“Happiness is so ephemeral. Life is only made of moments.
What family did you grow up in?
“Am I already big? We know nothing about it. The whole thing is only a cycle: we grow up, then we get back over time. I” grew up “in a loving family, in a comfortable environment, surrounded by two brothers. My parents separated when I was 10 years old. But rather that it did not become a problem, it was a chance: my mother met a wonderful man, Jean, doctor, who was like her Any form of theoretical learning.
What values have your parents transmitted to you?
“I cannot formulate it like that. These are things that sweat: I live this with my children too. I like this notion of transmission in education, but it is difficult to be concrete because there is also the invisible, which children are soaring from what we bring them without any realization.”
Your mother feared that you will become a rich unsuitable kid …
“” Riche “kid” is an expression … My family was “comfortable” rather than really “rich”. My mother really wanted me to get a diploma, that I was working. There was no question of hanging out. “
But your studies were complicated …
“A disaster! At school, I missed everything. I presented the central jury once, twice, three times, four times … Then I went to higher schools: each time, they were mind -blowing failures.”
You were dyslexic and, at the time, no one was taking into account …
“This problem was not really recognized. I was considered a very bad student, a dunce. I couldn’t concentrate, I got off right away. I thought that nothing interested me. Then, I met Rudy Bogaerts, who directed the school where I presented my central jury: it is the second person after my stepfather to have the desire. Already a very old person … That said, I started to love mathematics, French, geography thanks to Rudy Bogaerts who made me discover another path.
To describe your world, you often take the example of a vase that breaks …
“Imagine a vase and its universal shape. It breaks, we pick up the pieces. I put them back in my own way, it is a little bit of way. But it is my vase to me. This is another vase, but it is my vase. When I speak of psychology with friends, I always have this fear of having to deconstruct myself to rebuild myself right.”
Your successes demonstrate that you should not be “straight”, perfect as an intact vase to succeed …
“I did not do the university because I had the impression that we were going to put me on rails, lock myself in a universal way of thinking. Now, I was comfortable with my way of doing and being. I had built a building on a little special, a little moving base. My matches glued to each other made me a somewhat fragile species. But I was not in a concrete tower. hut.”
You were fragile, obese, isolated …
“Yes, I was very big. Dyslexia and obesity … I cohated all the boxes that prevented me from getting closer to the people around me. I was withdrawn. I dreamed of being an astronaut, racing pilot, actor. But we are not credible at that age when we say that. I did odd jobs, worked in bars, restaurants. Fabricated in the morning and then sold them in restaurants.
Stéphane de Groodt angry after having made a cruel discovery at the time of the death of his mother: “I filed a complaint”
You have chosen the ravioli. And, thanks to your earnings, you were able to finance the courses of an automotive competition school in France …
“It was a kid’s dream. I think I had no particular aptitude. What I liked was the representation of the pilot, the combination, the helmet. I found that it had a face, that it was extraordinary in the noble sense of the term. And then, I saw that Steve McQueen was a pilot and actor, just like Paul Newman and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Being a pilot – I still won races and championships … – I went to do a comedy course at Cours Florent in Paris. “
It didn’t go very well, there either …
“No, it’s true. But I met a couple of friends, Sybille and Michel de Launoit. We created a troop of actors and set up several pieces. Then, we enrolled in the Improvement League, which will be my fundamental school. I learned to tell stories, to play comedy, to apprehend an audience, to create an decor on the basis of nothing, to find keys to open doors to open doors and to explore all. And thus allow my imagination to develop. “
You were spotted by Canal+ who offered you the “File in your room” chronicle …
“I co -wrote these chronicles with the mother of my daughters, Odile d’Oultremont, who is now a novelist. I had friends who did not manage to answer their children’s questions:” Say, dad, why the earth is round? Why is the snow white? “In total, we wrote and broadcast 170 chronicles. By imagining this program, I felt that I had created something. But it took time. A lot of time.”
What was the click?
“I spend a few years. One day, Christelle Graillot,” researcher head “at Canal+, called me:” We are on Monday, I have a niche on Friday in the morning of Canal+, I suggest you make a column because the Miss Météo is not there. “And there, I said to myself:” I missed my life in fact, as an actor, I will end up as a Miss Metinale Finally accepted and I wrote a new type of text. Because up to 43 years old, I only lived in small trades and motor racing. “
How to keep your head cool when life, in the end, offers you what you have always dreamed of …
“It was the motor racing that allowed me to keep a certain humility. When you get to win a race, a Sunday; the following week, you have to question yourself. Humility is still rare in the profession of actor. But it is essential, it forces you to have a critical look at yourself. Humility is crucial, just like self-mockery. It is complicated, because this profession of actor. The job.
Another rocking point, publishing your chronicles …
“Muriel Beyer, my editor, came to see me by tending me a contract:” I want to edit your chronicles “. I thought it would never work. I was skeptical. Fifteen days later, she reminded me:” We sold everything! “. We reprinted her to reach 350,000 copies for the first. Nothomb and Jean d’Ormesson, me, the dunce, the type which still has no notion of grammar or conjugation today … “
How do you write?
“I write instinctively like a self -taught pianist who learned to play with music notes. Me, it’s the same. I write hearing a hearing. I go back on sentences, on words. For me, each word is a note. And it’s in the ear that I hear if the sentence pleases me, if harmony is beautiful.”
You also say “I like to surprise me”. It reveals a little narcissistic side, right?
“It is not narcissistic because I like to be picked, but I also like that the other picks me up. I nourish the doubt that is in me. It is not for nothing if the piece I presented in Brussels in December is called” a slight doubt “. I like to surprise myself and be surprised by something that will appear. And therefore, there is no narcissism in it. Lose.
Do you doubt about yourself?
“Yes, I doubt me and it reassures me. There is nothing worse than people who are too sure of them. Can I dare a comparison? I love food. I love to cook. I often compare our job as an actor with that of a star chef. A 3-star chef, if he does not doubt what he will do in his pan, he will not keep his 3 stars very long. That his sub-chief is not there.
When you read the comments about you, an adjective is constantly coming back: you are a “nice” type …
“I have a thousand faults, but I think I am a nice guy, so I’m happy to hear this.”
You are 58 years old. You don’t miss a “big” role …
“Of course. The most substantial role I could have in the cinema is in the film” The game “. After the shooting and the positive reception of criticism and the public, I told myself that we were going to offer me new things. In fact, I think that I dragged this way of doing everything, all the time, in very different fields. I made a documentary on the race, on the F1. tray, I’m talking about my dream of opening a restaurant … “
Do it!
“I don’t know … because I doubt it. But it’s an absolute desire. My crazy passion is cooking. But, if I tell you about the other projects I have developed, you will really take me for a very bizarre guy.”
This irregularity in career, in life, that’s what you like, anyway …
“Yes, I find myself in this maze. I can only work like that. In fact, I could not have lived a regular career. There are roles where I do well, others where I do not find myself good. I know that I will never be osalized. I was highlighted at 43, it was very late to make you someone who will have a great career in the cinema.”
Find the entire interview in your Paris Match available in bookstores.