Eric Elmosnino plays “The Misanthrope” in Montpellier: “To be an actor, it's not bad to do your homework!”

Georges Lavaudant, Éric Elmosnino et Astrid Bas en pleine répétition du “Misanthrope”. NICOLAS NATARIANNI

The amazing actor Eric Elmosnino plays the title role of “Misanthrope” directed by the always subtle Georges Lavaudant at the Domaine d’O, in Montpellier, from January 24 to 29. He answered questions from Midi Libre between two rehearsals.

How was this new “Misanthrope” project born? ?

With Jo (Editor's note: Georges Lavaudant), we had already worked together a long time ago. We met again maybe, I don't know, a year, a year and a half ago, in a theater where I was acting at the time. We said to each other: “I was thinking of you”, “Me too”, it made us laugh, so we said to each other that we should see each other again, that we should do one last one, for the road, like. “Yeah, okay.” He called me back a little late, asking me what I thought of The Misanthrope. “I don't know, I'm going to reread it.” (laughs)

You didn't ask him then why this Molière, particularly ?

No need. The Misanthrope is one of the great plays in the repertoire, and Alceste, for an actor, is an incredible role. There is no question to ask, you have to go for it; you are happy. Afterwards, when the time comes to work on it, it's something else! (laughs)

What does “The Misanthrope” tell you? ?

But so many things! When you read it, you inevitably wonder if you can have affinities with this gentleman, this young man in real life. Besides, I asked myself the question of age: it's good all the things he says, all these convictions, but it's better if it's in the mouth of a young man of 30 who has his whole life ahead of him and who wants a kind of absolute purity and radicality; which can be touching. Afterwards, in the mouth of a guy like me, we could say that he's experienced two or three things, so it's weird that he's in there. (laughs) But in the end, it can also be touching in another way…

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Afterwards, as for telling you precisely what the play is about, we discover new aspects of it every day. That's what's great about a classic like that, if we're serious for two minutes: it's bigger than you, it'll still be there when you haven't been for a long time, and new actors will continue to try their hand at it. So, we try to take it as seriously as possible, and we'll see if, as an actor, I'm lucky enough to have it visit me a little. It seems crazy to say that, but you can't stick your ideas, your moods, to a text like that, it would be stupid, it wouldn't work. We must hope, almost pray, that he deigns to come and say hello to you!

Does Georges Lavaudant let us suspect what Alceste he hopes for from you: disturbing, ridiculous, funny ?

Normally, he would have to be all that because the role contains all that, it doesn't depend on Jo, or me. We try to expand the field of possibilities, to see how far it can go without it becoming something else. Alceste is constantly struggling, angry, against himself, and against the whole world; he is that but he is not only that. He can also be a helpless child. He only speaks sincerity but he can be insincere (with Oronte, at the beginning, for example). There you go, we try to see how far we can go, by taking everything literally and understanding everything we say (which is not so simple).

You've already rubbed shoulders with Molière quite a bit…

… Yes, but not to his Alexandrine pieces, so far, and that changes everything! So my job involves that: a deconstruction to reach the meaning, and the work of the verse. It’s about respecting the music without being trapped by it. You have to succeed in relying on this singular beauty to reach something human. As if we were traversed by these feelings and could only express them in this way. It takes work, you know!

You, precisely, you seem to work all the time, theater, cinema, series, and without exclusivity…

Yes, I did private theater after having done a lot of subsidized theater. At the movies, same thing, in different families, because that's what I liked as a spectator: popular cinema with these actors that you enjoy seeing from film to film. Afterwards, I didn't only do great things but that's not a problem.

We can tell that you like working…

I like working ? Pfff… (laughs) Yes, well, it's true, I like that, but I especially like stories, adventures. There, for example, I didn't want to play The Misanthrope at all costs, it wasn't an actor's dream, I never told myself that one day it would be necessary that if or that… No, it's Jo, it's my relationship with him, the desire to go back a bit of the way together. Afterwards, looking at it more closely, as an actor, we say to ourselves that, all the same, it's not bad to do a little bit of homework sometimes. Yeah, it's good to stick to it. And it's good! (laughs)

Friday 24 (8 p.m.), Saturday 25 (8 p.m.), Sunday 26 (5 p.m.), Tuesday 28 (8 p.m.) and Wednesday 29 January (8 p.m.). Théâtre Jean-Claude Carrière, Domaine d'O, in Montpellier. €10 to €30. 0800 200 165.