Roschdy Zem’s Trailblazing Journey in Film

Nothing predestined Roschdy Zem for an acting career. The son of a family of Moroccan origin, he worked as a flea-market vendor for 10 years. While he had always loved the cinema, it had never occurred to him to move to the other side of the screen until he accompanied a friend to her acting class one day. There, he discovered a world that quickly drew him in and led him to go to casting calls, at first for roles as an extra. It wasn’t long before André Téchiné and then Xavier Beauvois propelled him from the margins of the film world to its center in the 1990s. Along with Sami Bouajila, he paved the way for subsequent generations of actors from immigrant backgrounds, from Jamel Debbouze to Tahar Rahim, Leïla Bekhti and Lyna Khoudri, proving that what had once seemed impossible was now possible. From then on, nothing could stop him. 

As both an actor (Ma petite entreprise/My Little Business, Indigènes/Days of Glory, Le Petit lieutenant/The Young Lieutenant, Go Fast, etc.) and director (Mauvaise foi/Bad Faith, Omar m’a tuer/ Omar Killed Me, Chocolat, etc.), Zem, who is equally at ease in auteur films and pure entertainment, has had an exemplary career. He refuses to be typecast as a charismatic, solid, reassuring man, instead always reinventing himself and taking on new challenges. 

He recently filmed 13 jours, 13 nuits (13 Days, 13 Nights), directed by Martin Bourboulon, the story of the evacuation of the French Embassy in Kabul in 2021 following the return of the Taliban.

This is one of the most exciting periods of Zem’s career. An actor, writer and filmmaker who is always on the move, he makes the most of it all. Even today, he sometimes has to pinch himself to believe it’s real. 

You’re one of those actors who regularly pop up where they’re least expected. For example, what inspired you to return to action films with Elyas?

RZ Actually, it’s a project I initiated. My colleagues and I often talked about Go Fast and À bout portant (Point Blank), and we thought it was a shame that I hadn’t tried this type of film for a long time. I mentioned it to producer Mathias Lubin, and he suggested to Florent-Emilio Siri – the director of Nid de guêpes (The Nest) and Otage (Hostage), who has real expertise in this field – the idea of tackling an action film in which I would play the lead role.

Why this desire for an action film?

RZ For the pleasure of getting back into the genre, and at the same time because I wanted to add depth to pure action scenes. But also to reconnect with the cinema that drew me to theaters as a kid. My friends and I wanted something spectacular: Bruce Lee, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Chuck Norris, Charles Bronson. I had found myself working in auteur cinema, which I loved, but I never lost the desire for pure entertainment.

Does it require a different kind of acting?

RZ It’s a genre, like comedy, that some people may look down on, thinking it’s easier. But they’re wrong! Because when you play characters with unusual skills, you have to give them maximum credibility. So, my job as an actor was to find authenticity and sincerity in situations where they were not self-evident.

You mentioned Belmondo. Was he your role model when you started out in the film industry in the 1980s, a time when no actor with an immigrant background was a headliner?

RZ I could see Belmondo in my dreams, but I never thought for a moment that those dreams would come true. And, as you say, I didn’t have any examples to refer to directly. At the time, I didn’t even think of acting as a profession. I was just a spectator, a lover of cinema. Over the years, my tastes have become more varied, but at no point did I claim to be an actor.

I was really lucky to arrive at a time when cinema was changing its outlook, when a new wave of directors started making films that resembled the France in which they lived. Otherwise, none of this would have happened, and I would have found that normal. I wouldn’t have felt frustrated at all.

How did your parents react when you told them you wanted to be an actor?

RZ I never told them! [Laughs] Because I never told myself. Once I’d finished J’embrasse pas, I just thought, “Great, I’ll have a VHS of the film to show my grandchildren later!” I thought I was just passing through. I never thought about a career.

One film took you into another dimension: Xavier Beauvois’s N’oublie pas que tu vas mourir [Don’t Forget You’re Going to Die], which won a prize at Cannes in 1996. Did you anticipate that?

RZ Not at all. On the set, I experienced something very special in terms of complicity and friendship with Xavier, but I had no idea that our lives were about to change. After that film, I was in demand from all sides, and I haven’t stopped working since.

And you paved the way for many young artists with immigrant backgrounds like yourself, for whom you’ve become a role model.

RZ Honestly, I’m not aware of it

Have they never talked to you about it?

RZ Yes, they have. But I’m sure they would have made it without me and without Sami Bouajila, who broke through at the same time. And there’s a major difference between them and me: they feel legitimate and in their place, whereas for a long time I suffered from impostor syndrome. On the other hand, when Antoine de Caunes gave me the role of Marshal Bertrand in Monsieur N., I felt real pressure because I knew that if I screwed up, I’d automatically close the door on others. In that case, I was aware of it.

You mentioned Sami Bouajila. How did you deal with the competition between the two of you?

RZ After starting out as rivals, we’ve developed a very strong friendship.

You even gave him the role of your brother in Les Miens [Our Ties], which you directed last year.

RZ When I started out, we always found ourselves at the same castings, but it was always Sami who got the part! [Laughs] He was much more well rounded. He exuded an intensity that I undoubtedly had in me but didn’t know how to express. I had no self-esteem and just accepted the situation.

You acted together in Indigènes, a film that had an impact on French political and social life.

RZ That’s really an incredible story. I’d known the director Rachid Bouchareb for a while when, one fine day, five years before shooting the film, he told me about this project. And I remember telling him I hoped that one day he’d be able to put together a group of actors who’d make it financially possible for the project to see the light of day. Then Jamel Debbouze and Samy Naceri came along and became box-office stars. Rachid was then able to put together a team with Sami Bouajila and me, and the film managed to find financing. The rest is history. It was a critical and popular success, but above all it led to a law that unblocked the pensions of veterans of the French colonies, which had been on hold for 40 years. I even see the film’s poster in my children’s school textbooks. Even in my wildest dreams, I’d never have imagined that!

How did you feel when you collected your special ensemble Best Actor Award at Cannes?

RZ The same way I feel every time I see those images again. We were such a joyous group that the next day everyone thought we’d won the Palme d’Or! [Laughs] There was no arrogance in our approach. We felt we’d just hit the Holy Grail.

Fourteen years later, you won a César as an individual actor for Arnaud Desplechin’s Roubaix, une lumière [Oh Mercy!]. That was another major turning point in your career.

RZ Arnaud and I used to rub shoulders without knowing each other – we regularly ran into each other in the offices of Why Not, the company that produces our films. So, when he came to talk to me about the script for Roubaix, une lumière, I said to myself that there must be a hitch. I was convinced that he wasn’t interested in me; otherwise he would have told me so long before. And now he was telling me that if I didn’t make the film, he’d abandon the project! And yet, right up until the first day of shooting, I was sure he’d change his mind. I had an extraordinary experience with this film. Arnaud took me where I never thought I’d go, with great delicacy. And in the end, I’ve never recognized myself as much as I do in this film. I owe this César in large part to him. 

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