Guest on Saturday of "There is not only one life in life", the actor Thierry Frémont returned to his interpretation of Francis Heaulme, in a telefilm broadcast in 2004, and on the long preparation work he had imposed itself. 

INTERVIEW

Impressive, his performance won him an International Emmy Award at the time.

In 2004, the French actor Thierry Frémont had played the serial killer Francis Heaulme in the television movie

In the skin of the killer

, directly adapted from the eponymous book of the investigator Jean-François Abgrall.

And to prepare for this difficult role, the actor had inflicted on himself a meticulous but trying preparation, which he told on Saturday in 

There is not only one life in life

, on Europe 1.

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“Preparing for this role was like a path through social misery, intellectual misery, human misery,” he recalls at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet.

"It was heavy, the journey to reach the character." 

"I had to animate his grin with anguish"

Before the shooting, Thierry Frémont had in particular lined the walls of his apartment with photos of the killer.

Today, he mentions two important aspects of the preparatory work.

The first, physical.

Francis Heaulme "has such a particular physique that I wanted to get as close as possible to what he evokes when you look at him", explains the actor.

"I'll never be him. But I'm trying to get as close as possible."

And Thierry Frémont to evoke the complex personality of the character.

"I understood, by digging into his life with all the information that Jean-François Abgrall had been able to give me, that he was someone who had suffered for a long time (...) who had himself been very afraid. for a long time, who was beaten up by his father, was rejected at school, etc. So I understood that I shouldn't just hit a crazy face, that didn't mean anything. enlivens his smirk with anguish. " 

"We had to get into his head"

After this first job, "we had to get into his head", the actor still remembers, and for that he read a lot the book written by Jean-François Abgrall.

The latter, specifies Thierry Frémont "really supported me. He explained to me how, in his opinion, could react Francis Heaulme in such or such situation".