A RECOGNIZED AND TALENTED ACTRESS OF STAGE AND SCREEN, CLOTILDE HESME TOOK HOME THE 2012 CESAR FOR BEST NEW ACTRESS FOR HER PART IN ALIX DELAPORTE’S FILM ANGEL AND TONY. THROUGH HER STELLAR CAREER IN ART FILMS SHE’S WORKED WITH THE BEST FRENCH DIRECTORS LIKE CHRISTOPHE HONORE AND PHILIPPE GARREL. SHE TALKED TO US ABOUT THIS EXCEPTIONAL MOMENT IN HER ACTING CAREER AND GAVE US A SNEAK PEAK AT CATHERINE CORSINI’S TROIS MONDES, PART OF THE UN CERTAIN REGARD SELECTION AT THIS YEAR’S CANNES FILM FESTIVAL.

What was your reaction to winning the César for Most Promising Actress?

I was incredibly happy to receive the award with the director and Grégory Gadebois who co-starred in the film with me. We were completely surprised because it was such a small film without the prestige of Polisse or The Artist. And yet it sold nearly 200,000 tickets: an uncommon thing for a debut film. It’s wonderful we ended up at the Césars, even more so that we had the Most Promising Actress and Most Promising Actor in the same film.

What was it like to work with director Alix Delaporte?

We had met once before: I shot a short film with her right after I did Regular Lovers with Philippe Garrel. And she told me she would do her second feature with me. But while she was looking for actresses for this film, her first, she stayed in touch to ask my thoughts on the casting. After a while she just asked me to try out for this one.

It seems like you were made for the part…

Let’s just say I made it my own at a certain moment. At the start of the shoot, Alix told me the character didn’t really fit me. So then I told her she had to let me make some decisions. I took things into my own hands and let the role come to me. It always works like that: there’s always some projection, a vision of the character, and you have to let an actor come to grips with that.

Grégory Gadebois’ acting is especially impressive. I didn’t think I was watching an actor but an actual fisherman…

Alix saw the two of us at a theater, where she noticed Grégory and thought he was incredible and sexy. She wrote the part with him in mind. He and I have known each other and been friends for ten years now. There’s something graceful in the film because she managed to capture our friendship and intimacy. It would have been totally different with two people who didn’t already know each other.

You’ve already put together an impressive career. And yet, you just won the César for Most Promising Actress…

I’m not a discovery. I was happy to be nominated at the Césars, even if everyone kept telling me in the two weeks leading up to the ceremony that I wasn’t a new actress and I didn’t belong in the category. I just told them that, indeed, I wasn’t a new actress, but that’s no reason not to be happy for the nomination. I think a lot of the reason behind the nomination came from the film itself. Since it’s a small film and they had already nominated Grégory for Most Promising Actor, they wanted to include me, too, and so they threw me in there. I remember my sister telling me, “Don’t worry, you won’t have to get up, you just have to sit there!” Turned out I did have to get up that time. I was already nominated for Christophe Honoré’s Love Songs. At least that part is over now and I can try for a different category. I can put the newcomer thing behind me: I think people know me well enough by now. I still haven’t had a commercial success, but I always follow my heart in choosing which roles to play and it’s hard to combine the two. It can still happen, though. I’m not worried.

Tell us about Catherine Corsini’s film Trois mondes that you’re going to represent at Cannes.

It’s a film about guilt and love. Three people meet purely by chance one night in Paris, when a car accident brings them all together. What happens is that a Moldavian illegal immigrant is hit by a young man during his bachelor party. He flees the scene, but my character witnesses the events. I end up falling in love with the perpetrator while helping the victim track him down. And it’s a beautiful tale of love and guilt from there.

How did you like working with Catherine Corsini?

It was great: something of an explosive encounter since she’s someone who doesn’t mince her words. You have to be able to take some criticism when you’re working with her. She’s very smart: she didn’t hesitate to tell me when something wasn’t working, which helped me save time. And it was all very sweet, actually: I was pregnant during the shoot and she kept calling me her little whale when she wanted me to suck in my stomach. She also changed the screenplay so my character in the film would be pregnant, too. It was fun, we had a good time.

Your sisters are actresses, too, so you’re quite familiar with the film world…

No, I’m definitely not from a film background, even though my sisters are actresses, too. But since I was the last of the litter, I was able to learn from them and do things more quickly.

Next you’re going to work with another female director, Diane Kurys…

It’s funny: it’s almost always women who offer me parts. I get the impression that there are more women who write for women than men who write for women – at least in general. It’s something I started to notice when I was pregnant. I don’t have that kind of seductive appeal that a lot of men are looking for, so I probably missed out on those kinds of roles. But I’m trying to get a little sexier as I get older. You can’t be afraid of the power of seduction, so I’m trying to find a balance.

Tell us a little about the film.

Right now I’m just reading the screenplay. My character’s a seductress…

And what about the TV series you’re doing for Canal+?

It was directed by Fabrice Gobert and it’s called Les Revenants. It will be broadcast on Canal+ in November. The story’s about these people who die and then come back to life later on, but they’re still the same age. My character was supposed to marry a 22 year old boy who dies, comes back ten years later, and is still 22 years old. Production is spread out over a lot of time: we’re filming for four or five months from April to August. So the challenge is really finding a way to dive back into the role every time.

Do you like fashion?

Yeah, a lot! But I have to be careful: sometimes I wear things I think are funny, but then I’m the only one laughing… At the Césars my agent said to me, “Oh! You’re going as a very young woman tonight!” I really just wear what I like. If I wear a Margiela dress that’s shaped like a rectangle, it’s because I like it, not to be noticed or look interesting. I like to go by feeling: it makes me feel more free…

Clotilde Hesme & Nicolas Bridet

Photography by Nathaniel Aron

Fashion by Armelle Leturcq