Pio Marmai – How I became a superhero: “Not working exhausts me”

Meeting with a gifted actor and unrepentant hard worker for How I Became a Superhero, to be seen again this evening on TMC.

TMC will offer a special French-style superhero evening from 9:25 p.m., with two recently released films: How I became a superhero (released in summer 2021 on Netflix) and Superhero in spite of himself (February 2022). Première took advantage of the release of the first to take stock with Pio Marmaï (In therapy, The Three Musketeers D'Artagnan And Milady), so very (very) busy.

FIRST: How are you, Pio?

PIO MARMAÏ: It’s not going bad. No, it's going great. I am very happy, very very happy. The recovery, the reopening of cinemas, life in general… When you're happy you have to say it, right? So where do we start?

I wanted to take stock, because we're getting a little lost here…

If I can help you, tell me.

You will be in the Catherine Corsini (The Fracture) who is going to Cannes, you have just finished the new film by Thierry de Peretti (the adaptation of State traffic by Emmanuel Fansten) who could also go there…

Rhooo… I had forgotten that one.

You're just coming off the success ofIn therapyyou start The Three Musketeers, and we come to talk to you about a film finished ago…

Pfff… a year and a half. No two years. It's crazy. Temporality has completely exploded. We have to stop thinking like we used to. It's going in all directions and it's true that we're a little lost.

Isn't it complicated to promote?

No, because I want to keep it simple. The memory I keep of How I became a superhero is very clear and I can relate to it easily. Between the first version of the script that I read four years ago, the production of the film, the delayed release, the Covid epidemic… it was a long and tortuous experience. But when I talk to you about it, what immediately comes to mind is the initial impression. Douglas's ambition, energy and audacity [Attal] which came to offer a very unique reading of the superhero film. I immediately liked the breath and excitement of the group. And then, if Covid has confused everything, I do things one after the other. There is no career plan. From Thierry de Peretti's film to Musketeers, It’s definitely a big gap.

And a good summary of your career, which explores all genres and still goes in all directions.

Hmm. Put it this way, is it positive for you?

Well I return the question to you…

I don't know. (He thinks.) But here, I am at a moment where I am offered the possibility of doing everything. And it excites me to death. Not staying on what you've learned, changing perspectives, always being on the go… Not working exhausts me. I need movement to exist. And, honestly, for several years I have been working with directors who each have their own universe, an exceptional sense of writing and dramaturgy. I have always believed that an actor is only a performer, and I have absolute confidence in the directors with whom I collaborate. They take me on journeys which are not always necessarily great, but which offer a particular dynamic and which nourish me with energy and a sort of powerful fire. When the projects are good, when there is evidence in the writing, when there is a meeting, you do not ask yourself the question of coherence, legitimacy or even the result. You go for it.

Even when it is, a priori, shocking or risky like Douglas Attal's film, a first feature about French superheroes?

Obviously ! Same with In Therapy: who would have thought it would be such a success? We're still talking about 35 hours of programs where people are face to face on a sofa. You will tell me that there was the Israeli series, and that the names of Toledano and Nakache should be reassuring. But I swear to you that, from a rational and objective point of view, it was a gamble. What I liked immediately was the crossing of the language, the device… I wanted to explore that, to test another way of working. Knowing that a few months before, I was on the set of How I Became a Superhero: I was flying attached to cables, I got lasers in the face, and Swann Arlaud was shooting at me in a corridor. It's true, it seems to go in all directions as you say, but what unites what I do is that I try to be as accurate as possible, as close as possible to the truth of the characters.

How I became a superhero on Netflix: an ambitious but unsuccessful gesture [critique]

This was precisely the heart of the In Therapy project. We know you in a leaping register, and suddenly, you spend hours sitting on an armchair in introspection.

And I found sensations experienced when I played in the theater. As in the Peretti, there was a quantity of text to learn and bring out within a very restrictive framework. In the series as in this film, there was an almost liturgical relationship to the word, coupled, in Peretti, with a strange rhythm of filming. No action, no “Motor!” », only sequence shots. I had to work on very long texts for months… It's true that it went against what I did for a long time and I understand that people talk to me about a shift. But it’s a few years old now; I am now trusted for more unique cinema experiences, with what I call more “thickness of language”.

When did this shift date?

From In freedom I think. Rock [Salvadori] offered me a very complex role with very strong writing. There was a very moving sense of language but not easy to develop as an actor. When people saw the film, they said to themselves that I was capable of working in those directions, with that precision. It's really since this film that I have had access to other types of roles, that I explore other worlds and that I cross paths with different artists.

One of the charms of Attal's film is precisely the duo you form with Vimala Pons. A brilliant idea, because beyond the fact that we are all in love with Vimala Pons and Pio Marmaï, your worlds combine wonderfully.

We knew each other and Vimala. We hadn't worked together, but I had seen his shows. I believe that there is a terrain of strangeness that is specific to us. His theatrical performances with his company of circus artists are very funny. His universe has a particular poetic identity. And I have a personal life that's a little off the beaten path with my garage and my other passions. We both went to theater school, we share the same sensitivity to writing and collective work. All this meant that something electric happened between us. And then we're not used to participating in big films like this. When people who come from auteur cinema land on more important projects, they go all out. We really had fun, it was super exciting; this idea of ​​dystopia and superpowers…

It's funny, I can't imagine either of you being superhero fans…

I like Burton's Batmans. Their excessive side, the colors, the pop: it touched me as a child. And then, I love explosions in the cinema. Bazookas especially. I grew up at the Opera in a very spectacular world. I like the Dardenne cinema as much as the big pyrotechnic productions. And what I liked about How I Became… is that a lot of the effects were done on set with cables and machines. There was a theatrical aspect that suits me well, a bit rootsy…

Finally, what would be your analysis of what you embody in French cinema?

I have to clear something… a little… let's just say that it always seems like I'm going to do something stupid. Something elusive in attitude perhaps. (He laughs.) The guy who tells it: “I consider myself elusive. » You can put it as a teaser, it works well for a paper, very salesy. (He becomes serious again.) Insolent, you could say, but I am ALWAYS at the service of what I am asked to do. And then something else that defines me as an actor: for me, the most important thing, what makes a sequence or a film, is the combination with my partners. I'm very particular about that. I try to be a good partner to others. For the rest: why are they coming to get me? What do I embody? I'm a little tough, a little funny and… not boring. Here it is: I'm funny and not boring. Come on, send the films!

Trailer for How I became a superherowith Pio Marmaï, but also Vimala Pons and Benoît Poelvoorde:

“Superhero in Spite of Himself was supposed to be a parody of Jason Bourne” [interview]