Pierre Niney is a little surprised. He is definitely very pleased with the extremely enthusiastic welcome he received at the recent Cannes Film Festival Solution book, a pure comedy by Michel Gondry in which the sweetly crazy filmmaker talks about his own strokes of genius and madness. The 34-year-old actor did not expect this, just as he did not foresee the evolution in the way critics saw him in the role – that of a director obsessed with his neuroses and seeking refuge with his aunt to finish a film.
The general public also seems to have been seduced by his talent for humorous improvisation in “Lol, qui rit sorte”, a televised variation of the goatee game, in which his parody of Thomas Pesquet, a glass jar on his head, was a hit. So many appearances destroying his image as a serious actor, subscribed to sophisticated biographies (Yves Saint Laurentin 2014, which won him the César for Best Actor; The promise of the dawnin 2017) or victim dramas (Frantzin 2016; Save or perishin 2018).
«I’m happy when I have the opportunity to do different things, but this isn’t very originalhe is surprised. In the theater where I learned the profession, it seemed natural and natural to me to want to play Racine, Feydeau and Shakespeare. It wouldn’t have made me happy to limit myself to just one type of character. »
Hilarious and disturbing, annoying and endearing
Especially since Pierre Niney didn’t wait for Michel Gondry or Amazon to make people laugh. As a young student, Virginie Efira is attractive despite all odds 20 years apart (2013) as an actor willing to do anything to land a role in his very imaginative series Casting(s) (2013-2015). «I started with comedy in theater. My first loves are Charlie Chaplin, Jim Carrey, Louis de Funès…”, tells the story of the man who realized his desire to become an actor in acting classes at college before realizing it at the Cours Florent and the Paris Conservatory.
A dream that is also nourished by the VHS of his father, professor of cinema history at La Fémis. «Laughter is an absolutely fascinating and quite inscrutable mechanism. I became very interested in it through conversations with CNRS researchers who were studying humor. We can come up with many theories, but we will never get to the bottom of the reasons for this burst of breathing controlled by our brain. »
Pierre Niney is by turns hilarious and disturbing, annoying and endearing The book of solutionswhere his interpretation leaves the impression of great mastery and improvisation. «There is none, in fact it is very written,” refutes the actor who prepares intensively for his roles with the rigor of the former resident of the Comédie-Française (from 2010 to 2015), interviewing anyone who can help him approach the character in order to find common ground.
“Nobody is funny without being tortured a little”
«Like Michel Gondry, I used to have a little obsessive-compulsive disorder: six months after filming ended, I would tirelessly replay a scene, regretting not having tried this or that. It’s difficult to find a line between passion and obsession. » A need for control that he has moved away from and that may have resulted from his first contact with cinema. «I edited videos from clips of a friend, the singer of BB Brunes. That shaped my vision of cinema and my profession, because when we edit we analyze everything: the direction, the rhythm, the frame. »
Pierre Niney borrowed the words of Lee Strasberg, the famous director of the Actors Studio, who trained the best American actors: “ “You have to start with yourself…but you have to go.”You start with yourself, it’s the least and the best you can do. But we have to take a step towards the other. When I’m playing Gary, Gondry or a fictional character, I think meeting each other halfway is the right balance. »
As Michel Gondry’s alter ego, he manages to show the childish side and the dark side of the character. «Nobody is funny without being tortured a little. This is the price comics pay for having an unconventional relationship with the world, a clarity in the face of the absurdity of the human condition. »
