“I feed on my doubts”, confides Samuel Le Bihan to the poster of “Ma langue au chat”

star of the series Alex Hugo broadcast on France 3, Samuel Le Bihan has always been an outspoken actor, passionate about words, words, in love with life and people. The artist-painter he imagined himself to be let himself be diverted by the stage and the profession of actor. First in the street, with a circus and theatrical universe. From the school on rue Blanche to the cinema, passing through the Actors Studio in New York or the Comédie-Française, acting has punctuated his life. This Wednesday, April 26, 2023, he is showing the film My tongue to the cat by Cécile Telerman, with Zabou Breitman, Pascal Elbé, Marie-Josée Croze. It’s the story of a group of friends who get together in the countryside to have a good time. But obviously, everything degenerates when the cat of the family of the couple who welcomes them disappears. The opportunity for everyone to settle accounts and say out loud what they have been thinking for years.

franceinfo: My tongue to the cat is a film about friendship and therefore about the family that we choose in a way.

Samuel Le Bihan: Yes, that’s all. This film has the charm of friendship with our weaknesses, our lies, our cheating, especially my character all the same because if the cat disappears, it’s a little bit because of him. He is afraid of losing his friends, of being rejected. He has this fragility and this feeling of being on the sidelines, of not having the arguments, the elements to be interesting in this life. He therefore always puts himself on the sidelines hoping not to be rejected. It’s borderline, he would like to be adopted by Pascal Elbé and Zabou Breitman, he is a bit childish somewhere in his behavior. He needs love, terribly, and he doesn’t trust himself.

In ‘Ma langue au chat’, the comedy arises from this character who commits a kind of clumsiness and who will cause a chain reaction and bring down the masks. People will be forced to reveal themselves.

Samuel LeBihan

at franceinfo

In this film, there are really two pillars of your life, friendship and family. This family has always occupied a very important place in your life. It’s true that your father brought you a lot, just like your mother. What did they give you?

My father gave me a lot of willpower. He has a kind of resistance, a nature. He started off as a fisherman like my grandfather. They are tough people, who don’t talk much, but who are really solid. And my mother, it was more the artistic side, a kind of elegance, a gentleness, a sensitivity that my father surely has, but which is hidden, under a very thick skin. So I’m made of that, of those two, that’s my heritage.

You’ve always done a lot of odd jobs. You never balked, there were no stupid jobs.

Yes, at the same time, I had no choice. My parents didn’t have that much money. I had to find some tips. I wanted to change a little the cards that were given to me at the start and I wanted to change the game. I was lucky in that sense. So it started with lots of odd jobs, resourcefulness. You have to be smart. That’s why when I started to be an actor, I played in the street. I even spat fire. I was doing somewhat burlesque mime.

It was from commedia dell’arte !

Yes, it really is commedia dell’arte and a few years later, I find myself at the Comédie-Française and so I was quite proud of this big gap, to say: here, I really started out as an acrobat and there, I enter the temple of the classic, of the French literature and repertoire.

When I was a kid, teenager, people wondered what I was going to become. Quite frankly, it was not won. Nobody would have bet on me and therefore to show that we could change things, it was a personal pride.

Samuel LeBihan

at franceinfo

You never really trusted yourself.

Well, I was not the most gifted and it was the work that allowed me to progress. Each time, I had to find places that were free, like the Conservatoire, rue Blanche. And then in addition, I had a state scholarship, so it’s even better, I could use the social elevator and it was there that I could meet teachers who would make me react, understand things, forcing me to work on areas. As I was a bit shy, I always had to fight against that. Even today, always a little bit. I have the impression that it comes out in snatches of energy, that it’s not completely built. What’s good is that it’s a job for groups and we succeed thanks to others. It is thanks to this group of artists who came around you, the authors, the decorator, the director, the director, the one who sheds light. That’s what’s beautiful. What is quite fascinating in this profession is that we rely on others a little bit.

Are you confident today?

In fact, I feed on my doubts. Doubt is energy. It pushes you to improve, to go further. This is the moment when we say to ourselves:Hey, I got it all figured out“that in fact we have understood nothing. As long as there is this doubt, I tell myself that there will be this fragility of wanting to do well and that is why we always do a little bit We do well and we take care of the spectators, your audience.

This job as an actor seems to have fulfilled you as a man as well. Did you keep the fact of remaining free because you did this job at the beginning for that?

Freedom would mean being completely alone. To be completely free would mean that we are going to be completely alone and therefore it is not possible. We are obliged to accept the compromise and to lose a little of our freedom in order to protect ourselves, live in a society with others and create a zone of happiness. We are social animals. I would say it’s more independence than freedom.