Cannes 2023: The Nature of Love | Interview of Magalie Lépine-Blondeau (Un Certain Regard)

We had the pleasure of interviewing actress Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, who shines in Monia Chokri’s The Nature of Love, presented in Un Certain Regard, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

At the 76th Cannes Film Festival, some gems are to be found in the Un Certain Regard section, such as Monia Chokri’s latest work, The Nature of Love, presented with a slightly different French title, Simple comme Sylvain (As Simple As Sylvain), and starring Pierre-Yves Cardinal and Magalie Lépine-Blondeau. In this thrilling and philosophical study of love and relationships, Sophia, a 40-year-old philosophy professor, is in a stable (if somewhat socially conforming relationship) with Xavier. From gallery openings to endless dinner parties, ten years have already flown by. Sylvain is a craftsman, renovating Sophia and Xavier’s new country house. When Sophia and Sylvain meet, Sophia’s world is turned upside down. Opposites attract, but can they last? After interviewing Monia Chokri, we also had the pleasure of chatting with Magalie Lépine-Blondeau (who plays Sophia in the film) about her strong friendship with Monia Chokri, their work relationship and Magalie’s perception of the film.

Film Fest Report: How did you meet with Monia Chokri?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: We were in a theater school at the same time but in two different theater schools in Montreal, in Quebec. It is a funny story actually: I saw one day and I was like: “Oh, this woman, I want to be part of her life!” And so I simply asked her “I’d like to be your friend.” And so we went like on a friendship date the next day. And then we never left each other’s side. We have chosen each other (laughs).

Film Fest Report: How did you react when Monia Chokri proposed you the role of Sophia?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: I read the first version of the script years ago, way before she offered me the part. I simply fell in love with Sophia. I rarely wanted to play a character as much as I wanted to play her. Also, because her writing is so close to conversations that we have had for years. I know everything that the film refers to in Monia’s life, in ours, and so it already felt so close to me. I was afraid to put her in a very uncomfortable situation where I would ask her to play the character. And so it took a bit of time. And she shared her fears that the work would interfere in our friendship, in our relationship. And it was actually quite the opposite. I did not think that we could love each other more than we did before, but we actually do. I think we have shared so much on this movie and being directed by her saved us a lot of time because all she had to do was look at me and I knew what she would expect for the next take.

Film Fest Report: When you read the script, you discovered that it has a very modern perception of the notion of couple (they do not sleep in the same room, they refuse to have children…). What was your reaction to it?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: I share pretty much the same point of view on that matter. What is love? What’s the distinction between passion and the couple as an institution? And how to preserve but also nourish passion in what we decided a couple should be? What I thought though, five years ago is that she was much more cynical than the result. With the years, I think what she wanted to bring up was the a lot of tenderness. When you would read the script, it was extremely funny. Now, it is still a comedy but she didn’t she didn’t direct us in that way. The comedy comes from the writing and the situations, but she directed us in a very first degree, an intense way. Because the characters do not know that they are in a comedy and when you fall in love, there’s something so beautiful, but also so pathetic about it.

Film Fest Report: Did you discover something you did not know about her while working on this project together?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: I experienced with her, the best version of her. I was so moved, by the way, that her cinema and her cinema evolved with her. Monia has a very powerful personality and very powerful views. She knows what she wants, and she does what it takes to obtain it, but she does it now with so much maturity and tenderness. She is a very positive leader, actually.

Film Fest Report: What is the main topic of the film, to your eyes?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: To me, it is freedom. Passion, sexuality, and relationships. In the movie, what the character is really seeking for is a definition of herself, and she loses that throughout the movie. It is very interesting to me because when we meet Sophia at the beginning of the film, she is actually in a great relationship. There is respect, admiration. They laugh, they have great families, a beautiful home. They connect in a very deep, intellectual, and respectful way. And when she meets the character of Sylvain, it brings up a fire and illuminates her body. But then, strangely, she goes in a very traditional way of experimenting love. And I have found that very interesting because we are often torn between what we have been fed as what we should be, should expect from love, from society, especially as women. And then deconstructing that and finding our own definitions. It is a tough journey. As is many of our societies today, we really opened and evolved our thinking about sexuality. There is so many sexual identities and way of living or sexualities today, but I don’t think that our vision of love, our vocabulary, our definition of relationships have evolved at the same rhythm.

Film Fest Report: The English title (The Nature of Love) and the French title (Symple comme Sylvain ie. “As Simple as Sylvain”) have very different meanings. What is your thought about this?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: This is Monia’s choice. In “Simple comme Sylvain”, there is humor in it and there is also judgment. I think she could not find the equivalent in English, so she lost a bit of comedy in the title, but she gained a lot of the complexity of the movie. So perhaps both titles should come together (laughs).

Film Fest Report: Was it challenging to film all the sex scenes?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: Obviously, there are a lot of sex scenes in the movie, but it was such a wonderful experience to think these sex scenes so differently than my past experience. So, it is not that it was difficult. I felt very vulnerable, and I wanted to give all that vulnerability to Monia and to the film. But I could also go so far in that letting go because I felt so safe. And we talked so much about how we wanted to shoot these scenes, how we wanted it to be very profoundly erotic without ever seeing anything on my body. And the way she shoots these scenes is that there is often something obstructing the view. And so the audience has to participate and become a bit voyeur, which is kind of strange because we are surrounded by nudity all the time. We open our Instagram; we see ads and the model is often almost naked. It is everywhere all the time. We see sex scenes on television whenever you open the television. But what does it say? And that is what we wanted to do together. Every one of these sex scenes would be a different way to communicate. And so that was the challenge, I think. Even though it was not difficult.

Film Fest Report: Will it be harder for you to go back to shooting sex scenes for someone else again?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: I do not know how it is going to be in the future. But I do know that I think we are entering a new era, I am 40 years old now and at home, I work a lot. So, I think I have a power now that I did not have when I was 25. And I want to use it to voice that. Because if a director chooses me now, it is for the work that they know that I can do. But when you are a young woman at 25, it is very different. And often the young female characters are fantasies for the male characters. They often do not have an identity and something to express. I think that tends to change. What was so different for me as an actress, because I shot many sex scenes in my in my career now; it was always a very profoundly violent experience for me, not because the people I was working with were violent, but I did not recognize my work. I always felt abandoned, and as a woman, I felt that they were not directed. We are often left to ourselves as actors. I felt like I, Magalie, had to be desirable when I shot these scenes rather than thinking about how or what my character desired. And that was a huge difference. When shooting with Monia, I was always in the character of Sohia. “Where is she at that moment? How does she kiss at that moment? What is she experiencing? What does it say?” And that was so different than just being sexy in the end filming a sex scene just to have a glimpse of nudity.

Film Fest Report: What is next for you? Any upcoming projects?

Magalie Lépine-Blondeau: I am going back film the third season of a television series that I was doing in the past. And it never happened to me before it, but right now, I don’t know what the future will be. It is actually quite exciting!