3 days ago
3
In the space of two years, French actor Tahar Rahim has transformed himself completely to inhabit a pair of drastically different characters, the iconic French-Armenian crooner Charles Aznavour, and Amine, a man engulfed in drug addiction who is dying of a mysterious disease.
The latter performance is the force behind Julia Ducournau’s allegorical drama “Alpha” which world premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday evening and earned an 11-minute standing ovation.
Rahim, who saw his career explode 16 years after a breakthrough performance in Jacques Audiard’s Cannes prizewinning thriller “A Prophet,” had transformed himself before, notably in “The Serpent,” starring as the merciless serial killer Charles Sobhraj. But in “Alpha,” he went to the extreme, losing 20 kilos (44 pounds) for the part, so that he could relate to his onscreen character, Amine, on an emotional level, as well as physical.
“Julia didn’t ask me to go that far, but she needed authenticity,” says Rahim, who stars in the movie alongside Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani and emerging talent Melissa Boros. “When I took on the role, I knew that in order to make it real and organic, it had to go through this physical process,” he says with a striking conviction, sitting at the poolside bar of the Majestic Hotel just a couple hours after landing in his first interview discussing the film.
It took him three-and-a-half months to shed the weight, a timeframe during which he found the strength to promote “Monsieur Azanavour,” Mehdi Idir and Grand Corps Malade’s biopic. That role of Aznavour, which required him to learn how to sing, speak and move completely differently, ultimately earned him this year’s Cesar nomination for best actor. The movie, which like “Alpha,” was produced by Eric and Nicolas Altmayer, and Jean-Rachid Kallouche, also became one of 2024’s biggest local hits with over 2 million tickets sold.
While playing Aznavour represented a daunting challenge for Rahim, the experience of making “Alpha” turned out to be the most spiritual in his career. “When you get into that kind of state of deprivation,” he says, “it transports you to a place, a kind of spiritual dimension where you’re connected, for me it was with God, because I’m a believer, and with creation.”
The movie, which is set in a fictive city, shot in Le Havre, which allowed him to stay in character – something that would have been hard to pull off with his four kids and wife, actor Leila Bekhti, in Paris. “I had a room facing the ocean and I’ve never felt the elements so strongly, never felt the wind and the water in front of me so intensely. Everything was much clearer and more striking,” he says.
Becoming Amine led him develop a form of addiction and a ritual, which came to him in the unlikely form of pistachios and cherry tomatoes. “I was on a very strict diet but I was allowed to eat cherry tomatoes and pistachios in certain quantities at a certain time in the evening,” he says, with a laugher. “When I found myself once or twice without any left, I took my scooter and rode around town at night to get my fix.”
Asked if he would ever consider relying on AI or post-production tools to look the part instead of inflicting himself such an ordeal, Rahim is categorical: “Never in a million years. It’ll mess with your head. I’ll never rely on things like that.”
The actor also volunteered for an association called Gaia that helps marginalized people, including those suffering from additions. The actor says he was mentored by two men who explained to him the sensations induced by drugs, and also allowed him to observe them during their “rituals.” “I was able to observe them, to pick up things on the fly, expressions, a way of speaking, a way of moving and everything. All of that built that part of the character,” he says. “Then you have to fully immerse yourself in the director’s world to bring that cinematic touch and emotion that allows you to stray, come back and invent things,” explains Rahim, who served on the Cannes jury in 2021.
Just like he was struck by Ducournau’s empathy and non-jugement towards Amine’s character which emanated from the script of “Alpha,” he was touched by the work of Gaia. “It offers these vulnerable people a place where they are listened to, where they exist, because they are clearly ghosts on the streets, they’re sick and none of them wanted to end up there,” he says.
He also formed a deep bond with Ducournau almost instantly when they started working on the film. “It had never happened to me before,” he says. “Something magical happened on day one. First day of shooting, first sequence, first take,” Rahim says. “I think you only really get to know a director on the first day of shooting.”
“A working relationship like that is very rare, and when it happens, it really gives you wings,” he continues.
The script of “Alpha” compelled him, he said, because “it’s a family story,” but one “with a certain visual codes of genre films.”They’re Julia’s codes, which are very recognizable from her other work and that’s what makes her such a great filmmaker,” he says.
But Rahim says Amine is way more than an addict, he’s a “fallen angel who’s had his wings cut off.” And yet, he “still has a mission,” which for the actor is “about freeing Alpha,” who is a teenager coming of age in the second half of the film. “They free each other and also Alpha’s mother who’s ridden by guilt, fears and grief and gradually learns how to let go — it’s got so many layers,” he says.
Ducournau and Rahim discovered they were similar in more than one way, including when it comes to the way they tackle work. “Like her, I’m almost obsessive when I work,” Rahim admits. The other thing they have in common, he says, is “the way she approaches her her films. “It’s in the same way that I approach my characters; there’s really something physical and bodily about it. I need to go through the body to get into the head.”
Rahim credits New Hollywood icons of the 1960’s and 1970’s such as Robert de Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman and Marlon Brando, as well as British actor Daniel Day Lewis, for inspiring him to become an actor and continuing him to have an impact on him today. That passion for American cinema led him to become one of the rare French actors to have been leading a truly international career from the start, working with foreign directors such Ang Lee, Asghar Farhadi, Damien Chazelle and Kevin Macdonald, among others. His role in “The Mauritanian” earned him a BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations, among other critical nods in 2021. A year later, he got a second Golden Globe nomination for his part in “The Serpent.”
The actor, who is currently filming “Prisoner,” directed by “Bridge of Spies” screenwriter Matt Charman, in Wales, says working often in the U.S. and in the U.K. has taught him to approach work in a different way “because it’s not the same culture, it’s not the same budget, it’s not the same mythology,” he says.
He says he’s realized that he’s been able to “get into my characters very quickly.” He credits “shooting series” for being “very formative because you don’t have time so there are very few takes, you have to move quickly.” Then, his favorite thing on set is what he calls his “freestyle.”
“Once the director is happy with what he’s got, once we’ve explored everything and it works in every way, then I can let go of everything and we try things,” he says. “It allows me not only to suggest a new take, but also to return to the essence of my profession, which is fun because it’s recreation for grown-ups. I’m a big kid,” he jokes.
After “Prisoner,” Rahim will play Inspector Javert in Fred Cavayé’s adaptation of “Les Miserables,” starring opposite Vincent Lindon who will star as Jean Valjean. The actor says he film will have thriller elements, exploring the confrontation between Javert and Valjean, while being a proper adaptation of “Les Miserables.” “There are seeds planted in the novel that are sometimes under-exploited, from which we can grow different flowers that haven’t been seen yet, in a way,” he says, adding that he’s been talking about the project and his role at length with Cavayé.
“I always need to talk to my directors the way I did with Julia or Fred, because the cool thing about a script is that it’s the first form of a film,” he says. “It’s destined to be enhanced on screen, so it’s still alive, it’s still moving, and we can constantly improve it or give it a different color, a different texture, along the way.”
English (US) ·