La Rochelle (AFP)
A first album in September and two dates at the Francofolies: Daniel Auteuil launches into the song, at 71, to "pursue his dreams" and because he has "no more time to lose".
"Everything you have just said scares me", launches the neo-singer to Yannick Bestaven, winner of the last Vendée Globe, seated at his side and who has just said that the adventure at sea, "is leave knowing that we will not be able to control everything ".
The two men were invited to discuss their respective trades, in front of about fifty people seated in deckchairs in a garden in La Rochelle as part of the Francofolies.
The navigator and the artist quickly found similarities in their activities.
"On a boat, you have to manage the elements, we, on stage, the elements, it's the audience," bounces the actor.
"To launch into the song, it is an adventure, but I risk the ridiculous one, not my life", he jokes again.
But how did he get on board for the song?
"Two or three years ago, when I dropped a book, I found a note from my mother, + For Dany, my darling son, think about reading this book when you grow up, with his signature and Avignon 1957", says the actor who became a star with the diptych "Jean de Florette", "Manon des sources".
"I first thought that my mother had taken a long time to find me grown up (laughs), then meeting the texts of the poet Paul-Jean Toulet made me want to compose music again, so I took my guitar, in the secrecy of my room, in my caravan during the shootings ", details Daniel Auteuil.
- "In my bassinet" -
The music and him, it's a long story.
"My parents were opera and operetta singers, I heard them in my bassinet, backstage".
In the 1980s, he even released a few singles, dispensable.
"I dabbled in music at that time, yes, you can say that (laughs)" he quipped.
But acting had already grabbed him.
"In Avignon, our family's home port, there was this great theater festival, and I was very quickly drawn to this art".
As a sailor in the Vendée Globe needs a router to guide him, Daniel Auteuil went to find Gaëtan Roussel, ex-leader of Louise Attaque and one of the most sought-after songwriters in France.
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"It's Gaëtan who gave me confidence in my music, arranged them and staged the show I'm going to give", specifies the one who will take the microphone on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Francos.
"Without Gaëtan, we would not have reached this rigor there".
A first title released, and successful, "If you had known me", already gives an idea, with a beautiful clip in black and white (and a few touches of red) in which Fanny Ardant appears.
- "Seconds of vertigo" -
The album which will be released on September 17th is obvious to him: "all my life, I have tried to pursue my dreams and I have no more time to waste".
Is he nervous about becoming a singer?
"It's like an actor, there may be a few seconds of vertigo when you arrive on stage, but then you know what to do."
"It was Claude Sautet (one of the important directors of his career) who told me, + you need 10% talent, and after the rest is energy, that is to say work +, and we worked a lot ".
Will he stop acting?
"No, musician and actor are inseparable in my story, my life, my profession".
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He can't wait to get back to the public.
"We listened to a lot of music during confinement, but it was canned (laughs), what matters is what will come, the essential thing is contact with the spectators, to convey emotions" .
© 2021 AFP