Léonie Dahan-Lamort, the actress who shakes up the pack | EUROtoday

Par one October morning, the chilly is already clinging to the home windows of the editorial workplace Point. In the corridor, Léonie Dahan-Lamort waits, silent, her palms clasped above her knees, her hair drawn again like a display. We sit down, she raises her darkish eyes and responds with quiet precision. She is 23 years previous and already eight years of filming behind her. Rather reserved in life, she burns on the display: a highschool pupil who goes by means of a ultimate night time in The Bitea pupil who faces a virilist pack in The Pampasprey to cyberbullying and lesbophobia in Nude And Sinnersthe collection which earned her, in September in La Rochelle, the Adami younger feminine hopeful prize. In the career, his title circulates as that of a serious promise of French cinema.

Born in Biarritz, to a mom caught up in her work at Volcom, a surf and skate model, and a father who was a photographer usually at residence, she grew up observing the distribution of roles as a lot as the photographs. In the household front room, the VHS of Mary Poppinswith a barely worn cowl, returns nearly each Wednesday. “I’ve seen it more than 900 times, I know, it’s not reasonable,” she smiles. “Julie Andrews moves me, and the film carries a real melancholy. » Later, she found this mixture of lightness and sorrow in Gregg Araki: “I felt a lost adolescence there. »

Stand your ground in the middle

When her family moved to Paris, her sister dragged her to a theater class where French songs were adapted. She chooses a Tryo title (no one is perfect), gradually frees herself and takes a liking to the game. Initially, it is not a career plan, rather a means of expression to free herself and tame the social space. Very quickly, she is spotted and everything comes together. First short film at 15, then a brief stint in the flagship France 2 soap opera, Such a big sun : a baptism of fire. “I discovered what the industry was like: you sign for a year without knowing what you will play. Zero control. » She slams the door, chooses her projects: a leading role in Everything is gonea supporting role written for her by Sylvie Verheyde (Stella is in love), Then The Bite by Romain de Saint-Blanquat. “It was the first time that I really carried a project on my shoulders: a lot of pressure. »

In The Pampasshe refines her way of playing a role through contact with the script. She plays a Fine Arts student returned to the village, who stands up, with charisma, to the testosterone-filled world of motocross, too eager to label her an “easy girl”.

One morning on set, she arrived “with [ses] little notes. One scene was to show two characters kissing just after perhaps passing his attacker; she suggests leaving space, time, modesty: “Often, afterwards, you don’t really want physical contact. » Director Antoine Chevrollier listens to him and takes it into account. “It was super enriching to bring a little truth… I find that in the end, my character is all the more endearing. »

Commitments without staging

On his networks, few selfies, no ego trip sessions. Her profile photo is not hers, but a chubby little girl, with piercing eyes, a cigarette in her mouth, by Yoshitomo Nara, a subversive Japanese pop painter. At the beginning, the young actress talked as much about cinema as about her struggles: political readings, taking positions against sexual violence and homophobia. She experienced harassment early on; the gaze of others slowed her down. Today, his word is spoken. Reality reminds him that it is a continuous fight. A month ago, she received a private message when she woke up: “A guy sent me a screenshot of me at 14, in my first short film where I appeared naked, without a word. No insults, no verbal violence: just this feeling that my body is being used, and a little disgust. »

Daughter of Jewish parents, at a time when many actresses are mobilizing for the Palestinian cause, she says she experiences the situation with concern: very sensitive to what is happening in Palestine without renouncing her identity. She seeks to understand her roots. “I recently read the Torah and I read it almost like a novel: it was important for me to understand the roots of all this, to reaffirm my conscious belonging, without being forced to choose a side. »

“I don’t want to be a political actress”

Everything about her exudes maturity, nearly solemnity. “It’s true that lightness, for me, is often the duration of an evening; but I don’t see why, because we are young, we should be unconscious and detached from the realities of the world,” she replies. An avid reader, she just lately learn Hello unhappiness by Françoise Sagan on the set of The Great Bookstore. However, she needs to maintain the liberty of deviations: “I don’t want to be a political actress. I also want to make funny films. »

When asked about her desires for cinema, she cites Paprika by Satoshi Kon with wonder and the weirdness of genre cinema. She would like to portray “marginals, witches”, characters who don’t match the mildew. This curiosity additionally takes her in the direction of animation: she works on voice, accepts the rigor of dubbing – “If, after two takes, you are not in time, we will not call you back. » – and multiplies the essays, from a short one to a series. From there, the trajectory becomes clearer rather than stacked: in La Rochelle, her young hopeful prize – “My good mark of the year”, she smiles – offers visibility to Sinners (Ciné+ OCS, early 2026), whereas Deadline (OCS) pushes her in the direction of an unsuitable position, that of a younger woman affected by leukemia. In the method, a Netflix filming in Scotland, thriller tailored from the e-book by Olivier Norek In the mists of Capelinstakes him round a survivor present in a cellar. “Things are falling into place little by little… it’s good. »

Director Charlotte Samson gave him a praise that she retains like a talisman: “On your face, we have now entry to a complete technique of thought. » And one could be tempted so as to add this: the acute consciousness that fiction can affect actuality.

Tomorrow seen by Léonie Dahan-Lamort:

Ten years in the past, did you suppose you’ll turn into an actress?

No, no, no. Ten years in the past, I used to be nonetheless enjoying Barbie and The Sims… I used to be simply attempting to be taught to know others, to know myself. I knew I loved doing the present – dancing, singing – but it surely was in my room, on my own. I by no means imagined I may make a profession out of it.

And in ten years, the place do you think about your self?

In ten years… I might merely prefer to proceed doing initiatives that talk to me, with those who I discover fascinating, pushed by what they do.

How do you see the world of cinema in ten years?

In a really perfect world, I would love it to turn into actually inclusive, an area the place everybody can merely be, with out conforming to norms. It’s utopian, but it surely’s the horizon that I want to see take form. For my neighborhood, what worries me extra is the place that synthetic intelligence will take. I hope that by this time, our rights as actors, and significantly as dubbing artists, will likely be clearly protected with an actual legislative framework. I stay satisfied that AI will also be an amazing alternative and contribute to main scientific advances, comparable to treating most cancers, so long as it doesn’t out of the blue change total professions.

What makes you optimistic?

Let tongues loosen, let individuals communicate: it opens areas, it creates materials, tales to inform. I like the concept we are able to deliver extra complexity and vulnerability into our works; I’m actually wanting ahead to seeing what this seems to be. And then the arrival of increasingly more feminine administrators, able to placing all of this to music, makes me very optimistic… Maybe sooner or later, I too will be capable to participate on this motion.

And the sentence that sums up your imaginative and prescient of the long run?

To Discover



Kangaroo of the day

Answer

I’m very “Que sera sera” (“Whatever will be will be”). I used to be born in 2002, I grew up with the local weather emergency within the background, so it is tough to undertaking with out imagining the worst. So… taking it sooner or later at a time is cool too.

ALREADY TOMORROW. Every Sunday, we current to you those that will rely tomorrow. Artists, researchers, intellectuals and politicians share their journey and their imaginative and prescient of the long run.