An Accidental Actor—Stanislas Merhar - French actor - Brief Article - Interview

DISCOVERED ON A STREET CORNER

SEAN KENNEDY: How did you first get involved in acting?

STANISLAS MERHAR: The director of Nettoyage Sec [Dry Cleaning, 1997], Anne Fontaine, was tired of meeting all the young professional French actors--she wanted to find someone new. So she and Dominique Besnehard [a French talent agent] decided to find a guy on the street. It was very simple. It was a Friday, I was just walking in the street at about 10 P.M., going to my house, and Dominique came to me very shyly and asked if I wanted to make a film. I said, "Yes. Why not?" Then I met Anne and did a scene.

SK: That's quite a back storyl You'll be making great copy off of that for years.

SM: [laughs] Obviously I hadn't expected it, so I was very surprised. It was a big change in my life, and something that put me closer to my late father, because he was a cinema and theater producer in Slovenia and France.

SK: So, though it was a stroke of luck that you were discovered, acting is also in your blood. After making eight films, do you feel that this was what you were meant to do?

SM: Yes. I love acting. It's like therapy--I think I've become a better person because of being an actor.

SK: Because you can exorcise your demons?

SM: It's about narcissism. [laughs] Before, in my personal life, I was too narcissistic, and now, it's all channeled through acting. [laughs]

SK: Do you have a favorite American actor?

SM: Eddie Furlong. I just did a movie [The Knights of the Quest] with him in Italy.

SK: As an actor, what do you get from Paris that you can't get anywhere else?

SM: My acting is really a mix of everything I know from the town. It's my town. It's something inside of me. It's really a source of inspiration because my life, my culture, is based on everything I can see in stones, in monuments, in music-and Paris is very strong in this. It's the part of me that comes out when I'm acting.

Sean Kennedy is an editorial assistant at Interview. Left:

Stanislas Merhar wears a top by CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR.

COPYRIGHT 2001 Brant Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group