Benoît Poelvoorde takes a break. While Podium 2 would be in full preparation and the actor is promoting On the branch, his new film in theaters on July 19, he is bowing out. In an interview with the Belgian daily Le Soir, he announces that he is ending his film career, “for a very big personal project” for which he wants to go to the end. “I will take stock of it with myself, but it has nothing to do with the cinema,” he said.
On this project, the actor remains very evasive. “A year and a half ago, I signed up for a fairly prestigious scholarship, bigger than the Villa Medici. I had to submit a large cultural and artistic dossier to obtain this scholarship. I owe myself a certain confidentiality, I cannot tell you the name of this grant because if I do not have it, I will appear for an idiot”, explains Benoît Poelvoorde. He adds that “it is a work far from interpretation. I go up a level, go beyond the basic public artist report. It will be international. I go further than Belgium, to the United States no doubt.” He won’t say more.
The actor had already announced his desire to stop acting in 2010. At the time, he promised his audience that he would no longer appear on the big screen. In subtext, he admitted to having personal problems. But in four years, he will shoot in twelve films. For a long time, Poelvoorde’s heart has swayed between the tumultuous world of cinema and anonymity. In 2014, he announced once again that he was retiring. “Cinema is exhausting, I’m a little exhausted, tired, he confides at the time. It’s a job that you have to do with enthusiasm, otherwise it doesn’t work, and I’m fed up. For me, it has become a job.”
Today, Benoît Poelvoorde regrets that people constantly talk to him about cinema. And especially of himself. “Today, the discussion is immediately about me, and not about the others. I love chatting with people, but if it’s just about me, I’m not interested. Very quickly, people only talk to me about cinema, even though I don’t care. Me, I’m quite curious about what people are doing, ”he laments.
But Benoît Poelvoorde will not disappear immediately. On July 19, he will star in the film by Marie Garel-Weiss, On the branch, in which as a failed lawyer, he pleads the case of a young con man who claims his innocence. Podium 2 would be in the pipeline, but again, this is information to be taken with a grain of salt. “He is in writing. I read the first version, currently in correction. I’ll give you a scoop: I’ll be there, but the story is more about Couscous (the Polnareff fan played by Jean-Paul Rouve): it’s Couscous’ revenge,” he told Belgian daily Lastest. Hour. Finally, far from the big screen, the actor is working on a play with Bérénice Bourgueil.
