From the window of her suite at the Sofitel, Karin Viard has a magnificent view of Mount Royal, dressed in tawny colors, behind the skyscrapers. “It’s the very first time I’ve come to Montreal and I love it,” she emphasizes. I love the architecture of downtown. Not to mention the people here! You are not obsequious, Canadians. I love your authenticity, your unfiltered side. You don’t take yourself [too] seriously… like us in France. »
We’ve seen worse when starting an interview with a movie star. Obviously, Karin Viard is in heaven. In his career and in his private life.
The Polisse actress is in town to talk, among other things, about her next film which will be released in Quebec on January 19, Nouveau Départ, presented this weekend at Cinemania. A romantic comedy written and directed by Philippe Lefebvre, in which Viard co-stars with Franck Dubosc. The film is about the need to accept the passage of time. To age gracefully.
“In society, we often think that to be desirable, a woman must be young. That from the moment she is no longer reproductive, when she can no longer have children, something disappears, fades away, in women. Obviously, this is not true. At my age, I am a better life partner. When I was younger, I was burdened by a lot of things. And it’s the same thing for work. »
However, as she turned fifty, the actress also had doubts and questions, like her character, Diane, a journalist married for 30 years to a pianist (Franck Dubosc). At the beginning of the film, Diane says this line to her husband who asks her if she still loves him: “The two of us are not in love, we are a couple. »
“The film tells the story of this crucial moment in the life of a couple, with the departure of the children, when we come face to face. We have the choice to relaunch the union or to rebuild our lives. Me, in my life, I took the second option. And I don’t regret it for a second,” says Viard, also starring in Magnificat and Une nuit, with Alex Lutz, both presented at the Cinemania festival.
Karin Viard will participate this Friday at Cinemania in a discussion with Antoine Bertrand (she shot a film with the Quebec actor who has become a good friend). The theme ? “Crossed perspectives on comedy in cinema”.
Like several performers, the actress, selected 13 times for the Césars in her career, believes that in the cinema, “it’s more difficult to make people laugh than to make people cry”. “There are several degrees of humor,” she adds. Several levels of play. An actor must be sincere, authentic, not complacent; while never forgetting the rhythm when acting. »
Nouveau Départ allowed her to work for the first time in the cinema with Dubosc, an old friend, whom she met in the early 1980s in Rouen. “I know it by heart, Frank! We met when I was 15. We were part of the same theater group. The company was called… Theater and Mirror. We didn’t choose the name [laughs]. »
Karin Viard loves her job and she does it for the right reasons: “I don’t do it for money or for fame. But out of a need to express myself. I come from a family where expressing emotions made everyone uncomfortable. Playing is therapeutic for me. It’s a way to purge all these emotions that I wasn’t allowed to express during childhood. But it is done with pleasure, with joy. There is no role that makes me leave the set in pain. Even in Sweet Song, where I play a nanny who kills children, I loved doing that! »
