “being modest yet doing a lot for people outside of films.” “I’m in love with what he represents and embodies.”
Lindon’s no stranger to showier roles, having appeared in the controversial Cannes winner “Titane” and played sculptor Auguste Rodin. He has also recently joined the star-studded cast of Ruben Östlund’s “The Entertainment System Is Down.” However, it was “At War” that “touched him especially deeply.”
My character is a trade unionist, but he’s ready to lose his life, lose his job, lose his family. He’s ready to lose everything to help a cause move forward,” he explained.
“We often say ‘I’d give anything for things to go better,’ but we don’t really mean it. We would give a lot, but not everything. Him, he keeps nothing for himself.”
The role was one of his biggest challenges he’d ever faced as an actor.
“I needed to prove to myself that, despite coming from a bourgeois family, I could still embody him. I had to let go of many things and privileges. I know what it cost me, but I don’t regret it. In fact, it brought me a lot.”
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