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(Continued from Page 1) aristocracy. A society wedding is to take place. Dissolute dandy Ryno (Fu'ad Ait Aattou) is to marry Hermangarde (Mesquide), a most virtuous jewel in the crown of the French aristocracy. But many doubt that Ryno will break his torrid love affair with his fiery long-standing Spanish mistress, La Vellini (an outstanding performance from Asia Argento). Skullduggery, betrayal, clashes with societal conventions, and all-consuming passion ensues..... Thank you for giving us the time for this interview. It must get very tiring doing these all day..... ROXANE MESQUIDA: It's my pleasure.... I LOVE INTERVIEWS. Really? ROXANE MESQUIDA: I love it. Even when I have stupid questions or knowing questions. I think it's really interesting because when you love your movie it's really nice to speak about your movie. You realise a lot of things about your movie that you didn't realise about it. It is interesting. And I'm never asked personal questions so..... You are reunited with Catherine for a third time (after Sex is Comedy (2005), Fat Girl (2001)). What draws you back to working with her? ROXANE MESQUIDA: (A highly irritating ring-tone phone alarm begins bleating....) Ah, I need to refocus because it is not my language, so if I have noise like that it's really disturbing. Sometimes it's hard for me to understand. I have to be focused on the British accent. I have no problem with the American accent because I live in New York, but I'm not used to hearing the British accent. I'll try and speak with an American accent... ROXANE MESQUIDA: Please do.... that's a joke. Okay, back to Catherine....  ROXANE MESQUIDA: It's just because I love working with her. We go further and further each time. I really loved this character in the film because I've never played this sort of character before. And I really love to work with Catherine...I learn a lot about me and my emotions and what I can do for a role. It’s really like deep emotion. I read the book first (by Jules Barbey d' Aurevilly) and of course it's a really beautiful story. Even though it's a period movie it's really universal. The interesting thing about this movie is that even though it's a period movie it's really modern. I think it works really well. You don't think of it as modern people playing people of this time. It works and you never think the movie is corny. I think it's really modern and universal. I can't find my words....Was it tiring playing a character locked down by societal conventions, withholding such turbulent emotions? ROXANE MESQUIDA: There are two things that are really interesting about my character for me to play. There is the character in society with her grandmother, with her husband, at the ball or at the wedding. So I had to be really quiet and withdrawn, really like cold and never show my emotions. I felt so frustrated. I had to do all my movements really slowly. I had to be really noble; she's a Countess and a woman. Then I have this scene in the movie when I'm alone and it's really great to act because it's the liberation of emotion. It was really intense. It was two extreme things about the character. I never overact because it's not in my head; it's in my heart. I work with my instinct. Not my head. Catherine advised Asia to watch Josef Von Sternberg's The Devil Is A Woman before filming to get into La Vellini character. Did she advise you to watch any particular movie? ROXANE MESQUIDA: No, Catherine never asked me to watch any movies. It's more about inspiration from painting. I think that's why we get along so well. When I was young, I wanted to be two things. First, I wanted to be an English teacher. Then I started to act when I was thirteen. I studied when I was really young - art and the history of art. I paint a lot. I didn't know when I was a teenager if I wanted to be an actress or a painter. I thought I didn't want to be an actress. I thought every actress wanted to kill themselves. It's so weird. I watched two days ago a TV documentary about that. So many actresses kill themselves. I thought about Romy Schneider and Marilyn Monroe. I thought it was really hard work. I never wanted to do this job - to go to fashion shows, have my picture taken..... I'm not interested at all in that. It's more about expression and emotion. So that's why I really love to work with Catherine. My inspiration is in painting and the paint. The painting that inspires me most is The Scream. Expressionism inspires me. So Catherine would show you specific paintings? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Yes, but this is nothing new. I remember during the Sex Is Comedy shooting I gave her a gift and it was a book about the painter Chaim Soutine. So we have this in common. We don't really speak about it; we don't intellectualize about painting. It's more like inspiration, we feel inside, and very sincere. I don't know if you have this expression...but there is something I hate...Intellectual masturbation? I hate that. That's bullshit. For me, it's bullshit. I shouldn't say these words.... I'm a polite girl. Catherine doesn't speak that much on the set. She doesn't intellectualize the scene. Catherine puts her actors in the emotion of the scene, and then when we are ready she starts the camera and it's action. We never, never act the scene. Not in front of the camera, never. She doesn't want me in a separate world from the scene. Before it's just like the choreography. You have a lot of freedom to move and so on? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Yes, but at the same time we don't move that much. That's an interesting thing about my character is that she doesn't move. I hate those kind of scenes when actors hide themselves; like 'I cry' (puts her petite hands over her face in a mock theatrical fashion). You should never hide when you show your emotion. If you hide, it's because you are not sincere. So the camera is here (close up), so I can't cheat, never. I don't cheat. I don't know how to cheat. It's that simple. Is it correct that you never had any formal acting training? ROXANE MESQUIDA: The first time I went in a theatre school, after the shooting of The Last Mistress. I wanted to go because I'm really interested in learning how people work. I wanted theatre lessons to understand my emotions better, not to learn tricks, and feel more confident with my body. I thought, where is the best place in the world to do that? The most exciting place to do that? And I thought it was in New York. I packed, I swapped my apartment with an American couple in New York and I went to New York for three months. Alone. That was one year ago. I love the city. I live in New York now. As yet you have not appeared in any American films. Has Hollywood come knocking at your door? Is there anyone you'd like to work with? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Well... Okay, Fat Girl was a really big success in the United States so there started to be interest in me in the United States. But I didn't speak English, so I worked really hard on my English. Then I go to this theatre school and I was the only foreigner in this school. It was really, really huge and big progress for me. It's the best way to learn a language. To be alone in a country is really the best. Sometimes you are really slow to learn a language but that's just because you are lazy. Or because it's so boring. When it's funny it's easier to learn a language. So, The Last Mistress was in competition in Cannes, so a lot of agents and managers wanted to meet me. So after Cannes I went to LA and met a really great manager, I think. I had a lot of propositions... sorry, that's not correct. . .I had a lot of offers in Paris. It's difficult. When you've worked with Catherine you can't do stupid movies... like, 'What? What happened?' After a long period of bad American movies, a new cycle of good movies seems to appearing..... ROXANE MESQUIDA: I think it's more exciting to do a bad American movie than a bad French movie. It's more exciting, at least. I think there are lot of great movies in the United States, too - independent American movies. The thing about the United States is that it's open all over the world. When you are in the United States, you can work with anybody; when you are in France, you just work with French people. Why limit yourself to one country? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Yes, I'd like to work in Japan, Spain, Russia.... I'm willing to learn all the languages of the world to work in another country. Any projects with Catherine Breillat coming up? ROXANE MESQUIDA: I don't know. I never know before. I remember we went to London to promote the movie Fat Girl and everyone asked me if we had a project together, I didn't know. Then two months later I did Sex Is Comedy with her so... I never know. I'm sure I'll never know. Where were the scenes by the sea shot? It looks beautiful.... ROXANE MESQUIDA: A small island in Brittany called Brehat. Catherine has a small house on the island. Nobody was there and it's really small. Cars are prohibited on the island. It was so cool. There was only like a tourist train. So all the crew went on this train every morning. It was so much fun. We were totally lost. When I do a movie, it's really hard for me to go to a movie, read a book, go to the theatre because I'm so focused on the movie I'm making. Even with a call to my friends, or my boyfriend, it's really hard for me. I'm really focused and I forget everything. It must be quite tough on the people around you? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Yeah. The thing I really love with Catherine is every time we go really, really far from Paris. We are in our world... only with the crew. I only want to be with the crew when I'm on set. Even if I love my family. How is Catherine after her stroke? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Well she is paralyzed but she is the same. It would be awful if she wasn't the same. That's why it was so important for us to be in competition in Cannes. French people and French cinema has a really weird relationship with Catherine. It's really complicated, but it's too much for them. That started to change because she won in competition in Cannes. She's accepted? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Yeah, it's really stupid because she's still the same. It's taken longer. In the United States and in England, she is really huge, and in France, no. It's so weird. It was intense for us to be in Cannes. When they said we were in competition, I was so happy for her. At the end of the movie everybody clapped and you could tell it was only for her. I started crying and I was like, 'No,no,no...’ You don't really have any scenes with Asia Argento in the film, but did you meet her off set? What is she like? ROXANE MESQUIDA: The funny thing about my relationship with Asia is that I really don't know her. I only said 'hi' to her... and only 'hi’. We only have one scene together. One time, before shooting, Catherine called me and said, 'Don't talk to her. Never. Never.' So, I never spoke to her. Never. I never say no to Catherine and when she asks me something I never ask her why. Never. Because I know that maybe I don't understand but I'm going to understand...one day. I understood first time when I saw the movie. There is this scene when I look at her and she was really there. If the camera was only on my face, she asked Asia to be there. When you look at the scene, you can see in my eyes that I really don't know her. If I knew her before, it won't be the same. You can feel that I don't know her. Did you eventually speak to Asia in Cannes? ROXANE MESQUIDA: No. Because now it's like it's weird. I can't start to talk with her. And you know what? I really don't care. No, no...it's not that I don't care about her. I don't think we are on the set to get along with people. I hate that. It's not a holiday. It's not that; we are on a movie. This is art, and we have to respect that. Of course, when you do a stupid movie, you don't care. But when you work with... for me, Catherine is an artist. So, you have to respect her. Would you consider directing or producing in the future? ROXANE MESQUIDA: Producing films, yeah. Because I'm really good in business. Yeah. I buy apartment and sell apartment. I'm good at business so I know one day I'm going to produce a movie. It's not about me. It's ...sometimes I read really interesting scripts. But because it's not like straight entertainment. Or it's with young people so you can't put a star in the movie. Or it's a really complicated story; they never have the money to do this story and it's so sad. It's really sad that you need a lot of money to make a movie. When you paint, a painter doesn't need a lot of money. Cinema is so much about money now. Everybody forgets it's art. It's really frustrating, sometimes as an actor, in that you really need to express your emotions and that doesn't always depend on you. It depends on the desire of someone else. But I'm pretty lucky in that I have to depend on the desire of Catherine. And interesting directors like Manuel Pradal or Ismael Ferroukhi. Right now, I'm really happy because I've found a solution to express how I really feel: I'm writing a book with my mother who is a writer. It's a book about her and our relationship. It's really interesting because I learn a lot about me and our relationship - because we have a really close relationship. When is that going to be published? ROXANE MESQUIDA: I don't know. I would like this book finished for...the end of the year, but...but it depends on the inspiration, you know? Maybe I'm never going to finish this book, but I don't think so. My mother is very.... I've never written a book in my life, but my mother is a writer, so sometimes I feel like I'm too shy to send her stuff. I live in New York, so I send it by e-mail. Last time I wrote a lot of pages in one night and I sent it and I was like...'Oh..." I'm shy. She sent me back an e-mail, it was so sweet, she said, 'Oh my God, it's so beautiful what you wrote because it's about our relationship.' It's what I feel about her, and I'm really shy about that. - Ian Johnston
The Last Mistress is currently playing at select theatres nationwide and is also available on demand. More information can be found at IFCFilms Roxane Mesquida's offical website is roxane-mesquida.com |
