Grégory Montel: "I am fighting against ambient cynicism"<

Grégory Montel immediately slips his pleasure in talking about Chère Léa, at the cinema on December 15. The actor has sparkling eyes and a smile embedded in his face, so we're happy to believe him. In this romance by Jérôme Bonnell, the Southerner plays Jonas, an overwhelmed guy, in love with a certain Léa (Anaïs Demoustier), who we quickly understand that she no longer wants him. The infidel has yet left his wife for her. Too late. Anger, desire, frustration and passion then stir his heart. This whirlwind of feelings leads this anti-hero to push open the door of a café, determined to put his heartache down on paper. Without suspecting that his words will touch Mathieu (Grégory Gadebois), the owner of the bar where he has taken refuge. With Chère Léa, Grégory Montel plays with a nuanced palette to slip into the skin of this subtle character. Here, he is touching and annoying, sensitive, but above all proud, romantic and a bit macho. These variations are particularly important for the one who immediately arouses sympathy. Also on screen in Rose, currently in theaters, and Rebecca, just broadcast on TF1, Grégory Montel told us about his job, his doubts and his realizations.

Why you in Chère Léa? Grégory Montel: Jérôme Bonnell told me "I'm not calling you because you did Ten percent, but because I saw you in L'Air de rien". I shot this film with Michel Delpech ten years ago. He has tenderness and lightness, it is perhaps no coincidence that Jérôme contacted me after seeing him. I am very happy to have had to take charge of this sweet melody that is the scenario of Chère Léa. There is haute couture in this feature film that I find very successful from a cinematographic point of view. I'm proud of it.

What did you think when you saw it? Grégory Montel: I was more surprised. When we play, we try to forget the camera as much as possible. We know where it is, but we don't know how it feels. I was even more excited when I saw the locations, that I understood all the meanings of the things that I hadn't seen in the script. I am an avid reader, a bit of a will-o'-the-wisp impatient. When I discover a project, I am already in the future interpretation. I get excited like a fool. For example, I hadn't understood to what extent all the characters fussing around the coffee were advancing the main point.

How did you build this couple in full rupture with Anaïs Demoustier? Grégory Montel: The way in which we made the film is essential to understand. We're in the bar we shot in and I was sitting in the chair by the window over there. Anaïs was really evolving in the apartment opposite. It facilitated my work as an actor while giving impetus to the film, depth, grain to grind. I had the impression that she was close and when I was writing, I was totally invested in the character of Léa. In the game, I quickly realized how inundated I must be with Jonas' love passion.

What did you write in this letter, if you really wrote it? Grégory Montel: I really wrote it, I can tell you that. I had fun with it, sometimes I got very bored. I wrote 60 sheets, 120 double-sided pages. There were times when I played with the correspondences of Camus and Maria Casarès, others when I did automatic writing. I also settled my accounts with certain characters and with the cinema when the environment swelled me (laughs). It has become my diary!

3 hollow 3/4" bolts 57 to go #LatheInTheLabTalk figured out how to drill steel without shattering bits #SloHand

— Oscar the Orange Tue Oct 08 18:48:34 +0000 2013

Who is Jonah? Grégory Montel: Jonas is very pragmatic. He's a real estate businessman, a guy who rarely holds a pen in his hand. We are in a century where we never stop and Jonas corresponds to his time. There is nothing better than a letter to stop time. This suspended moment is immediately filled by the famous loved one, that of Roland Barthes. By staying at the café, he gives himself time. He hasn't gotten used to it and it's a phenomenal effort for him to stay, to sit down to write this loving passion, to say why it ends, what it tells. We open up more to others when we take the time to stop. This is obviously what happens to him. It's very traditional and yet so well done.

You say empathy is your business. Roles like Jonas get you out of it? Grégory Montel: Yes. I like the idea that this character goes further than some others and that his journey is less obvious. I can't say that it's unpleasant to play eminently emphatic, sympathetic roles. I am personally in the fight against the ambient cynicism. This declinism exhausts me, it too easily leads to barbarism. This is not the time. Some feelings like kindness can be trusted. Cretins aren't the only ones with this. On the other hand, I have complexity like everyone else and yes, Jonas is very egocentric. He could have been an actor... (smile). His narcissism makes him worship the passion that devours him. Is he more in love than passionate? This is the eternal question.

He delights in his sadness...Grégory Montel: Loving his sadness is perhaps his way of taking himself for an artist. Until the moment when he agrees to take time for himself and things come out to the point that a fan of literature like this bar owner says to him "you have things to tell". I recognized myself a lot in this character. I am much more complex than what I want to show. I spend my time doubting my job, my ability to exercise it. When someone says to you "I think you have things to tell", we refuse out of propriety, but we hear it very loudly. Like when we compliment our films, we learn to refuse flattery out of politeness, but it feels good.

Aren't compliments always good to take? Grégory Montel: Yes, but I've been taught so much not to hear them... It's my education. My father, who is a wonderful man, always told me to beware of the seduction behind compliments. When I started this job, he kept repeating it to me. I myself have seen that everyone compliments each other all the time at the end of a film, but I look a little in the eyes to see if it comes from the heart. Very quickly, we see the difference between the bravos.

You also play in Rose, by Aurélie Saada. These two characters somewhat confuse the tracks of the usual roles given to men, between virility and exacerbated sensitivity...Grégory Montel: It's something I really care about. I make sure that there is never an old-fashioned romanticism that comes to take possession of a character. It disgusts me when it drips with good feelings. I don't think I have monstrous qualities, but I know how to spot these things and I try not to wallow in them. My characters in Rose et Chère Léa are very universal, but incontestably, this Jonas would not have been interpreted in this way if it had not happened what has been happening for a few years around the question of feminism and representation of men and women.

What do you mean by that? Grégory Montel: I believe that men are in acceptance. They realize that they have something to give up that can be called domination or paternalism. It's not easy to let go of unconscious processes that have allowed you to be dominant for centuries. We know what we got and what we will lose. Jonas took on these claims just as the actor and man that I am took on them. I myself was an alpha male, a rugby player... I always paid attention to the other, that's for sure, but I got used to this power. It suited me very well! Jonas lets go of something, perhaps pride, to become different. If we don't make this effort, things will go wrong. I'm sure this questioning is starting to take more place. Even if I see that there is still refusal, I want to trust men.