Isabelle Huppert — Fearless

May 16, 2019
Culture & Music
Photography:
Jody Rogac
Styling:
Jonathan Huguet
Words:
T. Cole Rachel

There are few living actresses more formidable, more celebrated, or more profoundly French than Isabelle Huppert. Over the course of her career on stage and screen, there is nary a genre shehasn’t touched or a type of role she hasn’t had the opportunity to devour. Known for bringing humanity to complicated characters and an almost pathological fearlessness, it’s not surprising that Huppert is so passionately admired. Here, on a brief break at home in Paris between plays, she explains how it is the thrill of new collaborations that continues to propel her.

Left: Leather lace-up shirt, sequin & marabou feather trousers, leather belt & boots by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
Right: Silk dress by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

TCR: You just returned to Paris after spending several months in New York City doing Florian Zeller’s The Mother. How was the experience?
IH: It was great, and I was very happy. It was really a wonderful moment. I was happy with the play, I was happy where I was doing it – the wonderful Atlantic Theater. I loved the play, I loved being in it, I loved the director, and I loved my partners. Totally great. It was just perfect. I was very happy living in New York for a few months.
TCR: When you’re doing a rela- tively long run of a play, does the experience change much over time? Does it feel like a different thing by the end of the run?
IH: Yes. Everybody seemed sur- prised to see how much it changes over time, but in fact that’s what always happens in the theater. It always changes from the beginning to the end; it’s never the same. That’s what theater is about. You don’t know exactly why the change happens – it’s like a mysteriously moving image. You don’t know why it moves, and you don’t expect it to move, but it does move. It’s just the mere fact that you do it over and over, evening after evening. Your connection to the audience is different every evening. It all sounds like clichés, but it’s true. It just creates a very movable, mercurial, experience. By the end we all got a bit more free, so the play is often even better by the end of the run.
TCR: Does that experience take a lot out of you?
IH: Yeah, sure. But the miracle is that it also makes you stronger. I don’t know, perhaps everybody should act. People are rarely sick when they act.
Your energy carries you and you’re focused on that. It keeps you up. Right after I finish a play, immediately I feel sick. I feel a bit better now, because I’m back in Paris already. But I finished the play last Saturday and on Monday I was sick. And that happens all the time. It’s like all the senses drop. The pressure that you have on you doing a show, it creates a kind of defense mech- anism, a great strength, and when you finish doing it, you become a lot weaker.

Lapel cloak, silk blouse, cumber-band wool trousers & pumps all by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

Trailer for Frankie, the movie Isabelle presented at Cannes 2019

Left: Silk dress by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
Right: Wool bodysuit by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

Beaded blazer by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

TCR: You also have a slew of new films coming out soon, including Frankie, the film you did with Ira Sachs.
IH: That was really a delight. I always wanted to work with Ira Sachs and finally got in touch with him. We decided we would like to work together, and he wrote a beautiful script for me. And so we did the film and yes, now here we are. Ira is wonderful. He has a very strong vision of what he wants to do. He’s sweet but not too sweet. You don’t want to be too sweet when you are a filmmaker.
TCR: You also have Blanche Comme Neige coming soon, in which you get to play a contem- porary version of Snow White’s evil stepmother. Between that and Greta, you’ve been playing some deliciously evil characters, which must be… fun?
IH: Everybody thinks I play psychopaths in all my movies, which is untrue. But yes, those roles are a lot of fun. In my opinion, no character is hard to play. Maybe it is hard to watch, but not hard to do.
TCR: Really? It’s hard to think of a film like The Piano Teacher and not think that must have been incredibly hard to do.
IH: I don’t know why it would be hard, you know? It’s hard if you do it with untalented people, but if you work with talented people, I don’t see how it could be hard.
TCR: What is it about your personality do you think that makes you well suited to being an actor?
IH: I think what drives most actors, more or less all actors and actresses, is a great need for attention. They have to admit that, you know. We need this kind of attention. We need to be seen. I’m aware of this when I do a play.
When a play is finished, and I see certain people who didn’t see me in that play, it makes me anxious. I say, “Oh my God, I wish this person could have seen that play.” So there is a great need for being seen, not necessarily to be admired, but just for being seen. It’s a necessity. It’s a need.

“I don’t think about things I would like to do or not do. I think about people I would like to work with, that’s all I care about. ”

Left: Hat, shirt, coated denim jeans & belt all by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello
Right: Silk dress by Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello

TCR: What is it about your personality do you think that makes you well suited to being an actor?
IH: I think what drives most actors, more or less all actors and actresses, is a great need for attention. They have to admit that, you know. We need this kind of attention. We need to be seen. I’m aware of this when I do a play. When a play is finished, and I see certain people who didn’t see me in that play, it makes me anxious. I say, “Oh my God, I wish this person could have seen that play.” So there is a great need for being seen, not necessarily to be admired, but just for being seen. It’s a necessity. It’s a need.So I guess that’s what it is about. And it’s also about pleasure of doing it, because it’s nice, acting is just nice to do. There is pleasure in doing something that you like to do, you know? I’m sure that not everybody in the world wants to be an actor, you have to like it. It’s a great life for me, because it’s being seen and at the same time very solitary. It’s also 44 collective craft. A lot of people are involved. In one way you are alone, but alone in the middle of people. It’s a nice way of living.
TCR: You’ve done so many different kinds of projects with so many different kinds of people. Still, do you ever feel there are things that people typically don’t ask you to do?
IH: No, it’s not my way to think too much about that, you know. I don’t think about things I would like to do or not do. I think about people I would like to work with, that’s all I care about. I can’t disconnect what I do from who I’m going to do it with. So basically for me the bottom line is more about who I’m working with. You can have the greatest role on earth, but if it’s not being done by a talented collaborator, then it’s no good. Most of the time I try to work with great, great people.
TCR: People often talk about the fearlessness of your work. Are there roles that you find particu- larly frightening or daunting?
IH: No, only bad roles can scare me. Only bad directors can scare me. I can immediately see if a role is great or not, and usually the more it is twisted, the better it is.
TCR: You don’t have time to be sick. You have to conserve your energy.
IH: On the contrary, you get a kind of super energy while doing a play. I still see a lot of people, I still do a lot of things, but having to do it all together while doing a play gives me this kind of potent energy, but probably also without me knowing it, it also drains me. That’s why for a few days after I finish a play, I feel like I’m sick and weak.
TCR: Is the theater your preferred medium? Is that where you feel the most at home?
IH: No, no, no, I have no preference. It’s a totally different thing. I can do four movies in a row, it’s okay. I don’t care. It doesn’t really take much of my energy. There is something much more exceptional about the theater. It’s a more exceptional event. So, you couldn’t do one show after the other. Although, for the first time in my life, I have to do two shows now back to back. I’m back in Paris now, but in a few days I will start working on a new show, a piece with Robert Wilson, and it’s a monologue. It’s called Mary Said What She Said by this writer called Darryl Pinckney. It’s the first time I’m doing two shows back to back. It’s not ideal but I have to do it, so let’s see how it goes.
Get your copy of issue 9 here
Isabelle is wearing Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello SS19 throughout
Photography : Jody Rogac
Styling : Jonathan Huguet
Words : T. Cole Rachel
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