INTERVIEW
Nicolas Duvauchelle arrived in cinema by chance. While training in a boxing gym, a sport he practiced at a high level over twenty years ago, he was spotted filming in an Erick Zonca film, The Little Thief. "I really liked cinema and my mother is a real film buff," says Nicolas Duvauchelle, "but I didn't think I was an actor". "I always fucked up at school and I didn't even think I could be an actor," he says.
Finally, in 1999, he appeared in Zonca's film, in the role of Esse. His career is launched. Well almost. To improve, Nicolas Duvauchelle enrolled in theater lessons. "I tried to take lessons but it did not go very well. I have a problem with everything that is school and a little bit also with authority", describes the man in a voice as grave as his face.
Admiration for Benjamin Lavernhe and Pierre Niney
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A small tackle on the theater lessons - "there were a lot of people with scarves who chanted verses, I wondered what I was doing there" - and he finally admits having a lot of admiration for actors like Benjamin Lavernhe or Pierre Niney, "who come from the Comédie française".
And if his beginnings were not easy, the former boxer was quickly attracted by a profession made of meeting and lack of routine. "The fact of doing different things every day, going to different places and meeting directors and lots of different people, that's what I liked. For that, it's a dream job" .
Triple Caesar
The years go by and the dream becomes reality over the filming. Nicolas Duvauchelle was César for best male hope in 2004 for Les Corps impatients, César for best actor in a supporting role in 2012 for Polisse and finally César for best actor in 2017 for Je suis pas salaud.
He plays the main role in Une sirène à Paris, a film directed by Mathias Malzieu, which hits theaters on Wednesday March 11, 2020.