Interview Jean Reno (‘The Immortal’)

Amsterdam, Embassy Hotel, Saturday May 1, 2010

Jean Reno. This name may not be familiar to everyone, but many will recognize the face and voice of this versatile French actor, who has starred in countless major Hollywood films over the past two decades. From ‘Mission: Impossible’ to ‘Godzilla’ and from ‘French Kiss’ to ‘The Da Vinci Code’. His big break in America came with the films ‘The Big Blue’ and of course ‘Léon’, in which, as the sympathetic hit man Leon, he takes the very young Natalie Portman under his wing. Now, after some comedic interludes in films such as ‘The Pink Panther’ and ‘Couples Retreat’, he is back in a timeless gangster role in the film ‘L’Immortel’, which is based on the life of a real French mobster. from the Marseille of the seventies and eighties. We had the honor to talk to the amiable actor during a personal meeting at the Ambassade Hotel in Amsterdam.

The human paradox

Although Reno is regularly cast in gangster roles, he is not very interested in the criminal world. He is mainly concerned with the underlying drama, the actor says: “Like Richard Berry, the director of ‘The Immortal’, I am not particularly fascinated by mafia stories and firearms. I don’t care about that. But I am fascinated by the human paradox. Through love, relationships, weakness. When do you become a hero, and when a nobody?”

“For me, ‘The Immortal’ is not a mafia movie”, Reno continues. “Although the main character is active within the mafia, the film is mainly about someone who wants to change and do penance. He wants to leave his old life. The tragedy is that society won’t accept it if you want to change the stamp you’ve been given. It’s the human paradox. The story is about more than good and bad.”

Indeed, ‘The Immortal’ chooses to highlight the human side of the characters, and – as happened in films like ‘Heat’ and ‘The Godfather’ – to emphasize family, drama, and love and the parallels between characters on both sides of the law. This is also what attracted and challenged Reno in the role: “It’s a human story set within the context of the mafia. It’s interesting to put this man in a really shady situation and still get the public to like him. Because he wants to change. Deep down in his heart he doesn’t want to be the person he used to be.”

Yet Reno does not go so far in his characterization that he can completely ignore the criminal background. He does not think that you can really speak of humanity in criminals: “There is no humanity, but there are codes. The problem is that some criminals allow themselves to change these codes when they get different interests.”

Reno’s place in the pyramid

‘The Immortal’ contains a lot of musical accompaniment in the form of opera music. Reno’s character often listens to it in the film and the actor himself also turns out to be a great fan. He even directed an opera in Turin – Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” – on the occasion of the 2004 Olympics. Still, Reno had nothing to do with the music selection in the film, which simply came from the director himself. “I limit myself to acting,” he says. “I don’t like to interfere or interfere with myself. The other actors don’t like that either. A movie is a pyramid. It has to come from the director in the first place. It is not good if there are several people at the top of the pyramid.”

Reno has been working as an actor for over thirty years and already has many and a varied selection of films on his resume. So it’s high time to evaluate his career. In the press material accompanying the film, the actor says that after working on ‘The Immortal’, he started to wonder what exactly, at his age (61), his place is in French cinema. He does not have a definitive answer to that, but he is quite cynical about it: “I am an iconoclast. I try to be a good actor in every genre. Whether it’s a comedy, a love story, or a karate movie. But in France they don’t work like that. In France they only want you to be a hero, or a villain. And if you’re doing drama, you can’t do comedy. Comedy is not interesting. People look down on it. No prize is ever awarded for a comedy. But inside you know that making comedy is actually harder than drama. After this film I knew that I was an iconoclast and that I would not have a permanent place in French cinema,” said the slightly disappointed, but also proud Reno.

“To make matters worse, I’m working with Americans,” continues Reno, who is now on a roll and offers his candid opinion of the critics in France. While in the Netherlands actors like Rutger Hauer or directors like Paul Verhoeven are seen as national symbols, as export products to be proud of, this apparently works differently in France. “For the French, working for the Americans is almost like treason,” the actor says. “They are never proud when you do something like that. While this can mean more for the economy. After all, if you work with the Americans, you have access to the entire world (market), which makes you much more valuable. That way the French can also earn more money from my name. But that is precisely why they are not happy. Weird guys.”

Fortunately, Reno doesn’t see everything black, and he does believe that he is appreciated in France. He nuances: “I’m not saying I’m not respected, but people won’t admit my contribution to the French film industry. The producers and the public do, but the critics and film journalists do not. I have a very warm relationship with the Americans. They really appreciate me. They still see me as that little discovery from Paris.”

Reno’s recipe and Sarkozy .’s taste

According to director and film critic Jean-Luc Godard, a woman and a gun are all you need for a successful film. With all his experience, Jean Reno must also have some ideas about the best ingredients for a film. “Well, then you try to explain the beginning by looking at the end result, and you can’t,” said the actor. “It’s about what’s inside. Even if something was written by someone else. If you, as a director, have something in your hands that touches you, with which you can express yourself creatively, with which you can dream away, then you are on the right track. You have to be able to become one with the other ingredients, as it were.”

“The story is very important, and then you need the right actors in the right place. But there is simply no formula for it. Otherwise all the producers in the Bahamas would be living with millions in the bank,” laughs Reno.

At the end of ‘The Immortal’ a fairly explicit, visual link is made between the past and the present, by hanging a portrait of the current French president Nicolas Sarkozy, a person who is (or has been) very involved in the life of Reno. The then interior minister is friends with the actor and even witnessed his wedding (to model and actress Zofia Borucka) in 2006. Reno: “We are still friends. He likes a lot of movies, including mine. I know he recently saw my movie ‘The Round Up’ (‘La Rafle’). I don’t know about ‘The Immortal’. I will take him there one day.”

Despite Reno’s star status (at least outside France), and his contact with high-ranking people, he wants to (continue to) pay attention to his family in the near future. A positive result of his film portrayal in ‘The Immortal’, perhaps? Or a worldwide trend initiated by ministers Eurlings and Bos? Anyway, a great choice of course, as long as it doesn’t take too long. Reno belongs on the silver screen.