Louis Garrel on Being Nanni Moretti’s Alter Ego and Doing Sex Scenes With Jasmine Trinca in ‘It Will Happen Tonight’: ‘You Have to Feel a Real Connection’

French actor and director Louis Garrel, who gained international fame starring in Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers,” is at the Venice Film Festival with a film by another Italian auteur, Nanni Moretti‘s “It Will Happen Tonight.”

The romantic drama, which is competing for the prestigious Golden Lion, stars Garrel as Matteo, the male lead of a pair of star-crossed lovers opposite Greta, played by Italian A-lister Jasmine Trinca (“La Storia”). The film reunites Moretti with Trinca, who made her acting debut in “The Son’s Room” in 2001, when she was 18, and subsequently appeared in the “The Caiman.”

But “It Will Happen Tonight” marks Moretti’s first collaboration with Garrel, who recently starred in French blockbusters “The Three Musketeers” parts one as well as opposite Angelina Jolie in Alice Winocour’s “Couture.” It’s also his first-ever role in the Italian language.

Garrel spoke with Variety in Venice about the “Moretti method” on set, how it applied to his sexual scenes with Trinca and why he’s comfortable with the film being called an elevated soap opera.

How did Moretti approach you for this film?

We first met because his Sacher Cinema in Rome organizes a French festival there. So I’ve been there many times. The first time I met him, I was a little shaky because it’s like when you meet your idol; it’s a bit strange. But I could see that it was not so hard to have a connection with him. And while we were presenting a movie together we would joke sometimes. Then, we had a coffee and we really got to talking.

Shortly after that, out of the blue, Moretti called me and said, “What are you doing in September?” I had an engagement, but I said, “I’m free.” He said, “OK, but how about your Italian?” I said, “But we had coffee like three weeks ago, Nanni, so you know how my Italian is.” He said, “OK, let’s think about it, both of us, about making a movie.” I said, “No, Nanni. I’ve already thought about it. Call me back whenever you want.” Then he called back and asked me to come to Rome and do a screen test with Jasmine and other actors. So we did the screen tests in his office, with two video cameras. He was very strict. We did this test with Jasmine, and suddenly he said: “OK, I think it works. The chemistry between you is good.” So he sent me the script, and that was it.

Did Nanni give you any indications about what the film was?

No. I asked him, “Is it a political movie?” He said, “No, this one is a love story.” I said, “OK, fantastic.”

You joked at the press conference about the “Moretti Method.” What was it like being directed by Nanni?

We never talked about the psychology of the character in the film. We talked mostly about rhythm, about the speed of the monologues or the dialogues. So, “Less pause, Louis. Less sad. More joyful.” He’s [also] an actor, so he knows that you need to be precise when you talk to an actor. Also, his style is not realistic. Everything is so stylized, you know what I mean? He knows how to maintain his style and ask the actors to be a little bit distant, but not too much. He’s very focused on that. Also, he’s very precise even about the objects on set. I have to say, sometimes you feel that you’re just a table or an armchair. He’s obsessive.

Moretti said yesterday that your are sort of his alter ego. How do feel about that?

I was surprised, I never thought about that. I mean, I always dreamed of being Moretti’s alter ego. When I was 17 I wanted to become the French Moretti, because of the fact that he’s a director and an actor, and he does both so well. So I think it’s because I was trying to imitate him when I was a teenager. His rhythm; the way he breaks the rhythm. He’s a very good comic actor. But I also think that, maybe instinctively, I imitated him on set in this film. Sometimes I would ask him to play out the scene when I had some difficulties because of the Italian or other stuff. When I I couldn’t find the right tone, I would say: “Please, can you do it, Nanni?”

“It Will Happen Tonight” is being described by some critics as an elevated soap opera. Do you agree with that definition?

Yeah, but I love soap operas in general. I think the master of the elevated soap opera genre is Pedro Almodovar, for example. Sometimes I was thinking about Pedro Almodovar when I was watching the movie yesterday. You know, the way you enter in the labyrinthic lives of these different people, and the camera has the opportunity to watch all this mess. So I can see why they are talking about soap opera. But for me, that’s a good basis, because it’s a very popular genre. And when you add the style and the sense of humor to the soap opera, I think that’s a good combination for cinema sometimes.

Talk to me about working with Jasmine Trinca.

She’s very, very intelligent. I realized yesterday, seeing the film for the first time, that when you look at someone in the eyes for so long and so intensely — the way Matteo looks at Jasmine’s character in the film — you have to, in a way, love that character and the actress or the actor who is playing that character. You have to feel confident with that person. You can act out a sexual scene with an actor that you don’t like, or even that you hate. And you just don’t care. You can do that love scene, because you are not looking at them in the eyes. Instead, when there is that type of eye contact, you have to feel a real connection. And I think Jasmine and I share that. We have some friends in common, and [before making this film] we knew each other a little bit. And on set, Jasmine and I shared so much intimate stuff about our lives. So we had these secrets. We were sharing secrets behind Nanni’s back. You need to share secrets with your co-protagonist, so that you can be strong against the director. Because sometimes it’s a war, you know. Also, when you are a couple on screen, the idea is to make the audience feel like they are a voyeur. So the director has to become like a voyeur who is trying to understand what’s going on between his two actors.

The two of you have some pretty steamy sex scenes. Was there an intimacy coordinator on set?

Yes, we had one. It’s not the first time that I’ve worked with one. With Nanni we talked about how we could do the sexual scene in the film, and he said, “I would never perform a sexual scene, because I would look ridiculous. Me, in bed with someone. Even if I filmed it myself, it would be terrible.” So I knew that it wasn’t Nanni Moretti’s style to shoot sexual scenes, and he knew it as well. So we had this intimacy coordinator on set, a very nice Italian lady. We started to talk about it. And that helped Jasmine and myself to know how to approach it physically. But afterwards on set, we let Jasmine do the choreography, because she was good at it. And she knew what were the positions that would expose her less. So Jasmine was the choreographer of the sexual scenes. And Nanni was like, “Yeah, do what you want.”

What’s on the horizon? I know you will soon appear alongside Sydney Sweeney in Studiocanal’s “Custom of the Country.” Anything else?

I’m going to work with Marco Bellocchio in October. He’s doing a movie called “Falcon” [about charismatic auto industry executive Sergio Marchionne, who saved Fiat and Chrysler from the brink of bankruptcy]. In “Falcon,” I’m going to play John Elkann [heir to the Fiat-founding Agnelli family]. I have another movie, but now is not the time to speak about it.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

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