INTERVIEW – Tahar Rahim: “I’d love to play a character who is totally ruthless.”

At the age of just 33, Tahar Rahim is considered one of the best French actors of his generation. The film Un Prophète (A Prophet), which first brought him into the public eye in 2009, went on to win the Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes. Since then, his already distinguished career has been further burnished with each new appearance. This year the actor is a member of the Jury for the category “Un Certain Regard”, with Isabella Rossellini as president. A new role for this actor who has won two French César awards. We interview him. 

Tahar Rahim © FDC / T. Leibreich

This year you find yourself on the other side of the fence as a member of the Jury for the category “Un Certain Regard”. What are your first impressions?
I’m very honoured to have so much confidence placed in me, it’s a big responsibility. I feel like a journalist, I have to watch three films a day. Normally, I would never have the time to see so many films. It’s a form of mental gymnastics that I’m having to get used to, coming out of one film to go straight into another. For me there’s no difference between “Un Certain Regard” and the other selections, there’s no particular aspect that marks it out, a film is a film, and they should all be subject to the same standards and the same respect.

One often gets the impression that your acting career just seems to flow effortlessly, and that you take a sort of mischievous pleasure in playing each role. It all looks so easy!

There’s nothing easy about it. For the simple reason that the characters I play are very different from me, I just give them expression. It’s very complicated to defend things that in fact I would never do in real life! The key to playing these roles is to invent a system of beliefs.

In your films, you often play infiltrators. In A Prophet you discover the prison world, in Les Hommes Libres (Free Men) you are made to spy on the Grand Mosque of Paris, and in Les Anarchistes (The Anarchists), which you are presenting for La Semaine de la Critique, you discover the existence of revolutionary groups during the Belle Epoque.
I’d never really thought about it, but it’s true! I think it’s due to my natural curiosity. I try to see things from different viewpoints, and to explore new worlds.

You are very hard-working – how do you prepare your role before each film?
If I’m playing a policeman, I prefer to go and work alongside the police. In the case of The Anarchists, I tried to understand the thinking of anarchists in the early 20th century. You have to immerse yourself in the reality and history of the time. There were all different kinds of anarchists. The ones I get involved with in the film are still young, they still believe in their cause, they have their heads stuffed with ideals and they are still very committed. I certainly read a lot of books about them, but the main thing I did was to go through the screenplay with a toothcomb beforehand. I focused in particular on my characer in relation to the others. It’s important to understand a period and a situation, but I don’t believe in an over-documentary approach. It’s the human element that you have to get to the bottom of.

What type of role do you dream of playing at this point in your career?
I’d love to play a character who is totally ruthless, a real bastard. Strangely though, nobody’s yet proposed me a role of that kind. I’d like to find out how as an actor I could make this kind of character work, and see how I could create empathy with the part without depending on just the script. Also I’d love to play a role set in the 1930s!

Which directors do you think could offer you this kind of opportunity?
Maybe a female director! I’ve worked with Rebecca Zlotowski on Grand Central and I’m also going to work with Katell Quillévéré… It’s always enriching to work with women since they encourage us to explore our sensitivity, that feminine side that we all have. My acting comes out the better for it each time.

In Tahar l’étudiant, filmed about your student life in Montpellier in 2005, there’s a scene in which one of your female friends reads your future by picking out cards from a pack. She predicts a big change in your life. Are you superstitious?
This scene was prophetic! I’ve since come to a clear conclusion about this scene: I’m not superstitious but I believe in providence. Everything we wish to accomplish, the career that we wish to have, it’s for us to decide. But you have to let certain factors come into your life, and there are elements that you have to work with. I work very hard but everything has come very quickly. When I see other actors who find it hard to move forward, I am conscious of how incredibly lucky I have been. I’ve been lucky like that for a long time now!

Interview conducted by Hannah Benayoun