toto: Why do all French actors smoke?
benoit: I think all American actors smoke too.
toto: Really?
benoit: Yeah, they all smoke but they don't show it. Theres nothing to hide in France. We're proud of smoking! No guilt attached.toto: Tell us about La Haine.
benoit: I only played a small part. I participated because I was a friend of the director, and one of the other actors. I was just helping out a friend.toto: How long have you been acting?
benoit: Since I was twelve - my first film was The Life is A Long Quiet River. Since then I've done a play, and as much TV as cinema.toto: What attracted you to Une Minute de Silence?
benoit: It's a story of friendship. I loved being able to work with the director, work the story. It was a tiny film, very low budget, and the director would drive us to the set, each night, in his car. He wouldn't get driven!
toto: Where did you stay?
benoit: In a small hotel. We always filmed at night. For six weeks we didn't see the day! It was like a dream. We would shoot all night, and then go home and sleep in the day. And it was November, so the nights were very long and very cold. Even with the costume I was given, I wanted an armour, like a physical protection against the cold. It was psychological, mostly.toto: How did you feel each time you had to go inside the mine to shoot?
benoit: I was very impressed. Nothing in the world would make me do a job like that. And for the miners, nothing in the world could make them change their job. The image we always have of miners is from the last Century. Today its huge machines. 80 tonne machines, 1200 metres underground ... very scary. But I was with good people so I felt good.toto: Were you friends with the director, Florent Siri, or any of the other actors beforehand?
benoit: I met the director three years before the film. He's 34 years old. I met him for a short film at the beginning. After, he wanted to make a long movie.
toto: This films deals with coal miners who fight the Government. Many films have been made about miners protesting the closure of their mines. Was the film a personal project for Florent, or was it made for the trade unions?
benoit: I think first and foremost a film should always be personal. This film is a homage to a miner because his (the director's) father was a miner.toto: Are there still coal mines in france?
benoit: In 2005, the mine where the film was shot, will be closed down. It is the last one. It is near the border with Germany, in Alsace. For political reasons we had to film mostly in Germany because we didn't have authorisation from the French Government. The mining association (French Govt, not trade unions) did not want this issue talked about, discussed or shown, because it has always been very violent every time there's conflict between miners and the government. Miners are the ones who really fight for the lower classes.
toto: In making this film did you have to live like a miner?
benoit: I prepared the script with the director in Paris, but I knew that in this area of France there was a particular way of speaking the language - a slowness in the way of speech. It's a very old French dialect from that area called the Fransich(?) and that was what I had to learn. I felt so far away from that in Paris, so I thought it was logical to go to meet the people there and get closer to them. The Wardrobe people had already made a suit for my character, so I arrived at the town in costume and just walked around the bars ... using all the physical attributes I was building for the character. I hang out at the bars, seeing the locals, and immediately they started speaking to me in dialect. They thought I was from the area! One day the director introduced me to a miner, and the miner said hello and asked me which mine I worked in! So you can say I was very much like a miner.toto: In the film, Marek is a Polish miner. What sort of research did you do into his background?
benoit: I couldn't learn the whole Polish language as it's very difficult. So I just learnt my lines by ear, and the rest I learnt from the miners. Mines attract a lot of migrants - they come to work in the mines, and at this particular mine there was a big Polish community. I think mining fits the Slavic kind of melancholy.
toto: In this film and also in La Haine I noticed that there is a lot of underlying racial tension. Is it a major theme, a current concern in France?
benoit: Its been a problem for a long time in France. But in the mining towns people don't think about racism. There's more hope for community. Friendship. Keeping their culture. Their background. The thing you notice the most is the solidarity amongst all the miners from all the different backgrounds. It's an extremely difficult job. They're working under very difficult circumstances. What gives them strength is the friendship that unites them.toto: The film has some ambiguous references to the European Union. Is it suggesting that the economic changes are connected to the closure of the coal mines?
benoit: Coal mining isn't profitable anymore. It's all done in Poland now.toto: So is it connected to the formation of the EU?
benoit: I can't really answer the question because Germany is still mining coal more than the French. This last mine that is going to be shut down is actually going to be bought out by the Germans.toto: How do you think the french film industry would be affected by these changes?
benoit: Obviously once the European film industry unites, it will be a stronger power against the American cinema.toto: Does that mean we will be seeing more multinational films? Will you be appearing in German films?
benoit: There will always be coproductions. France is a country that produces a lot of first features, there is a big network in France to support first film makers. It's a long tradition. 180 films a year are made in France. I think that's going to remain.toto: So things are looking up for the French film industry?
benoit: It's a world problem. Every country like mine and yours face this problem, with Hollywood and that. But small films are still able to be made and that's what important. They are still being made and being shown and seen. So that continues despite. Whats incredible is that we've got such a variety of films. Films of different people.
toto: Who do you want to work with especially?
benoit: I cant mention one particular director. I'm very open to the story, to the meeting with someone. But I can say it's Sergio Leone that made me fall in love with cinema.toto: What was it about Sergio Leone?
benoit: Stories of friendship. I'm sensitive to that.
toto: Friendship between men? Like this film, where the world is almost exclusively male -
benoit: Yes theres not that many women in Une Minute de Silence. The director said to me if he wants to talk about women in this country, he would need to make an entire film about her - about women's friendship. But that is not to say that there have not been beautiful stories of friendship between men and women. I'd like to see more of those stories!toto: What attracts you to the stories of male-bonding? Is it childhood nostalgia?
benoit: It's a bit nostalgic, yes, its very much tied to childhood. In a world where a lot of things are going badly, theres a lot of confusion about control. In this film theres a sentence that goes "You can die in the mines, but you wont die alone."toto: Becoming famous at the age of 12, did you still have a normal childhood?
benoit: It didn't change a thing. I kept the same friends.toto: Did you ever want to be something else apart from an actor?
benoit: I wanted to be a fireman, when I was little. I was fascinated by fire, and the idea of fighting fire, and the men who lose their lives to fire.
toto: So what drove you to act?
benoit: Initially I was attracted by the idea of playing other people. That was how I was able to make money initially. Performing came naturally when I was young. I wondered what career was I going to do ... I thought acting was too easy ... that it couldn't be right, so I really started working. But what drives me is being able to do research and finding myself in other worlds. And now being here.
eugene chew
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Special thanks to Tracey and the staff from Tracey Mair Publicity, for organising the interview and supporting the smaller fish like us, thanks to Charmaine for being toto's photographer, and a big shout out to yu-ching lee for transcribing the text.
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