Director Martin Bouboulon and Actors Francois Civil, Vincent Cassel, Louis Garrel & Eva Green talk to The Inside Reel about perspective, control, physicality and motivation in regards to their film (Part I of 2-part film series): “The Three Musketeers - D'Artagnan” from Pathe and Samuel Goldwyn Films.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [music]
00:11 [speaking french]
00:14 [music]
00:25 [music]
00:31 There's such duality and it's a reflection also with the language. I mean I love the fact that
00:36 Louis, you know, you guys are back together after, you know, being in the Bertolucci film,
00:41 which I think we talked, was one of the first films we talked for, but it's all about creating
00:46 that world, but that duality of character. Can you talk about that? Is that sometimes with the
00:51 director that sometimes through other things, the energy between the actors, could you talk about
00:55 that a little? About, you mean the character of Milady or other? No, the dynamics of her with
01:01 everybody else because she has a duality and a mask she puts up for each individual person,
01:06 whether it be Louis, whether it be... Yes, yes, I mean she's a different person with every,
01:12 every character in the movie. With Bertagnan, for instance, she is, it's interesting because
01:18 the relationship is quite complicated because she seems more herself with him. There's kind of less
01:24 acting and, you know, when she gets this opportunity to kill him, she kind of freezes
01:32 and she can't do it. She, so she kind of goes and so that's interesting because you wonder,
01:39 does she have feelings towards him? It's quite ambiguous. With Athos, they share a secret and
01:47 they share some kind of, yeah, a past together. So this is more, yeah, I think she's real but she is,
01:56 she is, yeah, quite, quite harsh with him. Yeah, for sure.
01:59 I mean, in the first film, just to say, I mean, there's such a hopeful respect that you have. You
02:24 don't play him as impulsive, which is good. He's impulsive to a point, but he shows loyalty and
02:29 respect. Can you talk about finding that balance within him? Because you understand that he has
02:34 great admiration for all these men that he's now serving. Exactly. He has a line in the first film
02:40 where he says to Constance at the beginning, I'm going to die, but it's from the hand of a musketeer
02:46 and he's okay with this. He's okay dying, like killed by musketeer. And I would say he's more
02:51 probably, how do you say, impetuous with the King rather than the musketeers themselves. So he has a
03:01 really, really high view of these guys. Yeah. But it's also the aspect of how you guys sort of
03:08 embody them. I mean, the movement, I mean, you were talking about the gray wolf aspect, but it,
03:13 you know, the way he moves and the way he holds the sword is so much different than D'Artagnan.
03:18 I mean, can you talk about embodying it, like the physicality, it has to reflect the emotionality of
03:23 where the character is, what he's been through. Can you guys talk about doing that as far as the
03:28 physicality of the characters? Well, it started very early on. We actually worked on the costumes
03:35 and everything so we could really make clear the difference between each and every character. And
03:40 so we had our own input on it. So we got to somehow, you know, participate to choose the
03:48 colors, to choose the material, to choose even the silhouettes, the hair, you know, and to really
03:55 design each and every character with their own differences. And then after that, of course,
04:02 it really works with the way you actually ride your horse, fight, talk, you know.
04:09 The moustache.
04:10 The moustache. Yeah, everything is actually a hint on who they are really. So it's really
04:15 about designing the characters. And to be honest, I think it's almost the most fun part of it.
04:22 You know, when you make those clear decisions about who they are and how you have this mental
04:29 image and you concretize this image, you know, and then you just have to act, you know,
04:37 with the choices you make, you made earlier on.
04:39 Yes, I agree. This was probably the most interesting part of the preparation,
04:45 like finding the silhouettes of the characters. And actually Athos is a comte, comte de l'affaire,
04:49 like he comes from a noble family, a really high family in France. And my character,
04:54 D'Artagnan, is from a noble family, but they don't have any money anymore. And he's from the
04:58 south of France. So it's not the same clothes when he comes up to Paris. Like, you can see where he
05:04 comes from, the background of the character. So all these decisions were really important. And
05:09 I would say my character is really fiery and he runs into the action. Whereas Athos probably is
05:15 more thoughtful about, he's been through wars, like, like several of them. So he's like really
05:23 picking his shots. Whereas I'm all over the place.
05:26 [French]
05:44 What do you like to know the path? How much do you want to be? Because you're always
05:48 very good at being in the moment. How much do you want to keep spontaneous in any given scene?
05:53 Obviously on these bigger movies, it's hard to do because it's very specifically boxed. But
05:58 can you talk about finding the instinct in the character that you bring to her?
06:02 I mean, you know, there's so much control in Milady. Of course, you know, on the day,
06:14 you kind of always, it's always a surprise as an actor. You know, you kind of hope that there's
06:19 going to be chemistry with the other actor and some electricity. And I think that the scene with
06:26 Athos played by Vincent Kessel is one of my favorites because there's something quite tragic
06:33 and quite Shakespearean about it. But yeah.
06:40 Does the language help because it is French? Does that create a different dynamic?
06:46 Yeah, the language is quite, it's not old, but it's not modern. So the director was always there
06:55 to kind of make us, he would model us to make it quite straight and to not emphasize and be
07:02 theatrical because that could be the danger to be a bit pompous. So we tried to be, you know, as
07:08 modern as possible in the way we were delivering the words.
07:12 [Speaking French]
07:28 [Speaking French]
07:55 [Speaking French]
07:59 [Speaking French]
08:12 It's interesting. He had both strategy that you see, but he was also ruled by different things,
08:16 whether he's dealing with the Cardinal, you know, with Milady, all these different things.
08:21 But yet you show him as, you know, very sharp at many points too. Could you talk about sort of
08:26 making him not modern, but making him aware in many ways of that?
08:31 Because, you know, the danger when you perform, like when you play a character who has power,
08:37 you know, as an actor, you can be super satisfied to have the power for the first time of your life
08:42 because as an actor, you don't really have the power. So and then you start to, to, to enjoy
08:49 too much to have the power and, and play with too much testosterone, you know. And in fact,
08:53 that I, I start to think that because also he's a king from the, from God, you know, I'm sure that
08:59 he was, I'm sure that he was also very feel illegitimate, you know, to have this power.
09:06 And also very anxious, especially because in the film, he has to decide if he is going to make the
09:12 war or not. And, and, and to decide to, to organize a war, it's to, to decide to sacrifice some people,
09:19 you know, and, and also French people. So it's a very, it's not the thing that I am jealous about
09:25 to have this kind of power. And then I, I decided to play him very tense and anxious all the time.
09:32 And even if he's anxious, he has to hide, to hide it in front of the other one, because the other
09:37 one has to, to believe that he knows what he's doing, what he's doing. So this contradiction
09:43 make this strange character. And I wanted to, to perform as strange, the most strange possible,
09:50 because I didn't want like to have like a virile king, brutal and violent, and that's it. You know,
09:56 I didn't want that. I want like something more complicated.
09:59 He's told of the difficulties.
10:02 Dead and buried.
10:05 You can't let him do that.
10:09 But he's innocent.
10:10 So you want me to declare war on the Protestants?
10:15 And on England?
10:17 The cardinal will do anything to bring down the Queen.
10:28 [MUSIC]