A powerful social thriller! In Dérapages , a mini-series broadcast this Thursday at 8:55 p.m. on Arte, Eric Cantona masterfully plays Alain Delambre, a former executive broken by six years of unemployment, ready to do anything to find a job. "When I understood how angry I was, I was afraid, but it was too late," says the hero facing the camera at the start of the first episode. Written by Pierre Lemaître after his novel Cadres noirs and produced by Ziad Doueiri ( Black Baron ), Dérapages is a charge not without black humor against a dehumanized system. Telephone interview - Coronavirus obliges, with the star of this breathtaking story of an angry man, Eric Cantona.
Did you read Pierre Lemaitre's novel before discovering the scenario?
I haven't read the novel before, during, or after. I read the script for the six episodes and I loved it. I did not want to read the novel because the adaptation is a work in itself. This is not the novel I was going to have to play, I preferred not to be too disturbed by reading the novel.
What made you want to participate in this project?
I loved the story and the character that I was offered. From humiliation to humiliation, Alain Delambre really has a particular and original trajectory, inspired by the reality of our time.
You shot with Ken Loach, the master of social cinema, you worked for the Abbé-Pierre Foundation, do you choose your projects according to their social impact?
Not at the start! I choose my projects because there is a story that speaks to me and a character with exceptional things to play. Afterwards, there are real similarities between Ken Loach's cinema and Dérapages: a certain vision of society, strong characters and this form of humor that makes you want to cry and laugh at the same time sometimes. Thanks to humanity, humor, irony and self-deprecation can take place.
How would you describe Alain Delambre?
He is someone who goes from humiliation to humiliation. At one point, he finds himself on a bridge at the edge of the ring road, he has two solutions: either he throws himself, or he tries to survive. It reaches a point of no return and let's say it decides to survive in a somewhat extreme way.
You play almost two roles with Alain Delambre with two very distinct physics…
What I like is that from the start, we see the character with this very special look. And then we see him before unemployed, with his family life. We have to wonder what happened? Between the two, it will go through a lot of nuances and important stages…
How did you prepare for this role?
It was the first time that I shot a series and I played a very dense character both physically and emotionally, and with a lot of text to learn. The voiceover, for example, was done in a single day facing the camera and without editing. This represents a lot of work beforehand and on the day of the shoot, you have to be there, focused. When you are tired, you no longer have the same lucidity, you can lose the thread. We worked a lot and exchanged with the director, Ziad Doueiri, upstream. It's energy to win. He had already made series and warned me of certain things.
What do you remember from this experience?
We must preserve our energy capital. It is a long distance race and you should not start as if you were doing a 100 meters. The filming ends late and we get up early, meanwhile, we sleep little but as long as possible. Fortunately, I quickly became aware of the burden of preparation, work and concentration that this represented every day. If I hadn't realized it quickly, I could have grilled myself very quickly.
Does your experience as a top athlete help you in your new acting profession?
For this kind of exercise, yes! I think it helps me. Now, I think he has actors who have not done sports and who also have this discipline. My athletic career probably helped me more in this series than for the rest.
How did you create this alchemy with Suzanne Clément, who plays your wife?
We didn't see each other before the shoot. When we met, everything went very well. Ziad Doueiri really has the gift to choose his cast. When I shot The Second Breath with Alain Cornaud, he said that 80% of actor management was done in casting.
And the remaining 20%?
There are people who have such energy, such passion, such lucidity that they train you. Ziad Doueiri has this incredible passion. It would make you climb trees or jump off a cliff! He has this thing. On filming, he has this ability to circulate energy and make people realize that we are there to work together. He is an exceptional actor director. I can hardly imagine two actors playing in a fiction of Doueiri not having this alchemy.
After this miniseries, would you be ready to play a recurring role in a series?
I really liked this exercise because you can really develop a character over time and have it go through so many different states. I like the idea of the series. So a recurring role in a series, why not! It depends on what I am offered. Everything I've done so far is a gift from heaven!
And what role would you like to play?
I would love to play a role that I do not imagine today! And not necessarily, someone nice all the time. Even a bad guy. In any case, I do not forbid anything. It all depends on the writing, the director, who we're going to shoot it with, etc.
Are you a fan of series? If so, what are your favorite series?
I don't watch series. I hardly watch television. I'm not on the shelves either. I like the world of art, painting and sculpture. I read art magazines and art or architecture books. I love everything that can inspire me. I am also a collector because there are so many things that I like, that I find beautiful and so many people who inspire me, where you feel the flames inside. When you read a beautiful novel, for example, you feel like you exist, wear and lift!
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