Sylvie Testud is an actress, novelist, director, Caesarized in 2001 for The Murderous Wounds in the Best Female Hope category, then in 2004 for Stupor and tremors in the category this time of the best actress.
Since October 4, 2022, she has been alone on stage in the room Everyone knew it by Elodie Wallace, adapted from the book by Valérie Bacot and Clémence de Blasi, at the Théâtre de L’Œuvre, until December 11. It is the story of resilience, that of a woman who has become an iconic figure in the fight against domestic violence. Accused of the murder of her husband, this woman, who finally found the strength and the means to get out of the grip of her executioner, is also a mother and a victim.
franceinfo: This piece is breathtaking, even shocking. Is this role also a punch for you?
SSylvie Testud: Yes it’s sure. With such a heavy subject, you have to try to make it a theatrical object despite everything. Obviously, I’m not going to tell the audience that they’re going to burst out laughing, not at all. We try to make sure that he can feel, in fact, all the stress in which she lived, but that he has, from time to time, a bit of the possibility of breathing and of seeing something which, in spite of everything, keep humanity, keep a little hope, a little life and a little distance.
All the dramaturgy is contained even in the title: Everybody knew. It also says a lot about what is happening around the world about domestic violence, many see but say nothing. And the victim himself remains silent until the day he decides to speak and realizes that speaking does not raise his voice at all.
That’s it. We have a character in the show, who is the lawyer and who is a fairly strong woman and who we voluntarily don’t want to be a mechanic, but in any case, she doesn’t give a damn about what we think of her. And in fact, often, we realize that we are submissive and a little fascinated by force, by power, whatever it may be.
In her speech, the lawyer that I play, makes the almighty old-fashioned, makes the asshole old-fashioned and it’s rather quite enjoyable.
Sylvie Testudat franceinfo
It is a look at the dysfunctions.
You don’t have to be perfect to be good, she says so and that’s not bad, it’s quite liberating. And even me, who plays the two characters, I cash a lot. There is also a liberating side and I can tell you that I do not hold back the controllers at all.
Your mother raised you. Is there a small sound box? Do you sometimes think of her. It was a mainstay for you.
My mother is someone who was very strong. And sometimes we even wanted to say:Don’t you have a moment when you can doze off?“
What did she give you?
That’s it ! I stand well on my feet, I think! And besides, we were three girls. I was brought up in an environment in which, in fact, I never had to ask myself the question of whether I was a girl or a boy to do what I was doing because anyway, we were that we. So no one could say:Well, you can’t do that!“And it was much later that I realized the discrepancy: “Damn, why when he talks, everyone listens. And me, when I speak, I wait five minutes!“There was a time, especially as a teenager, I spent my time cutting off, I wanted to talk!
There is a huge bias in this play, it is that we do not see the executioner. It is up to the viewer to imagine it. It also allows the words to be heard even more, yours and those of the lawyer.
That’s it. The piece is really centered on her. Him, somewhere now, we really don’t care. That’s what he did, what it did to her. It is she who interests us. How she went through all these years, how she went through this violence, alone.
In the play, we also don’t see the mother who knows everything, who hears everything, but who does nothing and who asks her to leave the house when she is pregnant with this man.
Sylvie Testudat franceinfo
You have always worked very hard. You even learned German for your role in Beyond the Silence. Japanese too! We have the feeling that you always have to give the maximum and that you are really fully in your role.
I work differently, I tell myself it’s a chance. There are things I didn’t have time to learn when I was little. And the cinema offered me a lot of stuff like learning Japanese, dancing the tango or even shooting, and that even gave me a blast.
What does cinema represent for you?
An infinite field of possibilities. That is to say, when I am invited as an actress, I enter into someone’s universe. Someone is writing a movie and going to direct me. You participate in something, you meet people, you tell a story. Tomorrow, I can become an airplane pilot because a guy will have decided it. He legitimizes me and much better than I would myself.
Does that mean that little Sylvie Testud managed to accomplish herself through this profession? Was it a childhood dream, this job?
It happened to me little by little. I don’t exactly remember exactly where I said to myself: Oh, I’d love to! And strangely, when I was little, I wanted to be a judge for children. It’s crazy. I wanted to be a judge for children because I was in a college where it was really the zone and there is a judge for children who had come several times and she questioned us one after the other. We didn’t talk, but she was great.