My interview experience, by Lidwine

My best friend Virginie and I interviewed two fantastic people: Coralie and David. They are both actors who also write scripts for films. Most pupils in our club haven’t any idea about their future job, so it was fun and useful to discover what it means to be an actor…

Coralie and David were very talkative and funny. Their answers were very interesting. Here are some quotes from our interview with a few comments by me:

Coralie: “To be a good actor, you have to be free and instinctive like an animal!”

I think that this illustrates perfectly the main “power” that a person must have to become an actor. It means that to be an actor you don’t only learn scripts and then recite them, but you have to “feel” the situations, to forget your own personality to understand better the mind of the character that you have to embody. I think that it could be very interesting to be an actor, because it enables you to adapt to every situation, and you can experiment many lives.

David: “Don’t become an actor if you don’t want to become the best.”

The life of an actor is very difficult, because sometimes you earn lots of money, sometimes you do not, sometimes you have a job and sometimes you look for a job. I think that’s true for most jobs: You do not do a job because you want to get lots of money, but you must do it because you like it, because you have the vocation to do it. David has loved cinema since he was 8 years old, because he thinks that listening to stories helps you grow up and understand life. He knew he wanted to be in the movies very early on.

David: “You have to love your job and work very hard.”

Despite appearances, being an actor is not easy. Indeed, you have to learn the script, to understand it, to feel it, in order to give a good performance. There is lots of competition, and if you have to accept to repeat a film take many times. So you have to be very patient too.

David: “It’s a very exciting life!”

When you are an actor you have to move all the time to find a job or because the movie you are making takes place in different regions or even in another country.

Coralie: “Reality is too difficult to bear sometimes…”

If you can’t dream you can’t face reality. Cinema and theatre allow people to escape from reality for a few hours. After, you feel more able to cope.

Coralie and David: “Big cities aren’t a good environment for writers…”

People in the big city are aggressive, too serious, busy all the time. It’s difficult to breath there! Aurillac is a small city, not noisy and stressful, so you can work in a good atmosphere, and you fell more like working.

David : “Our film script is based on a book by Paul Claudel.”

Our interviewees are going to do a movie entitled: “L’annonce faite à Marie”, based on the book by Paul Claudel, which is a challenge; how can one make an interesting film about a story a lot of people find a little boring?! They are going to turn it into a murder-mystery in an old castle…

Coralie: “How did we meet?”

My favorite moment of the interview was when Coralie described how she met David. It was during the making of a movie, of course. One scene took place on a boat and Coralie was sea sick and vomiting overboard. Of course like in a true romantic tale, a man came up to help her. He was wearing a pink top. He was a fellow actor called David. He wanted to cheer her up by telling her silly stories, but in fact he was a bit ridiculous!