“It is always with infinite modesty and extreme joy that I go on stage”

Daniel Auteuil is an actor nominated 14 times at the Césars and crowned in 1987 in the best actor category for his role in the films John of Florette And Manon des Sources by Claude Berri and in 2000 for “The Girl on the Bridge” by Patrice Leconte. Impossible not to mention his role in the film which changed the way we look at differences, the eighth day by Marcel Hanoun in 1996, for which he won, tied with Pascal Duquenne, the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival. He is also a director, director and above all increasingly an author, composer and performer. Since 1985, we have heard his voice. First there was May life forgive me and then in 2021, his album If you had known me which revealed more of this voice, but above all this desire to make more music.

This Friday, March 17, 2023 releases his new album with Gaëtan Roussel as conductor, If you’re scared, don’t be scared of love. He is also on tour throughout France.

franceinfo: If you’re afraid, don’t be afraid of love, this are ten songs to tell the feelings, the emotions. Sometimes they do good, sometimes they unbalance, in any case they raise questions. Love therefore seems to be a major element of your life.

Daniel Auteuil : I do not see what is better, in any case more constructive. It can be just as destructive, but more constructive, which allows us to hold on, to live. Yes, it is essential.

Did taking up the pen allow you to advance further?

When I was a young man, I wrote and then time passed. I spent my life saying other people’s words, so I was surely forbidden to say my own since for a long time I thought I had nothing in particular to say. In fact, I realize deep down that everything I say starts from an emotion that I have already experienced, felt. I remember, I got that from Claude Sautet. Him, he said that there was always a part of the iceberg which was a hidden part of a character who belonged to us.

In the stories I tell, there is always a hidden part that belongs to me.

Daniel Auteuil

at franceinfo

To sing is to pay homage to those who gave you life, who showed you the way. In Inconsolable, you sing of moments of sharing with your father. Does it also allow you to relive beautiful moments?

It allows that and above all, this record talks a lot about the father-son relationship in different situations. Having been through all these things and now having a young son allows me, when I write stories, to be both the son and the father at the same time. I can tell the story from both ends of the chain.

Does music allow you to discover yourself differently?

I do not think so. I stayed the same. It is always with an infinite modesty, a delicacy, but an extreme joy that I go up on a stage and come to make music. It’s something… I did well not to deprive myself of that.

In this album, the past, the present meet and intermingle. It’s not only a trait of your character, but it’s above all a value that has always been part of your personality, that is, knowing where you come from, not forgetting who you are.

What I write are things that come deeply from me, from my experience. It was Jouvet who said that: “JUntil the age of 40, we are on the imagination and it is the imagination that makes the man. But from the age of 40, it’s the man who does the action“so all that I say are things that have gone through my body, that I have experienced, that I have felt, that I have seen. Some that I have not necessarily experienced, but which marked me so strongly that I took them for myself. Sometimes we take the pain of others, we take the happiness of others. In any case, there is something that has always been there and these melodies and these texts … It’s wonderful that people come to listen to me, I find it wonderful.

Is the little boy you were proud of the man you have become? Because you say that this record is the Auteuil child reaching out to the Auteuil man.

Yes that’s it. He’s the one who… Here, I sang in front of my mirror when I was little and I always made sure to dream of things that could really happen to me.

I dreamed big, but not too big.

Daniel Auteuil

at franceinfo

There is a melancholic side to this album, but it’s a melancholy that is very positive.

In fact, I always lived as if it was the last time things were done. One day, a very long time ago, I was young, I had a car accident and I almost died. And I think there’s an emergency thing that woke up. I remember my father saying to me:Enjoy my son, enjoy” and I was all the way and I said: but dad, what do you want me to enjoy? I can’t do more! And the music, that’s it, I’m taking full advantage when I arrive on a scene in the provinces, playing the soundcheck, seeing the audience. They’re always surprised, they look at me like that, and then all of a sudden, they clap their hands and then I make them sing and we have fun. And it’s gay. In any case, that’s what I wanted to do and what I’m doing.

What stands out in your writing too is this contemplative aspect that you have in particular in the song He was watching the rainwe have the feeling that you marvel at everything.

So he watches the rain and at the same time he watches time passing and time fleeing. And he asks himself the question:Basically, did I miss something?“And no, no, no, he didn’t miss anything, no date, no role, no love, no story. The only thing is, he knows it’s not starting again, so he keeps going.

Daniel Auteuil will be in concert on March 18, 2023 at the Casino de Paris, April 7 in Vias, May 14 in Provins and May 4 in Sarreguemines, etc…