The actress and model looks back on her career, her fashion debut after being spotted at the Miss Lumio pageant in Corsica, her acting career and her responsibilities as a mother of 4.
Madame Figaro. – Were you ready to enter the world of fashion at the age of 14?
Laetitia Casta.– In the beginning, there was something too innocent and naive. I had no experience of what it was like to move in front of the camera, the light, the interaction with the photographer… But when I discovered the first pictures, I saw someone else. What we actually call metamorphosis. It was far from reality, transformed by light, staging, make-up, clothes… Seeing this one who runs away from me is the beginning of everything. The agency puts these photos in a little book, and I’ll soon be leading a professional life traveling the world.
You stop school and go from a young girl to a woman in a matter of days.
I stop school, not immediately, but yes, quickly. It’s a risk. (He laughs.) But my parents accompanied me. I had a rather authoritarian upbringing. He was known in the profession. So people were careful. They knew my dad was waiting for me in the car, or was going to pick me up from the studio. And then, I only become a woman on the set. Outside of work, I am still a young girl. What I was with a deep desire to stay.
When I started in the business, people knew that my father was waiting for me in the car or was going to pick me up from the studio.
Laetitia Casta
It’s true, you’ve always said you’re connected to your origins, popular, Corsican and Norman…
Of course, they are very important. But then it’s a bit of a pose within a pose. Because there was a fear in me of losing myself by going too far, right into the metamorphosis. So giving myself a few mantras like that, telling myself “I’m not going to change” allowed me to go further in my work. Since I never aspired to be a model, I could say. “Don’t ask me to belong to you.”
So you’ve given up on any irreversible physical transformation.
Oh yeah, getting my teeth done, for example, was incredible. But to make it easier, I lied. I said: “My parents don’t want me to touch my teeth or my eyebrows…” Although I didn’t even talk to my parents about it. Suddenly there was a response of respect from the other side. Because I took them with me to childhood.
Has this form of ostracism protected you in the competitive world of fashion?
It is not protected from everything, but let’s say it avoided being broken. My true backbone was Mr. Yves Saint Laurent. His talent and, at the same time, his shyness, his fragility… We both recognized each other. Our childish souls (he smiles)it can be said. I was still in it and he had kept it. And then he spoke little, but when he spoke, the phrase resonated for me for a long time. Its infinite culture, opera, everything was a source of inspiration. Fashion was my school. When I arrived at Jean Paul Gaultier, my first casting for a fashion show, I discovered a completely crazy world where everything seemed possible and attainable. He was the first to do street casting, he brought variety to the catwalks. There were cross-dressing men, women with incredible tattoos and piercings, and we talked about everything, went on all political grounds.
My true backbone was Mr. Yves Saint Laurent
Laetitia Casta
Few models succeed in becoming actresses, is it a particularly subtle transformation?
Yes, even if we don’t start from scratch. Play work is done in parades. When Mr. Saint Laurent turned on the music and said to me: “You do what you want” was dizzying, this responsibility, risking the wrong gesture or being on the sidelines, timeless. You have to embody in photography too. Dominic Isserman told me. “Think. Think when you look at me, otherwise you look like a dead fish.” These great photographers that I’ve had the opportunity to work with, like Dominic Isserman, Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts, are directors. But models often have a way of moving with something halting, unfinished, shocking. To go to the cinema, it should be more fluid. And then you have to find your voice. People in the industry were very tough, very critical. Their demands allowed me to go further.
There is also snobbery in these criticisms…
Snobbery is everywhere, all the time. It was in vogue there too because I didn’t fit the criteria… I grew up with it. We learn to let go of what others think. Because, after all, everything is always in motion, everything is constantly moving, I said to myself. these preconceived thoughts will also move. And so it happened. As long as you stay and others go… (He laughs.) Their ideas go with them. The hardest thing is to stay.
You were not satisfied with cinema. it was vital for you to prove yourself in the theater…
Because I felt that there I could find that voice I was telling you about. Where something was going to break. You can’t cheat in the theater. I talked about it with Dominique Besnehard, who was an agent at Artmedia at the time. He gave me a few pieces of advice. Bertrand de Labby (Artmedia Head, Editor’s Note) said: “He’ll never read them…” Here were the prejudices of that profession. So, obviously, that motivated me more. “You’ll see if I don’t read.” I devoured a few pieces and had an epiphany about Ondine by Jean Giroudou. At the same time, I happened to see Jacques Weber in the theater. I admire his talent and creativity. I asked myself if he would like to shoot me in “Ondin”. He said at the end: “Okay, but we’re going to be casting.” This meant that another actress could have the role. Almost done. One day he warned me. “If you really don’t give something, I’ll have to go on without you.” I missed everything there. I let go of the mask, the shyness, the fear of others looking at me. I remember the exclamation of Jacques Weber.
People in the fashion world were very harsh, very critical, but their demands allowed me to go further.
Laetitia Casta
Then you became a director from an actress, today with a new project…
In 2016, I shot a medium-length film, In me. It has flaws but it was well received, we were at La Semaine de la critique in Cannes and then it was bought by Canal+. And I flourished in writing. It’s such a nice thing, this introspection where you feel like you’re using all of your parts. I am currently writing my first feature film with Vanessa Filho, for whom I have shot Agreement. When we met, I immediately fell in love with this woman, her wisdom, her literary power. I had my idea for the film for seven or eight years, I asked him. “Do you want to text me back?” In this feature film, Vanessa will be the co-writer and I will be the director. But he also has an upcoming film to shoot in which I will be acting with Vanessa Paradis.
Have love stories changed you?
Love stories can lead you to the best, with the movement of two people. On the other hand, when a person tried to change me, it was disastrous. Any detention is unbearable for me. With my husband, Louis Garrel, we don’t even ask the question. Freedom is natural for him, as it is for me. Couldn’t have worked any other way.
There is also the metamorphosis of motherhood. Have you always wanted to have a big family?
Yes, but be careful, the child is not coming to make you a wife. I read it in magazines sometimes and it really pisses me off. “The performance of motherhood”, as if a woman exists only by becoming a mother, when it is only an option. To be a woman you need your own space, solitude with yourself. The child does not come to bring this to you, nor can you impose this role on him. I always say “a child is more”. These are people who come with their own world, with their own point of view. My little one came three years ago, he is freed from many things… My eldest is 22 years old, we grew up together, he knows me by heart. They have completely different relationships with each of my four children and they are all very beautiful.
You also have a son and daughter aged 18 and 15. How do you protect this part of your teenage transformation?
It’s special for me because I didn’t live through adolescence, I was directly immersed in work, I never experienced this research. So I look at it as a great thing. bedroom clutter, exploring your own world, “I need your help, but at the same time, no, I don’t want your help.” I find it very healthy. That’s all I haven’t been able to feel, and I say to myself. “What a joy it is to live through my children!” Let them have this opportunity. So I have a patient relationship with it. I am far from perfect, I make mistakes like everyone else, and those mistakes are important. Perfect parents would be a nightmare. But I calmly look at their transformation. The side of this chrysalis that becomes a dirty earthworm, then a magnificent butterfly. It is powerful and very beautiful to behold.
How do we educate two girls and two boys at the heart of the MeToo revolution?
It allows me to look at both sides. The MeToo movement is a wonderful thing. But I do not agree when we try to reduce this violence to the cultural environment or the world of cinema. These dangers are specific to life, and they begin much earlier. In terms of education, everyday life. For example, when we say to a child: “Kiss the lady!” It may seem trivial, but a child is not a tool, you don’t force him to kiss. We have to go back to the root. How have you been educated, how will you be able to defend yourself or not? We are not all equal in the face of danger. For me, if I can fight a predator at 35, it’s because I already have twenty years of career behind me. You can imagine that I have been through things since I was 14 and a half years old. But all the same, these things do not leave the same traces depending on the person. We should have a nuanced space to tell them, and today, when you are nuanced, you are criticized for not taking sides.
Source: Le Figaro
