Jean-Paul Rouve confided the complex work he had to do to play Gabriel Matzneff in the film “Le Consentement”, at the cinema on Wednesday.
Jean-Paul Rouve is unrecognizable in “Le Consentement”. The French actor plays Gabriel Matzneff in this adaptation of the work of Vanessa Springora. In theaters this Wednesday, October 11, the film returns to the manipulative influence exercised by the renowned fifty-year-old writer over young Vanessa, aged 13.
Difficult themes are addressed in the feature film, in particular questions of child crime or physical and psychological influence. In interviews before the film’s release, Jean-Paul Rouve did not hide the difficulty that such a role represented.
Speaking to Le Parisien, he said he started by dissecting the television shows given by Gabriel Matzneff or the newspapers he may have written. “And then I understood that this was only the tip of the iceberg and that I only had the image he wanted to give of himself.”
Subsequently, he meets Vanessa Springora, who tells her own story in the work of the same title, to try to understand the personality of the writer. “I realized that Matzneff had created a character for himself and that it had devoured him. Usually, to build a character, you look for his part of humanity. You try to understand his psychology. There , I had to mourn the loss of understanding.”
Jean-Paul Rouve therefore sought to embody Gabriel Matzneff by being more interested in his image and his physique. “I went through the outside, through the envelope,” he explains to C à vous, Monday October 9. “So I did a bit like he did, he adores himself, he thinks about himself, he looks at himself all the time. He swam a lot, I went swimming. I did UV treatments, manicures. In his book, he kept talking about his weight.”
But playing such a character on screen proved complex for the 56-year-old actor, who did not fail to mention that he could not understand the psychology of the writer. “I didn’t understand anything. I don’t know who it is. It’s absolute evil, it’s a terrible monster. It’s crazy to that point. I swear, it’s dizzying. is scary actually, even when you play it. It’s scary, I tell you.”
What is certain is that this role, as difficult as it is, marks a decisive turning point in Jean-Paul Rouve’s career.
