Tortured character
Q.: Was it a painfully physical task? After all, your Piaf looks something like a question mark by the time she hits her forties.
A.: I found a little trick to be smaller - I contracted all my muscles from here to here [ribs to waist] and in doing this I was closer to her position. But after two weeks, my back was hurting so hard.
Q.: Was it strange to see yourself aging?
A.: It was not myself, really. Most people think that when I saw myself old in the mirror it would be like "wow," but I had no eyebrows; the shape of my face wasn't the same. And it took so long to find the right makeup, we threw three scenes in the garbage.
Q.: Did you find it a great responsibility to be portraying an icon like Piaf?
A.: I think the responsibility is related to ego, and I really didn't need any ego at that time. I needed to just go into the work. So I never felt any responsibility. I knew I loved her more than enough not to betray her, and not betray, maybe, the people who love her. If you think about it as a big responsibility, you think about yourself. You're not saying "OK, let's go! Let's see where we can go!"
Q.: Anywhere dangerous?
A.: The script was beautiful, intimate, but not a portrait done by someone who wanted to show only her best side. It was hard sometimes. But she was hard.
Q.: Has there been resistance from Piaf fans who did not want to know about that?
A.: Oh sure. She had a very tyrannical character sometimes. She really loved people but her tyranny came from the fear of being alone. I didn't know her, but when you're abandoned as a child your fear about being alone is very hard to get rid of.