Niels Arestrup: “Some lives are organized trips, others are adventures” [interview]

Died this Sunday at the age of 75, the actor gave us an interview in 2022 for the series Les Papillons Noirs.

Awarded three César Awards for Best Supporting Actor (My heart has stopped beating, A Prophet, Quai d'Orsay), Niels Arestrup died this Sunday, December 1, at the age of 75. “I am extremely sad to announce the death of my husband, the immense actor Niels Arestrup, after a courageous fight against illness. He passed away surrounded by the love of his family“, wrote in a press release Isabelle Le Nouvel, his wife. Première had met him for the last time two years ago, at the Séries Mania festival, where he came to defend the series Black Butterflies.

Interview from March 2022: In the portrait of him last year a few months ago ReleaseRachida Brakni described it as follows: “ With his metallic eyes, Niels has the presence of a Marlon Brando. In an environment where people are talkative, he does not express himself, because for him, speech has meaning.. » It is exactly this man that we discover, firmly anchored in his armchair. With a soft voice and clear words, Niels Arestrup, 73, comes to defend Black Butterflies by Olivier Abbou. The story of Adrien (Nicolas Duvauchelle), tormented author of a successful first novel, who is struggling to give birth to his second. An old man, Albert Desiderio (Arestrup, Imperial), calls him one day to tell him his greatest love story, Solange, the story of a life… Albert's story turns out to be in reality the confessions of a couple serial killers united with life and death. Encounter.

The serial killer is a first in your gallery of characters…
Niels Arestrup: Yes, I was entering into something that I didn't know, even if I sometimes played quite violent characters. Except that there, this violence had a source. These two characters are seriously wounded people who recognize each other and manage to be together, to love each other. Because it is above all a love story. Only a series could restore something of this order. It makes cinema look old and terrible.

In what sense?
Cinema is marked by a certain conformism. There is what we can say and what we cannot say; what we can show and what we can't show. And there, we show everything, we say everything. That said, I am reaching a point in my career where roles are becoming rarer. I understand that it is not always possible to have an interesting old man in a scenario. We need to engage the public with young people, not with old people and their stories that interest no one.

Is it still important to play for you?
Important… Let’s say inevitable. We think we're building our life, except that it's something else that takes care of it: your traumas, your experiences, your childhood encounters… I still had fun. Being an actor means living a few dozen lives, but in small pieces. And never have to ask too many questions about yours.

Does it displace the need for introspection?
Yes. We think we're playing. So okay, let's play. A little. But in fact, we embody. And so it moves inside you. Because we have to find springs, roots. It's a fairly privileged life that allows you to never be in the same state. My father and mother were factory workers, they hoped that retirement would be something different. But when she arrived, around age 65, they no longer had the energy to say to themselves: “ We move, we break up. » The body no longer responds in the same way, the head is tired… We stick with what we have already experienced. And then we leave.

So retirement seems unthinkable to you?
That doesn't exist in this profession. The guy who says: Excuse me, I'm tired, I've seen it all “, that's not an actor. I don't know my next character, I don't suspect the next story. There is always the possibility of something else. Some lives are tour packages, others are adventures.