Deauville 2025 – Joel Edgerton: “I no longer need to hide” [interview]

Three questions to the 51 -year -old actor, celebrated at the Deauville American Cinema Festival.

Large modest actor in Gargantuan filmography (Gatsby le Magnifique, Warrior, It Comes at Night, Master Gardener, Zero Dark Thirty, Animal Kingdom, Star Wars : épisodes II et III…), British-Australian Joel Edgerton received a Deauville Talent Award yesterday at the American Cinema Festival, and inaugurated his beach cabin on the famous boards. “”I never thought of being particularly talented. But I humbly accept this distinction since it means a recognition of the years of work that I devoted to my passion: to tell stories“Explained the man who is also a director, screenwriter and producer.

Come to defend the beautiful Train Dreams (next November 21 on Netflix) and not less exciting The Plague (without date with us), he took a few minutes to chat with First.

First: we imagine the scenario of Train Dreams Quite arid and rather intimidating for an actor: the whole film is based on your character, a silent who is looking for his place in the world at the beginning of the 20th century … not so simple to stand up without falling into the pathos.
Joel Edgerton : Indeed, but some of my favorite performances are those of men who hide their feelings. I instinctively think of Anthony Hopkins in The remains of the day : When I see it, I tell myself that he is so invested that he had to hide from the camera to shed a tear. I really like my character to Train DreamsRobert Grainier, apologizes at a time of having shown his sorrow: ” I’m sorry, I don’t know what took me … »

And as a spectator who followed what happened to him, you say to yourself: ” Yes, we understand what you took! » (Laughter.) It’s very subtle but it tells everything about him. The director, Clint Bentley, managed to transpose an extremely difficult book to the screen [le film est tiré du roman de Denis Johnson]. More than with any character that I have embodied so far, I felt that I was cut for this role.

For what ?
It is very linked to emotions. I have two young children, who were two years old when we shot the film. The idea of ​​losing them haunts me. When they were infants, I observed them in the hospital and I was worried about whether they were going to survive. Everything is fine for them, huh, they are in good health, but each time I think back to this period, fear overwhelms me. And without saying too much about what is happening in Train Dreamsthere was a logic and absolute simplicity to play with that to embody Grainier, to use this interiority. The big question was: did I really want to use these feelings in my work? It was a challenge, because I had never done it before.

So becoming a father changed your relationship to acting?
In part. But in fact, it is something else that made me evolve. I have always admired the actors who are transforming. However, with age, I realize that these transformations are worth observed by a spectator only if they are authentic. I can get dressed as I want, take different accents or change my body: if it does not rest on a truth, then it is only an imitation. A masquerade. My favorite actors are those who are hiding behind nothing. Those who give you the impression of opening their rib cage or the top of their skull and exposing their feelings for the open air. And that, I had long I had the scare. I may not feel deep enough to show me together …

I am obviously not Robert, I am not a log, and his accent is not mine. But there is really in him a kind of manifestation of me. This character gave me a dose of trust that I did not have. I no longer need to hide.