In the French Disney+ series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, actor Daniel Brühl plays Karl Lagerfeld, while Quebecer Théodore Pellerin is Jacques de Bascher, Parisian dandy and great love of the legendary German fashion designer. We spoke to them by videoconference.
“Théodore Pellerin, he’s your hero! He is truly wonderful, the best actor I have met in my life! », says Daniel Brühl straight away, in French. The two actors, smiling, are very complicit. “I was very nervous to meet him, because I have never experienced such an intense love story on the small screen, between two men,” continues the German-Spanish actor revealed in 2003 in the film Good bye, Lenin! Thanks to him, it was easy to play Karl Lagerfeld, because what he did with Jacques de Bascher was simply incredible. »
Théodore Pellerin, embarrassed by so much praise, returned the favor. “Daniel is so generous. From the first scene, I said to myself: I am with an admirable actor and I just have to follow him, just abandon myself,” says the man we saw in the films Solo And Underground, by Sophie Dupuis.
Series Becoming Karl Lagerfeldproduced by Gaumont, is composed of six episodes and is the adaptation of the book Kaiser Karl, by Raphaëlle Bacqué. It takes place in the 1970s in Paris, where the very ambitious Karl Lagerfeld wishes to conquer the fashion world dominated by Yves Saint Laurent, his great rival.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DISNEY+
Théodore Pellerin is Jacques de Bascher and Daniel Brühl plays Karl Lagerfeld in the series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld.
We discover the young Karl Lagerfeld, complex and mysterious, who falls in love with Jacques de Bascher, prince of Parisian nights. At the heart of the series is this great love story that lasted 18 years. Lagerfeld reveals himself as a romantic, jealous, capable of the best and the worst, but above all an enigmatic man, full of contradictions. “Karl Lagerfeld and Jacques de Bascher lived as in the 18th centurye century, they bought castles and redecorated them. It is very touching to see how much they lived in fantasy, in a fairy tale that they tried to recreate in real life,” says Daniel Brühl.
Karl Lagerfeld, who died in 2019, was an enigmatic, multifaceted character. “He was a man very exposed in the media, but very solitary. He had a great thirst for recognition, he wanted to be loved and respected in the fashion world, but being German and homosexual in the 1970s in Paris was not easy,” analyzes Daniel Brühl.
The actor, who read numerous biographies of Karl Lagerfeld to prepare for this role, remembers meeting him once, around 20 years ago. “He photographed me for a magazine with other German actors and I remember him as a charming man. He was funny and what’s crazy is that after two minutes I forgot it was Karl Lagerfeld. He had this quality. »
Discover an era
Théodore Pellerin did not know Jacques de Bascher, a provocative person with a festive lifestyle, the complete opposite of Karl Lagerfeld. He researched a lot, of course he read the book Kaiser Karl, but also the book by Marie Ottavi, Jacques de Bascher, dandy of the shadowsAnd The Beautiful Fall, by Alicia Drake.
I really discovered everything about this era, this fashion world in the 1970s in Paris. I didn’t know all these eccentric characters and it’s interesting to see behind the scenes. There was a great cruelty that reigned there and at the same time a great poetry. The personalities were oversized, fascinating and full of paradoxes.
Théodore Pellerin
The series also shows the rivalry between Yves Saint Laurent (played by Arnaud Valois) and Karl Lagerfeld, a rivalry in creation, but also in private life, since Jacques de Bascher and Yves Saint Laurent were lovers. “Geniuses need this rivalry, it pushes them to go even further. The love and hatred, the jealousy and the respect that Lagerfeld feels for Yves Saint Laurent, these are part of his contradictions,” observes Daniel Brühl.
The series was filmed in French, an additional difficulty for Daniel Brühl, a German-Spanish actor who first speaks German, Spanish, English… then French! “I worked hard, my brain was cooked every night! And you, Theodore? The French accent? » he asks his co-star.
“The French accent was easy for me. But I understand the difficulty. I filmed in English in the series Franklin [où il joue le Marquis de Lafayette aux côtés de Michael Douglas] and at first I was exhausted after the days of filming, because the English words didn’t have an emotional resonance for me, so it was difficult to perform. »
On Disney+ from June 7