Arnaud Valois

I’m so ready for this interview. 

Plans for the weekend? I’m going to Nice tomorrow, in the south of France, where I have my second home, for three days. 

AV: What about you?

Oh, my god! That sounds great!

I would tell you that my earliest memories of cinema are those Saturday nights I spent watching classic French films with my parents on the sofa. 

AV: I have many, but I particularly like a film directed by Claude Miller and starring Charlotte Gainsbourg called L’Effrontée.

I like both. What I really like is deep acting, which perhaps I tend to associate more with drama, but I also love comedy. I think the English mix both genres very well. I also think Pedro Almodóvar’s films are great because they have a really cool mix of drama and comedy. 

All About My Mother. 

I would say I’m actually more interested in drama because I’ve done more dramatic roles. But I would love to do a great comedy, but I think it’s very difficult to find that opportunity. 

I think that in Spain they make good horror films, but here in France we are starting to make very interesting films that mix horror and fantasy to deal with such interesting subjects as catastrophes, diseases, insects, animals of all kinds... 

When I was a child I don’t think I knew that. I loved putting on a show, dressing up and doing little performances for my family, but still, I think my first choice was to be a teacher, a history teacher. I really like history. 

I love the Renaissance.

I think more like senior students. Not too young. Then I thought about becoming a French teacher and then an English teacher – it was all about teaching! I was very good at school. I decided to go to a business school when I’m not a business person. Maybe I am more now, but I wasn’t then. Everyone told me I should study law, so I went to school for a year and a half, but it was very boring. I’ve been doing theater since I was eleven, first at school, then at high school and then with a group. We did various activities in a village near Lyon. There came a time when I said to myself that law was too boring. My parents don’t work in show business, so they were worried about whether things would work out for me. I made a deal with them, I asked them to give me two years to try in Paris and if it didn’t work out I would go back to Lyon to finish my law studies. I went to Paris and applied to La Classe Libre du Cours Florent and they selected me. Six months later I was shooting my first short film. So, I didn’t have to go back to law school. 

Where did you go?

Drunk too I guess (laughs). 

That must have been strange for a Spanish guy like you. In Spain the night is always young. But I’m sure it was fun for you anyway. 

At the beginning it was quite easy. I was offered two years of teaching. Every year they select ten boys and ten girls and offer them two years of school. I had my first film with big French stars, even before I finished the first year. At 21, I thought, wow, I’m in the right place. But then things got a bit complicated.  We went to Cannes to present during the official selection, but the reception was not very good. The director, Nicole Garcia, whom I adore, had to revise the film. I lost some scenes and the film was released in the middle of summer. I thought that moment was my big break, but nothing happened to me. I went to Cannes with a big film, a great director, great co-stars and nothing happened in the end. I thought it was my first big disaster in the business, but it wasn’t. 

I started again and made several good films, which I liked a lot. But it was only a few days of shooting and it was very difficult for me not to be able to express myself, to free myself, to complete myself as an actor and as a young man at the age of twenty-five, I had an inner conversation and I told myself that things were not working out, I had tried, I had managed to do very good things for a couple of years but it wasn’t my calling. And I went to Thailand, it was a personal journey, I wasn’t living the life I expected. In Thailand I was only supposed to stay for about three weeks with a friend, Audrey, who introduced me to massage, and I loved it. I didn’t have much to do in France, so I stayed in Thailand for almost a year, learning about massage. I went back to Paris and opened a small studio where I gave Thai massages. I had also learnt sophrology, a relaxation technique. That stage lasted three years before cinema came back into my life thanks to the call of a casting director I had worked with ten years before. I thought he was going to offer me to audition at the studio but he offered me to do a film, a casting call to be in a film. At first I said no, I didn’t feel in the mood to act anymore. It took me a while to decide. I didn’t want to open that box again. But they sent me the script and it was very long so I read only two pages. It was the script for 120 Battements par Minute and I was a gay man reading those lines, those scenes that told a very special moment for the gay community. I told myself I’d be a fool not to try. After a long process I got the part. 

I think the director saw my picture on Facebook and I reminded him of someone he knew in the 90s. It was something similar to a flashback. 

Really?

I remember that during the first steps in that casting process, we rehearsed several scenes, but the director asked me to record a short interview of about five minutes talking about why I stopped acting. What I said in that interview moved him deeply, he told me it was really great. 

120 Battements par Minute is one of those films that really manages to make art, art about politics and human experiences. It was an absolute gift that we didn’t know would get such a strong reaction when we shot it. What we did know is that we were doing something important, that’s for sure. The shoot was not very long but everything was very smoothly, we were protected, maybe by angels or by energy, whatever you want to call it. But something made us connect with a very strong energy during the shoot and the whole group came together. The time we spent together was incredible. I feel very lucky and proud to have been part of that journey, of that cinematic experience. I am still very close to Nahuel (Pérez Biscayart), to Aloïse Sauvage or to Antoine Reinartz with whom I shot my first short film as a director. By the way, I’m meeting Robin Campillo this afternoon for a coffee. That family is still very present in my life. For me it is more than just a film.

Definitely. With Robin Campillo I went to Cannes again but with a different perspective and a very different reception. The film was acclaimed and I spent ten months promoting it all over the world, at many festivals in many countries and I met a lot of people. 120 Battements par Minute allowed me to choose roles, projects, and that had never happened to me before. It gave me the possibility to say yes and to say no, the latter was something new for me in this business.

I don’t think I was ready for all this when I was 22 or 23 years old, at 33 I was ready to live that experience and make the most of it and enjoy it and celebrate it. I think if the success had come before my Thailand days I think I would have been pretentious and even thought I deserved it in some way. That was my attitude at 22 and this business is not easy. I needed to experience what I experienced before I experienced 120 Battements par Minute. Now I am able to feel that every film is a gift. 

I had to close it. After filming 120 Battements par Minute I went back to work there but because we had to spend so much time promoting, I wondered if I should continue with the studio. It was very complicated to combine both facets of my life. Maybe one day I will open it again. I still love massage. 

Yeah, I know that film can arouse feelings and even generate well-being, but massage therapy is something so direct, something that makes you feel so fulfilled when you see that someone comes to you and after half an hour or an hour they feel so much better. That direct contact is something you don’t have when you watch a film and it can be slightly frustrating. 

She is so beautiful and amazing. 

Yes, I totally agree with you. I think that feeling of trying to understand the world is present in most of my projects. 

Yes, I am a very curious person. I believe in human beings, in people and I am very optimistic. I always try to see the good side of people. That’s something that really defines me. 

Still, I always look on the bright side. 

Yes, I have seen Schitt’s Creek. The series wasn’t a big thing in France but it was in the UK. I remember my agent called me super happy to tell me that Daniel Levy wanted to meet me. So, I did a bit of research and realised how popular Daniel is worldwide, but especially in the US. Good Grief was a very different project to Schitt’s Creek, it was something much more dramatic. And Daniel turned out to be funny, sweet and very cute. 

Why not? Maybe there will be some alternatives out there in the near future. Good Grief got attention in the US, Daniel is a superstar. Maybe there is a possibility. 

I think my French cinema icon is Isabelle Adjani. 

There’s an Isabelle Adjani film she starred in in 1983 with Michel Serrault and directed by Claude Miller called Mortelle Randonnée. Those three artists seem really iconic to me. 

I would say my icons are Julianne Moore and Tom Cruise. 

I really like the films he made in the 90s like Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut or Rain Man. In all those films he is a very very good actor. Now he’s more of an action icon but he used to give very subtle performances. 

After the premiere of 120 Battements par Minute she called me from a private number and left a message on my voicemail. 

Yes, I don’t know how she does it. Maybe she’s not human, can you imagine? 

We should look into it (laughs). 

I loved that film. I love Sandra Hüller. Antoine Reinartz, who was in 120 Battements par Minute, is also in Anatomy of a Fall. I think something similar happened with both films, they were released in France and then they went to several festivals, won a lot of awards and became real phenomena. I think Anatomy of a Fall talks in a very interesting way about the dynamics of couples, about women and even about the process of writing. 

You made your own movie in your head.

I understand what happened to you when you saw that film. Some of my friends feel the same way. Still, I think it was a big deal for French cinema and for cinema made by women. I think it has shown that French cinema is in a good moment and that very beautiful and very feminine things are being shot. 

It was amazing, I had a great time, the team was so nice.

I adore Kim Jones who is not only a very nice guy, I also love the designs of all his collections. It’s very subtle, delicate and yet strong, but boy, effortless, yet stylish. It’s the perfect combination. I love it, I love his team. And they’re very sweet. Just yesterday I went to pick out some Dior clothes to wear to this year’s Cannes Series festival.

I try to think about what I like and do it but I also pay attention to what is appropriate for each event and what is expected of me, of a man of my generation, which is maybe pushing the boundaries of masculinity a little bit and trying new things. Trying to have fun and not take it too seriously. 

It’s difficult because I like to change my style and not take it too seriously. My everyday style is very simple: t-shirt, jeans and trainers. But when I have to, I put on a good show. In general, I would describe it as chic and effortless.

I try to be a bit cooler and try colours, but I’m a navy, black and gray kind of guy. I’m trying to change it, and be cooler because it’s a bit classic. 

And he does it so well!

Yes, actually I starred in the advert for a Dior fragrance, Fahrenheit 32 when I was 22. I had to wear a white suit and I was falling from the sky. We shot it in Los Angeles. It was unforgettable. 

It was a deep and intense preparation, especially because I had only two months between the shooting of Good Grief and this new series and 15 kilos to lose. Saint Laurent was very thin at the time, and I had to play him when Jeanloup Sieff took that legendary nude photo of him. Losing all that weight made me embody the character. I also read six biographies and watched about a dozen documentaries about him. I saw all the films he loved and listened to all the songs he adored. I talked a lot with Jérôme Salle, the director, and he helped me a lot. Preparing for a role is one of my favourite parts of my job and this one was especially amazing. The costume designer was also indispensable. The clothes were designed on my body. It’s the first time I’ve been so involved in a character’s wardrobe. 

Yes, a person with whom Saint Laurent had dined several times, but the older Saint Laurent, so it was not really relevant to what I had to prepare.

It was very crazy because Saint Laurent was supposed to be Dior’s first assistant and, perhaps after a long time, to replace him. But Dior died shortly after a heart attack in Italy and it was unexpected. So Saint Laurent had to take on an unexpected position at 21, a real challenge. 

And by the time he was twenty-eight or twenty-nine he had his own fashion house. If you think about it, when you look at the photos of the twenty-somethings who lived at that time, they look much older, more adult. 

I agree. 

In the first fashion show there is a scene where we can see a Saint Laurent défilé. It was a very particular and unique fashion show because they made a very special collection mixing archive pieces and the vision of the designer himself, and while the models were parading, beautiful classical music was playing. I wasn’t in that scene, but I saw it being filmed and I found it very moving. 

But Yves worked a lot with transparencies, there is a lot of skin present in his creations. Also, he was one of the first designers to include black models in his shows. Saint Laurent was very concerned about skin, about sensuality, about making the body speak for itself. 

I can’t say I understand it, but looking at Saint Laurent’s archives from the 70s you can see that he and his Maison were a France’s window into French culture. He was like a singer, a movie star. Yves represented France to Americans, to Asians, to everybody. He was very incredible. 

Now everything is public and shared, staged. You’re right that there used to be a lot more mystery around these people. Karl became a kind of rock star and put on a show every time he appeared, with irony and black humour. He created this image of himself and became very popular. He loved that kind of fame. But in the seventies, it was Yves who was the big star. 

The series is about fashion, but also about what’s underneath fashion, about emotions like rivalry or love. What attracted me to the series was that they talked about the people behind the icons. That’s what really interested me. 

Immense pressure. It was very stressful. It wasn’t until we started shooting that I stopped wondering if it was going to work. Can people really believe I’m Saint Laurent?  It was a major rush. I couldn’t sleep, I read about it all the time. On the first day of shooting, I saw in the eyes of the people on set that it was working and I felt immense relief. And for the first time in my short career it was difficult to go back to my personal life, to my real life after filming. It was a long few months and a very intense character. It was hard for me to be myself again.

You bet!