Jean-Jacques Annaud Talks Working With Actors & Managing Sean Connery-F. Murray Abraham Rift On ‘The Name Of The Rose’ – Lumière Film Festival
deadline.comJean-Jacques Annaud has worked with an impressive roster of actors across his 60-year career including big names such as Sean Connery, Tony Leung and Brad Pitt as well as Christian Slater and Jane Marsh, who were emerging talents when he cast them in The Name Of The Rose and L’Amant respectively.
Talking at a masterclass at the Lumière Film Festival in Lyon on Sunday, the French director revealed how he found the casting process one of the most exhausting stages of making film. “I never write with an actor in mind because a character often evolves, someone that starts out as 60 years old, may end up working better as a 35-year-old… I don’t want to ensnare myself.
I wait until my ideas are clear,” said Annaud. The director – whose varied filmography also spans the 1976 Africa-set Oscar winner Black and White In Color, The Bear, Enemy At The Gate, Wolf Totem and most recently Notre Dame On Fire – said his casting process tended to be long. “The only days when I come home exhausted are my casting days,” said the director, who prides himself on never letting his enthusiasm flag. “Why?
Often I can tell it’s not going to work as soon as the door opens. I feel it. But I also know that the actor in front of me could work for other projects in the future, so I make a big effort to get a sense of who they are.
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