INTERVIEW
In 2019, at the age of 33, Olivier Rousteing is the gifted child of fashion, the talented artistic director of the Balmain fashion house. Thirty-three years earlier, on April 3, 1986, he was born, under X, in the south-west of France. A birth that has placed his life under the sign of paradox: it oscillates between glitter, crackling flashes of his parades and silence on its origins. In a documentary film, Wonder Boy, Olivier Rousteing, born under X , in theaters since Wednesday, he let the cameras scrutinize his quest for identity, his efforts to find his biological parents. Invited Sunday of Isabelle Morizet, he explained where he was in his career.
Cameras to go all the way
With the film, Olivier Rousteing has this hope: "To understand the being that I am today, by looking for my roots, but also to meet, if I can, or to make myself known, of my biological parents." He had already started research at age 16, "at the legal age where I could open my file," he says. But he had backed down at the time. "I was scared, today the cameras were the way to not turn back," he says.
The film crew followed it for almost two years. In his daily life, in the big nights but also in the office of the National Council for access to personal origins (Cnaop) where he was able to open an envelope containing information on his birth, without being given the identities of his parents. This is what the law requires today, a law that he would like to see evolve. "Bringing a child under X is like raising a child with shame, which I find extremely hard for both the child and the woman."
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I think I'm in total control of my life, my emotions and it was an extremely hard time when I let go
But if the content of this envelope has brought answers, it has also generated a new set of questions. He learns that his mother is Somali and that his father is Ethiopian, even though he thought he was Métis. "It's still a mystery, my adoptive mother told me that my biological mother was very dark, the ladies in the orphanage said that the father was white, I grew up with that image. said that my mother was Somali and my father Ethiopian, it was a novelty for me, something of which I am extremely proud today, but that was very disturbing. "
A very young mother, the shadow of a rape
More puzzling, he also learns that his mother was 14 when she was conceived when her father was ten years older and she did not seem to know him well. "I opened a file thinking that I was going to meet a mother, and in fact, I realized that I was seeing a child and that completely changed my approach. protect me and finally, I find elements that make me want to protect her, to take her in my arms, to say that it's just a nightmare, and I realize that I'm part of this nightmare that she has had to live. "
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As a human, hate, his biological father is something pretty hard
Today, there are many questions, including whether it is the result of a consented relationship or not. "Being born of rape rather than being born of love, it completely changes your perspective of life.As a human, hate, his biological father is something hard enough," he slice. Today, he would like to meet this mother who still lives in southwestern France according to the administration, which finally knows more than him about his own identity. "It's a lot of questions, I have no answer, the only thing I want to do is thank her for being who I am."
"Explain to me the why of my abandonment"
He also hopes that she will meet him not out of curiosity for his success, but to "explain why he is abandoned." Every day she gets a shower, where she wakes up, she has a scar. Cesarienne, ed.) which reminds him that at 14 years old, she had a child.This scar, she has it for all her life and it is a wound that is not closed. A meeting would be, according to him, "the only way to close this wound and for me to forget or not to talk about abandonment, it will be as beneficial for her as for me. meet me (...) I hope that one day, she will say yes, "he concludes.