ACTORS AREN’T REAL. THEY EXIST THROUGH A SCREEN, THEY DON'T HAVE AN APARTMENT, THEY DON’T BUY GROCERIES, THEY DON’T WAKE UP OR GO TO SLEEP - THAT’S WHAT STEFAN CREPON USED TO BELIEVE AS A KID. A YOUNG FRENCH THEATRE AND FILM ENTHUSIAST, HE IS KNOWN FOR PLAYING PHILLIPPE COURBET IN NETFLIX’S LUPIN AND BEING NOMINATED AS ONE OF THE BEST EMERGING ACTORS AT THE FRENCH CÉSARS, FOR HIS SILENT ROLE IN PETER VAN KANT. WORKING AS AN ACTOR, AS UNOBTAINABLE AS IT ONCE SEEMED, ALLOWS CREPON TO LIVE FROM HIS PASSION, AND HE HOPES TO DO IT AS LONG AS HE CAN. CINEMA STILL HAS ITS HARSH TRUTHS AND REALITIES THOUGH, SOMETHING THAT CREPON EXPLORES IN HIS LATEST PROJECT, MAKING OF - A MOVIE BY CÉDRIC KAHN IN WHICH HE PLAYS THE ROLE OF JOSEPH, A YOUNG EXTRA LOOKING TO BECOME A DIRECTOR. WE SAT DOWN WITH STEFAN IN A SMALL CAFÉ NEAR MONTMARTRE TO DISCUSS HIS ADMIRATION FOR CINEMA, LIFE IMITATING ART, AND GETTING TO WORK WITH ACTORS WHO MADE HIM FALL IN LOVE WITH THE CRAFT.
Left Jacket Maison Margiela, knitwear Lemaire
Right Full look Celine Homme
Tell me a bit about your youth, how did you get into acting?
By chance, really. I was quite young, around 11 or 12, thanks to a suggestion from my French teacher at secondary school. When all my friends were going to play football or tennis after school, I went to do a little amateur theatre course in my neighbourhood. And that was when I had the big revelation because I had never felt as free and alive as I did there. Everything I was forbidden to do at school, which was considered transgressive, people there congratulated me for and pushed me to go further. Then a year later, I was chosen for a film. I was supposed to be in the 9th grade, I was supposed to be in a maths class yet I was on a film set. That, plus I went to see a play at the Comédie Française, Cyrano de Bergerac, directed by Denis Podalydès. And that's when I said to myself, “This is what I really want to do.”
That’s incredible because you then ended up working with Denis in Making Of!
I actually told him that it was partly thanks to him that I found myself acting with him today.
Let's talk more about Making Of. What is the story about?
It’s a film that takes place on a film set, with a director who is quite renowned for “films d’auteurs”, and who is making his new film about the occupation of a factory by workers. However, nothing goes according to plan, and he spends the whole shoot trying to save his film like the captain of a ship adrift. And he's going to recognise himself a little in a young extra who he eventually hires to do the behind-the-scenes of the film, and we follow the trajectory of this director who's starting to become disillusioned, and this young extra who's full of hope and desire.
Left Full look Celine Homme
Right Jacket Dolce & Gabanna, shirt Maison Margiela
This film is a kind of mise-en-abîme. Were you under the impression that you weren't really playing a role at times?
Well, luckily for the movie, I had a camera in my hands at all times, and I was shooting real footage. I was even shooting between takes, so when they weren't filming, I was still trying to steal moments of the actors’ lives. Having this camera put me in a rather luxurious position, I believe, where I was both an actor and a spectator. Sometimes I'd stop acting, and I'd be genuinely amazed by what was going on around me, a bit like the character. So that's where he and I met.
Full look Valentino
I think Making Of comes out at an important time in the world of cinema when we can see the engagement of extras, actors and writers, a kind of social solidarity in a world that seems disconnected from reality at times.
What I really like about this film is that it draws a parallel, a kind of mirror image of social struggles in all realms of life. It goes back to what Cédric Kahn says, he defines cinema as something both sublime and trivial. It's true that sometimes we tell ourselves that we're working for the art and we allow ourselves to accept things that we wouldn't accept otherwise. But no, it's not an environment that should be spared from this. There has to be social justice on film sets too.
Left and right Trench Dries van Noten, boots Celine Homme
And your love story with Nadia, played by Souheila Yacoub, that story draws a parallel with Joseph's relationship to cinema, a personification of his dream that seems almost impossible to attain.
There's a bit of that. Because for him, at the beginning, cinema is an impossible story, and the story with Nadia is the same. But in the movie, Nadia and Joseph are the two purest characters. They're the ones who haven't yet been tainted by cinema, they have this very simple relationship with the profession, and in fact, they're full of desire, naivety and innocence. So it seems quite logical that they should meet.
Tell us about Drone, another project you embarked on.
It's the first feature film by a director called Simon Bouisson, who's already done quite a few things, short films and very interesting experimental films. And he really has his own universe. I also shot a film with Cédric Kahn, but this time as an actor. We ended up reading lines to each other. It was very funny and touching.
Left Jacket and pants Maison Margiela, knitwear Lemaire, boots Celine Homme
Right Jacket Ferragamo
What was the last film that affected you?
I saw Mississippi Burning with Willem Dafoe. In this film, he's about my age, and he's fascinating and impressive. With Jenn Ackman too, they're both dazzling. There's a fight scene between them that really impressed me. And then I saw a French film, by Pierre Granier de Ferre, called The French Detective, with Ventura and Dewaere.
Left and right Jacket Dolce & Gabanna, shirt Maison Margiela, pants Prada, boots Celine Homme
You have zero digital footprint. Is that a conscious choice?
Yeah, completely. But it's more personal. I don't recognise myself in it. I like the idea that what I'm going to show about myself is going to be in films. Even if I try to play different roles each time, there's still going to be a small part of me in them. I like that more. In that way, the directors can know as little as possible about me, they can make me play what they want.
Interview by Gabrielle Valda Colas
Photography by Hanna Pallot
Fashion by Jorge Garcia
Hair by Anna Grego
Make-up by Fay Bio-Toura
Photographer’s assistant Lukas Doulsan
Stylist’s assistant Guillem Rodriguez
