Titane Star Vincent Lindon Found Freedom In Losing Control [Interview]

"Titane" is a movie about transformation, a concept that Vincent Lindon, a well-regarded actor in the French movie industry for several decades, is familiar with. The acclaimed French star who won Best Actor for 2015's "The Measure of a Man," has transformed himself almost beyond recognition for "Titane," in which he plays Vincent, a firefighter who has long been grieving his missing son — until that boy arrives home one day, in the form of disguised serial killer Alexia (Agathe Rouselle). Lindon has a cartoonishly burly and large physique in "Titane," a byproduct of his character's addiction to steroids and fear of his steady aging. So Lindon, now 62 years old, enthusiastically began working to get into shape two years before "Titane" went into production — even though he barely understood the script when he first received it from writer-director Julia Ducournau.

"I remember when I read the script, I loved it, but I was not able to tell you why," Lindon told me in an interview following the "Titane" premiere at the New York Film Festival. "It was so confusing for me. But the first thing, the first emotion that I got was not going through my brain, but directly in my heart, maybe all the unconscious spot went to my brain, but the conscious one went to my heart."

Lindon immediately said yes to the part, unwilling to let any other actor take on the role.

"I was very, very touched by a man who lost a child and wants to die," Lindon said. "He's afraid of dying, but he wants to die. He doesn't know how to live anymore. And he thinks that there is no more love in the world, and he doesn't love anyone else. And Adrien [whom Agathe Rouselle's Alexia poses as] is somebody who is afraid about living. So one is afraid about living, and the other one is afraid about dying. And those two people are completely lost."

The two characters transform in meeting each other — a transformation that Lindon was more intrigued by than the physical one he underwent.

"We found that most important for me in that movie was about losing control, just to let it go," Lindon said.

I chatted with Lindon about how he came on board "Titane," the strength of familial bonds, and what it was like to cut loose and dance.

So, Vincent, how did you get involved with "Titane"?

Big question.

Big.

You met Julia before?

I did. I did.

So she told you the story?

She didn't actually tell me the story. We talked about the rest of the movie.

Oh, okay. So I used to know Julia since a long time, like eight, nine years. Doesn't matter. We had a friend in common, and I never got lunch and dinner and drinks and whatever. With Julia, watching her as a director, it was always friendly.

So it was completely out of my mind. And once about three years ago, we've been in a place, and we were not drunk, just the state before, two or three drinks, which is just what you need to be happy, enthusiastic. And she went to the bathroom. And when she came out, it was my turn to go. And we just crossed together in the corridor, and coming from nowhere, she said to me, "Vincent, I want to tell you something. I'm writing a script now, for you, with you." And she left. And I said, "What the f**k is going on here?" So I came back, and I was too shy and too shocked to say, "Is that true what you told me?" So I just decided to leave it up like that.

Then the morning after, I called my friend, I said, "Hey, Julia sent me that yesterday. Tell her that she doesn't have... Don't f**k with me. I mean, I'm an actor. It's my job. It's not nothing. It's something." He said to me, "Call her. Just give her a call and see what's going on." So I called Julia, and I said, "Hi, hello, how are you doing?" She said, "Great. Fine." "Julia, yesterday," and she cut me and said, "Yeah, I know. Yesterday, I told you I'm writing a script for you, and I want you in it. Yeah, Vincent. And that's true. It's what I'm doing now." Wow. I said, "Wow. What an announcement."

And after, I think I've been waiting one year and a half for the script, and I finally got the script. And I remember when I read the script, I loved it, but I was not able to tell you why. It was so confusing for me. But the first thing, the first emotion that I got was not going through my brain, but directly in my heart, maybe all the unconscious spot went to my brain, but the conscious one went to my heart. And I said, "Sometimes you don't know why." It's like, when you go in an apartment, and you see apartments, apartments, and then you say, "It's here." "Why?" "It's here." "Yeah, but, I mean..." "No, no, no. I don't care. It's here. I want to live here. It's what I want, my life."

So I read the script, I said, "It's for me. It's me. I want to be Vincent Legrand. And I don't want anyone else, any actors in France doing that job instead of me. Nobody." I couldn't stand to go two years after at the theater and to see someone else in that part. It was impossible. So I just took my phone, and I called Julia, and I said, "It's, yes. Don't ask me why. Just leave me time. It's yes. I'm going to do it. I want to do it. It's me. I want to be him."

And then after, we start working and thinking about how, when, where, and how I get dressed, how I'm going to prepare myself, my body to be Vincent Legrand, and what is possible for me, what is not impossible, but what things I will have to work on a lot. And we found that most important for me in that movie was about losing control, just to let it go. And dancing, like doing the Macarena scene, to accept to be him, just to accept to be him, to be not naked, but very, very... To play with my body, to change my body for the movie. And that's my first feeling with the movie.

Your character has a very strong physique, and I heard that you underwent a lot of preparations to have that physique, especially because it's a character who takes steroids, has a lot of pride in that—

Which is not my case. I don't do that.

Yes. Yes, of course.

It's too dangerous. I'm afraid, and I think it's very bad. So I prefer to do the real sport. But for the character, it's very, very clever.

Yeah. So how did you prepare for the role physically, but also emotionally, because it's a character that is probably struggling with aging, with his own weakness?

Physically, very simple. I did sports... At the beginning, very long time ago, I started two years before shooting, one year and a half. And I did sports three or four times a week. And when we were near the beginning of the movie, like months before, then I did it really completely as a crazy manner, two or three hours a day. That's the physical things, which is... And I run, and I was watching what I eat, what I drink. Like everybody, nothing incredible.

For emotionally, it's... I think that somewhere in my mind, very deep, very deep with my secrets, I think one of the reason I said yes to the movie is because I unconsciously found something, a fear that we share with the character, and that fear maybe is about death, about dying. And maybe reading the script, I saw that to do that movie, to be that guy, it will be obliged to prepare my myself physically. I will be obliged to make me a body. And then it obliges me to change my body to be younger, so to seem younger, and maybe it's my own way to fight against death and to try to prove to myself that I'm still young, which is not the case, because life goes on.

And you can do what you want, and you can make sports, and even, now you are, and I am older now than 10 minutes ago. And that's it. It's finished. It goes like that. It's a train, what goes in one direction, you can't stop it. You got nothing. I mean, everybody knows that. But you can try to find things just to hide the reality for moments. And maybe like the character, not in the same way, not for the same reason, but I found something that helped me during that movie. And the other thing is I care a lot about love, especially love between children and father, which is something very important for me, and which is the most important thing in my life before cinema and everything, before knowledge and staring and the star system and movies. First, I have to feel good in my life, and mainly as a father.

So in that movie, I was very, very touched by a man who lost a child and wants to die. He's afraid of dying, but he wants to die. He doesn't know how to live anymore. And he thinks that there is no more love in the world, and he doesn't love anyone else. And Adrien [whom Agathe Rouselle's Alexia poses as] is somebody who is afraid about living. So one is afraid about living, and the other one is afraid about dying. And those two people are completely lost. She's afraid about living because she doesn't have the love she expects through the father and the mother. So she becomes somebody who doesn't believe in love. So she wants to kill everybody. She's full of anger. And she's going to fall on that guy. She's going to meet Vincent. And both of them, they are lost. They don't believe in love anymore. And they're going to build a new love, something, which is like to repair themselves.

She's running after a father, and she's going to find one. And I'm running after a child, and I'm going to find one. And it's very, very clever, because it's free. In the real life, you don't. In the real life, it's not free, the love between a mother and a son, a mother and a daughter, a father and a son or a daughter. Because it's your son that somewhere we are obliged to love each other's. But when you choose somebody who doesn't come out from you, it is not about genetics. So if you like him, you really like him. You choose to like him. Nobody forced you. So it's something really very, very, very interesting in a movie, the paternité and you say filiation?

Maternal? Parental, like maternal and paternal?

Yeah, okay. Okay.

So let's talk about the dance scene. Speaking of being free and allowing yourself to be free, the dance scene was the big emotional crux of film, and of the dynamic between you and Adrien, or Alexia. Can you talk about what it was like to do that dance sequence?

Yeah, I can talk about that. It was very difficult for me, because, in my own life, dancing, everybody says to me, "Why don't you dance, Vincent? It's the moment of your life, which is more free, you relax. You just lose control." I love dancing. And always I answer, "But it's the worst time in my life because I am not free." I'm shy. I'm crazy about being ridiculous, so I watch myself doing everything. I'm completely under control. So it's something very difficult to do in my real life. But mainly if somebody filmed me doing that, it's quite impossible.

So Julia told me, "I have bad news for you, Vincent. You're going to dance, and not once, but three times. And you're going to be drunk at the same time." And it was really very difficult for me to do that. So I went through the scene. I had to. And I remember my feeling after the first take, I said to myself, "Wow, it's not such a big deal. It's great. And I have 80 people like that watching me doing that, and nobody's laughing." And everybody found that very touching, and very charming, and very sad, and very happy, too.

And it's very interesting to lose control. And losing control 10 times, because we've done 10 takes. 10 times during three minutes, plus when you add that, it's 30 minutes. And when you have a big shock in your life, which is 30 minutes of shock, I mean, you remember it. It's printed in your mind. Because the guy who danced, it's me. It's not somebody else. It's me. It's myself. It's Vincent. I did that, through the character, but it's me. It was my legs. It was my heart. It was my head. It was me moving like that.

So now, I have the souvenir of me doing that. So I remember me dancing, which is something I couldn't do before. And a lot of time in that movie, Julia tried to pull me on the field that I don't know, and that I didn't know before, and to lose control, to be on another planet. And for that, I'm very, very happy and proud to be Vincent Legrand, because it's not every day that you have a gift like that. It's really an incredible part, a character to do in a movie.

"Titane" is playing in select theaters now.