So, here is an approximate translation of the first page... and sorry for my poor english, again...
Jacqueline is a difficult role. Did you call for all your mother's resentments or did you protect yourself ?VP : It's a mixing. The things which come back naturally, it's tenderness, the way you dress a child, the way you look after him... For this, I used my own experience, but I also took the problem in the other side ; I wanted to act a very hard mother, but I didn't want to frighten my partner, Marin.
I was wondering if this little boy, with his Down's syndrome, would be able to forget all is false and being scared. But he's very clever. He managed to make the difference between acting and the reality, even if, from time to time he was stubborn because of his condition. He said : "I'm tired, I don't want to do do that...". But he was blissfull of admiration in the face of Jean-Marc who has got a lot of love for him. It was the same for me, I was not acting. He charmed everybody on the set. The stake, it was to embody this kind of "forestry worker woman" without frightening or hurting him.
(Laughs).Jean-Marc, Vanessa's voice is very different in this movie... Was it conscious ?JMV :We made several readings in order to look for the character. We learnt to know each other. At one moment, Vanessa told me : "Jean-Marc, I think I've found ! I'm going to embody both the woman and the man. I'm gonna imitate you as well". And then, she spoke with this low voice...
VP : But it was not only your voice, it also was the "masculine impulse". I copied that from you.
(Jean-Marc is laughing). But yes, it's logical ! I had to harden my appearance, in order to erase femininity, gentleness
(laughs)...
You say that the final result is stronger that what you've written at the beginning.JMV :That's right. On the set we had "moments of grace". Everyday, we watched rushes on an iPad, even if Vanessa doesn't like to watch herself. I liked what happened after every shots, you had your little smile, your little look... It was very intuitive. And with Marin, we always have to be ready to improvise, going to the left instead of going to the right.
VP :The preparation wasn't very long - three weeks - but it was very intense, in order to find my character, on the one hand, and to work with Marin : let him to meet us and he had to be happy of being on the set with us. (
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His parents were fabulous ; they gave us so many advice, shortcuts... They trusted in us !
JMV :Maybe they allowed us to become his parents, by proxy, and they allowed us to use authority 'cause Marin sometimes was very stubborn. From time to time, we had to be authoritarian with him, but it was in a play atmosphere.
VP : He really liked to play. He has a lot of charisma and humour. We didn't have to do a lot of things. But we have to know that, with Down's syndrom, it does exist a problem to assimilate, so it was very hard for him to remember his text... And we couldn't act as mother and son so easily, and having complicity without knowing how to look and touch each other...
Vanessa, Jean-Marc, why did you get on with each other ? JMV : I enjoy hearing Vanessa, hearing her enthusiasm, her fervour which is burning. I think she really liked the script and her character, and C.R.A.Z.Y touched her to such an extent that she wanted to meet me.
The day I met her, it was here, one of her children caught a cold, a gastroenteritis, something was wrong. She came down, and for the first time, I saw Vanessa who is characterized by humility.
VP :I had not read the screenplay ; I just had seen C.R.A.Z.Y and Victoria, les jeunes années d'une reine, and I liked these films. I didn't come saying : "I adore the script ! Choose me !", maybe Jean-Marc liked that. Anyways I'm not in the demonstration. Every time I went to an audition, I wasn't chosen, I'm very hopeless... So I wasn't here in order to convince him. And, in fact, I was worried, things like that can occur when your children aren't fine, so I arrived with a kind of detachment in comparison to your project
(laughs).JMV :That's right, it's the second time we met that you expressed your wish.
So here is the first part, see you soon for the second !
thanks
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