Five Takeaways from Louis Garrel’s Cover Story

Louis Garrel may have spent over two decades in front of cameras, but he’s spent his whole life on film sets, owing to his father, director Philippe Garrel, and mother, actress Brigitte Sy. That upbringing helped shape him as an actor who moves fluidly between roles, from the romantic leading men that made him a star in his 20s to the historical figures he portrayed in recent films. 

In his Mastermind 20 cover interview with Alex Vicente, the French actor dives deep into the topics of the subconscious and psychoanalysis. Here’s five things that stood out: 

1. He believes his best work happens when a character stops feeling like a construction. Garrel says he doesn’t approach roles theoretically. Instead, he explains, “an actor brings who he is to the role and makes everything he’s experienced available.” 
2. He’s picked up different techniques from various directors, tailoring how he builds a character to whomever’s behind the camera. He describes Maïwenn’s method as almost adversarial to the script: “Maïwenn might not give you any dialogue; it’s up to you to come up with a lot of it so she can pick out three lines that surprise her,” Garrel says. “Nanni Moretti, on the other hand, is very particular about movement, rhythm and the way a scene should unfold.”
3. He enjoys writing complex characters whose motives even he can’t fully explain. Describing a script he’s currently working on, Garrel says of his contradictory character: “She wants to hold everything together, to experience everything at once. She probably doesn’t even know why herself.” He adds that writing puts him in an analytical mode that he loses once acting: “When it’s my turn to play a role, I bring my own neuroses with me, and everything becomes less controllable.”
4. He feels more at ease on a film set than in ordinary life. Asked whether he’s neurotic, Garrel doesn’t hesitate: “Yes.” He goes on to say: “Since I grew up on film sets, this monstrous process of taking reality, recording it and turning it into fiction has become familiar to me.”
5. He’s uneasy with his “sex symbol” status, and shares a piece of advice from Jane Birkin about his nose. Garrel says talking about how others perceive him makes him feel uncomfortable, and that “the day you completely identify with their image of you, you’re lost.” He closes with an anecdote from Birkin, who once told him, “Big noses age better. Look at Serge [Gainsbourg] – his nose is better than Alain Delon’s.”  

Mastermind 20 is available for pre-order now.