Franco-Italian actress, Marina Foïs made her debut in the Robins des Bois troupe, on stage, but also on the Comédie and Canal + channels. She enters the cinema through the comic register with The infernal Montparnasse tower, Asterix and Obelix: Mission Cleopatra. She then moved on to the dramatic register with her interpretations in the films: Darling, Polish, Irreproachable, Workshop, hailed by César nominations in the Best Actress category.
Today she is showing in the film The divide by Catherine Corsini. This is the story of a couple of women on the verge of breaking up who find themselves in an emergency department on the evening of a Parisian demonstration of “yellow vests”. The hospital is under pressure, will therefore close its doors and this closed session will give rise to meetings which will shatter the prejudices, the certainties of each.
franceinfo: Does it feel good to participate in a committed film?
Marina Foïs: Yes. I think what is also good is that the film only features characters who have not given up. And I am very reassured by people who are still capable of insubordination, anger or creation. What terrifies me are people who are too calm, it’s the world that does not move. So in that place, yes, it feels good.
In the film, it is real hospital staff who intervene. It was a real choice for the director. Did that further clarify the importance of this film?
The fact that the concrete and the real are taken care of by real caregivers who play the roles of caregivers, it allows us, the actors who embody fiction, to “fictionalize” to death. And we were always brought back to reality by the truth of their actions. It was an extraordinary gaming medium.
What did your parents bring you? Because they had that sixty-eight side, but they taught you about social values, about work. We feel it, feel it.
Yes surely. They were people of the left. We have forgotten what it was, the left, but in fact, it is a bit to put the human in the center. It’s not a stupid point of view.
When you were 7 you decided to take drama lessons, but when you were 5 you really decided you were going to be an actress. What does this job bring you?
It is the pillar of my life.
“The cinema makes me think, makes me feel, makes me come alive, allows me to travel and then, it allows me to escape from this life which, sometimes, is boring.”
Marina Foisto franceinfo
It is through cinema that I understand the world that sometimes I feel part of something that interests me, that sometimes I feel far away.
Did that save you too?
One survives the violence or the harshness of life with a set of things. I couldn’t just keep the cinema and forget the people who make my life. I have lots of wonderful ones around me. Friendship holds a huge place. In my family, I have quite a few people too. So, it is the sum of the real that these people represent, of the love that circulates. But love is not just ass, it’s also beautiful! If I had to stick to the real thing, I don’t know what I would do.
We have the impression that this profession has also shaped you and allowed you to know who you are.
Yes, that’s for sure, because we feel our limits all the time. Several times a day, when you’re an actor. This is it. An accumulation of everything that we believe we will not be able to do. Then, we struggle a lot with ourselves. We start the day with an hour and a half in front of a mirror, which is not nothing literally and figuratively.
You started out with the comic. You were initially hiding in a troop as if to protect yourself. What did the Robins des Bois bring to you?
Already, it gave me the incredible chance to laugh for 6, 8 years. And then all the same, being paid to write bullshit, I have the impression that this is it, my Legion of Honor. What made my life easier is to gain notoriety and a certain power which is linked to that and to the money that all of a sudden, we win, together and having to divide the thing . That is great protection.
Do you trust more today?
I believe that, paradoxically, I have never had a real problem of trust. One day, Chabat said something to me when we were talking about someone: “But us, it’s not the same because you and I were loved so much by our parents that we always respected ourselves”. I think it’s a true trick. Like many young women, I found myself ugly, fat, which is crazy, because I was skinny since I was anorexic. I believe that the foundation has always been quite solid and I believe that I have always lived with the feeling of being loved and recognized. I always had the impression of being considered.
Which represents The divide ? Isn’t that a mix of everything that defines you?
Yes. It’s a mixture of many things that speak to me, indeed. And then there’s a very basic joy in making this movie and seeing it with audiences. This is where we realize that it is not in vain to make films. When you see this film, there is something that goes directly, the energy of the film. She goes directly from the screen to the room and say the room, it’s beautiful because we share emotions with people that we don’t know, that we would never meet because we have not the same age, we do not come from the same background.
“In a movie theater, we meet to share in a shameless and joyful way the emotions that bring us together.”
Marina Foisto franceinfo
The movie is a mega example of this sharing and it’s too good to see people laughing a lot, then crying or not, but ultimately being touched and coming out, not downcast, but full of an energy that is that of these worthy characters. and who fight, who also know how to laugh at themselves. This is not a social class thing and that is a supreme value for me.