“I always go on stage with infinite humility and extreme joy”

Daniel Auteuil is an actor who was nominated 14 times for the Césars and was crowned in the Best Actor category for his role in the films in 1987 John of Florette etc Manon of Sources by Claude Berri and 2000 for The Girl on the Bridge by Patrice Leconte. Impossible not to mention his role in the film, which changed the way we see differences, the eighth day by Marcel Hanoun in 1996, for which he shared the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival with Pascal Duquenne. He is also a director, director and, above all, increasingly an author, composer and performer. We have heard his voice since 1985. First there was May life forgive me and then his album in 2021 if you had known me which revealed more of that voice, but above all this desire to make more music.

His new album will be released this Friday, March 17, 2023, with Gaëtan Roussel conducting, If you’re afraid, don’t be afraid of love. He also tours throughout France.

franceinfo: If you’re afraid, don’t be afraid of love, this one are ten songs to tell the feelings, the emotions. Sometimes they do good, sometimes they bring balance, in any case they raise questions. Love, therefore, seems to be a major element in your life.

Daniel Auteuil: I don’t see what’s better, definitely more constructive. It can be just as destructive but more constructive, allowing us to hold on, to live. yes it is important

Has the inclusion of the pen allowed you to progress further?

When I was a young man I wrote and then time passed. I’ve spent my life saying other people’s words, so I was certainly forbidden to say my own as I thought for a long time I had nothing special to say. In fact, deep down I realize that everything I say comes from an emotion that I’ve already experienced and felt. I remember I got that from Claude Sautet. He told him that there is always a part of the iceberg that is a hidden part of a character that belongs to us.

In the stories I tell there is always a hidden part that is mine.

Daniel Auteuil

at franceinfo

Singing means paying homage to those who gave you life, who showed you the way. In Inconsolable, you sing about moments of sharing with your father. Does it also allow you to relive beautiful moments?

That allows it and above all, this record tells a lot about the father-son relationship in different situations. After going through all these things and now having a young son, when I write stories I can be both a son and a father at the same time. I can tell the story from both ends of the chain.

Does music allow you to discover yourself differently?

I don’t think so. I stayed the same It is always with an infinite humility, a tenderness but an extreme joy that I go on stage and come to make music. It’s something… I did well not to deny myself that.

In this album past and present meet and mix. It is not only a trait of your character, but above all a value that has always been part of your personality, namely knowing where you come from and not forgetting who you are.

What I write are things that come from deep within me, from my experience. It was Jouvet who said this: “JUntil the age of 40 we are dependent on the imagination and the imagination makes the man. But after 40, it’s the man who does the action“So all I’m saying are things that have gone through my body, that I have experienced, that I have felt, that I have seen. Some that I haven’t necessarily experienced, but which shaped me so much that I took them for myself… Sometimes we take away the pain of others, we take away the happiness of others… Certainly there is something that always been there and these melodies and these lyrics… It’s wonderful that people come to listen to me, I think it’s wonderful.

Is the little boy you were proud of the man you have become? Because you say that this record is the Auteuil kid addressing the Auteuil man.

Yes that’s it. He’s the one who… Here I used to sing in front of the mirror as a kid, always careful to dream about things that could really happen to me.

I dreamed big, but not too big.

Daniel Auteuil

at franceinfo

There’s a melancholy side to this album, but it’s a melancholy that’s very positive.

In fact, I’ve always lived as if it were the last time anything was done. One day, a very long time ago, when I was young, I was in a car accident and almost died. And I think there’s an emergency thing that woke up. I remember my father saying to me:Enjoy my son, enjoy“And I was completely gone and I said: But dad, what do you want me to have fun? I can not anymore! Play provinces, play the sound check, see the audience. They’re always surprised, they look at me like that and then all of a sudden they clap their hands and then I make them sing and we have fun. And it’s gay. In any case, that’s what I wanted and do.

What’s also striking in your writing is that contemplative aspect that you have particularly in the song He watched the rainwe have a feeling you’re amazed at everything.

So he watches the rain and at the same time he watches how time passes and time flees. And he asks himself:Have I basically overlooked something?“And no, no, no, he didn’t miss a thing, no date, no role, no love, no story. The only thing is, he knows it’s not going to start again, so he keeps going.

Daniel Auteuil will give concerts on March 18, 2023 at the Casino de Paris, April 7 in Vias, May 14 in Provins and May 4 in Sarreguemines, etc…