"Where Movie Critics Get A Taste Of Their Own Medicine"
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AN INTERVIEW WITH:
LUDIVINE SAGNIER
by Peter Sobczynski

July 3, 2003

Remember the classic moment at the opening of Frank Tashlin’s "The Girl Can’t Help It" when Jayne Mansfield walks down the street and causes such a reaction that eyeglasses shatter and milk bottles explode? When gorgeous French actress Ludivine Sagnier walks into a Chicago hotel room to talk about her new film, "Swimming Pool", pretty much the same thing happens for real. The moment that she opens the door and walks in, the fire alarm suddenly goes off with a wail.

Of course, once you see the film (or even just the poster, in which her bikini-clad figure is the central image), it is hard to blame the alarm for such a reaction. In the film, which is now being released in America after its highly-praised premiere at the recent Cannes Film Festival, she plays Julie, a flighty young sexpot who goes off to the South of France to spend the summer at the home of her absent father, not realizing that he has loaned the place to Sarah, a repressed British mystery writer (Charlotte Rampling) looking to recharge her creative batteries. At first, the two are at odds with each other-Julie believes that Sarah is a dull stick-in-the-mud while Sarah is aghast by Julie’s blatant sexuality and crude behavior-but they begin to change their personalities in surprising ways after a series of mysterious events begin to occur.

Because Sagnier is undeniably attractive and spends a lot of the film in various states of undress (even when fully clothed, there is something unsettlingly lewd about the character), it would be easy to dismiss the character and the actress as just another pretty face but to do so would be a serious discredit to Sagnier. The role requires more than just a simple modeling job if the film is to succeed and Sagnier is an actress deft and clever enough to keep up with the surprising twists thrown her way by director Francois Ozon (with whom she has previously worked on "Water Drops on Burning Rocks" and last year’s acclaimed musical-mystery goof "8 Women"). "Swimming Pool" is one of the smartest films of the year and a good share of the credit for its success goes to Sagnier.

Eventually, the fire alarm dies down and we sit down to talk about the film, the aspects that she loves about it, the aspects that the American press seems to love to dwell on and she even spills a bean or two about her next film, this winter’s adaptation of "Peter Pan"-a film in which she will be doing an about-face by taking on the role of Tinker Bell.

What got you interested in acting in the first place?

I started acting when I was eight when I took some classes with my sister and I loved it because it was the easiest way of expressing things-my family works in classical music and for me, classical music was hard because I had to learn the language. In theater, all I had to do was read in order to have fun. I did this without any ambition of being an actress, I did it because it was fun at the beginning and I never stopped.

Since there aren’t that many child actors in France, a lot of casting directors would come to my workshop and pick up kids to do auditions. My first movie part was when I was eight and I really enjoyed it-it was better than summer camp. It was only when I was in university and had to pass exams-I was studying French literature-and there was a day when I had to choose between a theater tour and some exams and I chose the theater tour.

How would you describe Julie, the character that you play in "Swimming Pool"?

Julie is a young girl, a typical young girl from the South of France, very laid-back and comfortable with her body and aggressive in a sexual way. She is very provocative, especially in front of Sarah {the Charlotte Rampling character}, who is very stiff and obsessed with her own frustrations. At the beginning, she isn’t very appealing, humanly speaking, but as the movie goes and Sarah gets more interested in her, she becomes more vulnerable and the more attention she gets from Sarah, the more she opens herself up and becomes deeper.

The films of Francois Ozon, with whom you have worked three times, have, in the past, been divided between highly stylized works like "Sitcom" and "8 Women" and more straightforward and realistic films like "Under the Sand" and one of the fascinating things about "Swimming Pool" is the way that it manages to seamlessly join together both of those approaches into one story...

That was the real test of Francois’ work, to get the two sides of his work to join together-that was very important for him. I think that "Swimming Pool" is one of the most personal movies he has done because he is hiding himself behind the idea of this writer and maybe the swimming pool is a metaphor of a movie screen. He has himself as a writer and shows how he deals with creation, The fact that I had worked for him in "8 Women" and "Water Drops on Burning Rocks", which belonged to this artificial and very stylized and sexual side to his work and that Charlotte had been in "Under the Sand", it was very much a junction of these two sides and allowed him to take a new track.

How has your actor-director relationship with Ozon evolved over the course of the three films that you have done together?

On the set, even though he knows everything that he wants and he has his ideas about the direction of the movie, he keeps things very mysterious-especially about the plot. He keeps things light and very childish, though , because for him, making movies is almost like a game. Even though he deals mostly with crime and violent sexuality, he talks about it very lightly. He has a very special way in which he directs with me because when we met, I was not that serious. I think he likes to play with me and mold me like a sculpture and he will put me in different outfits, different universes and different situations like a little boy would play with a doll.

In "Swimming Pool", he directed me in a very covert way because I was very anxious regarding my character. I wasn’t sure if I should if I should play her like she was a real thing or a ghost-I had tons of questions and Francois would not answer any of them! He kept very secretive and very mysterious and I thought he was being very selfish and that he didn’t care about me. I felt very lonely and I didn’t know what to do with her and I had this weight on my shoulders. I didn’t know if she looked like me or if I should put my own things into her. I didn’t know anything and he did all of that on purpose. He kept the mystery so that I would feel lost because Julie needed to feel lost.

In terms of acting, what was it like going from an ensemble piece like "8 Women", where you were sharing the screening with such people as Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert and Emmanuelle Beart, to "Swimming Pool", which is essentially a two-character piece for you and Charlotte Rampling?

I would say that the shooting was much more relaxed. Of course, with all those actresses, the whole organization of the set was different. We were shooting in a studio in Paris in winter and everyone would go home every night, so we didn’t have a lot of time together unless we were in the same scene. With "Swimming Pool", we shot it in the South of France, where the weather was gorgeous and the crew was smaller.

Charlotte Rampling is someone who is very simple and quiet and doesn’t require any particular stuff, so she is very easy to work with and she is also a stunning woman. I felt it was a lot easier to work with her. I had been through "8 Women" and had met big stars already, so I wasn’t intimidated by Charlotte. I knew that she had already worked with Francois before so it was like she was part of the family.

In "8 Women", you were playing a plain tomboy type while in "Swimming Pool", you get to play the classic sex-bomb type. What was it like going from one extreme character type to another?

I always like to go from one extreme to another-that is what I like about playing parts. Getting surprised by the characters allows you to do different things and to surprise other people as well. I like to change physical aspects and I feel like a different person and that is a very powerful feeling.

Not counting such aspects as nudity, did you find it more difficult playing a sexpot character?

I remember that I had a lot of work preparing for "8 Women" because my character was supposed to be 15, so I had to create a very boyish silhouette and attitude. You know how adolescents are-their shoulders are always in. Playing in "8 Women" and playing Julie in "Swimming Pool" took the same level of composition. It is true that with "Swimming Pool", the composition becomes much more the target of fantasy so in a way, there is more responsibility. I had to work out a lot to be comfortable with my body so that when I looked in the mirror, I wouldn’t see Ludivine-I would see the character of Julie and her scars and pains and lightness. It wasn’t that easy because I didn’t recognize myself.

Did you find that people treated you differently when you played Julie as opposed to your character in "8 Women"-not just fellow actors and crew members but interviewers that you would talk to when doing press for the two films?

Not really. I think they were surprised because I am not that sexy and attractive in real life-it was a composition. I think they are surprised but there wasn’t much of a difference.

"Swimming Pool" premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, where it was generally regarded as one of the few highlights in an otherwise weak program. Describe the experience of attending a full-scale premiere at the world’s biggest film festival.

It was huge for me, especially since I had two films in competition. It was a bit of a baptism. I was already a bit known but now everybody seems to know me in France, which is a very weird sensation. Being in Cannes and playing the game-dressing up and doing the press junkets-was a lot of work and took a lot of energy but walking up those steps was something that I will never forget. I remember that Charlotte told me that she once walked up those steps with Tennessee Williams, who had been the president of the jury. The place is so full of history that it gives you almost a religious feeling.

While you are a star in France, you are relatively unknown here in America. While you have been doing publicity for the film in this country, what has that experience been like. Are you treated differently by the press here than in your native country?

The biggest difference is that in America-and you did not fall into this-, the very first question is about the nudity before anything else. In Europe, that is just another question. In Los Angeles, I met with a lot of people and the very first question was always that all the time as if it were the center of the movie, which it isn’t. Of course, it is present but I think it is funny. I am not that surprised because I think that American people pretend to be much more Puritan than they are.

I have been told here-and I didn’t really know this before I came here-that in America, the French have this reputation of being very relaxed with sex. It is funny because while Americans say that, in France we are much less obsessed with our bodies than people are here. I don’t think that America is more pure; there are far more extremes here than in Europe, which I think is more moderate.

Changing the subject a bit, you are playing Tinker Bell in the new live-action version of "Peter Pan" from director P.J. Hogan...

Yes, I am going to get my redemption.

What was it like working on what I presume was a enormous production?

It was unbelievable. "Swimming Pool" cost about $4 million and "Peter Pan" cost about $150 million. "Swimming Pool" had two assistant directors and "Peter Pan" had fifteen! It is huge and massive. There are a thousand people working on the same movie. It is shot very far away and we work fifteen hours a day and we don’t get to smoke in the studio-there are many differences. With "Peter Pan", we have the best people in the world working in every department and doing it was pretty amazing.

-- PETER SOBCZYNSKI

Copyright © 2003 Peter Sobczynski
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