On the occasion of the release of the event film Black Box, DashFUN met Pierre Niney, Lou de La age and an expert from the BEA (Bureau Enquête Analyze).
After An Ideal Man, released in 2015, director Yann Gozlan reunites with Pierre Niney in Black Box. This time, the actor slips into the costume of Matthieu Vasseur, an agent of the BEA (Bureau of Investigation and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety).
The latter is propelled chief investigator on an unprecedented air disaster. Piloting error? Technical failure? Terrorist act? The meticulous analysis of the black boxes will push Mathieu to conduct his own investigation in secret. He does not yet know how far his quest for truth will take him.
On the occasion of the film’s theatrical release, DashFUN met Pierre Niney and Lou de La age. They spoke about the shooting of this ambitious thriller, accompanied by an expert from the BEA, Sébastien Barthe. You can find their words in the video above. The discussion then continues in the article below.
DashFUN: Lou, you arrived late on the set, how did you approach this role which is quite far from the characters you played?
Lou de Laage : That’s what is nice too; when you have little time, you don’t ask yourself the wrong questions. You don’t get tired with anxiety-inducing thought circles. It forces you to go straight ahead, to question the director as well because I didn’t know anything about this environment. I had lines that I didn’t understand. I asked Yann Gozlan for explanations because I didn’t know what I was talking about (laughs).
This character is a working girl that I am not at all in life and that I have never played.
This character is a working girl that I am not at all in life and that I have never played. But that’s what’s also exciting, it’s a character that demands a certain composition. In all human beings, we have many facets, we just draw certain traits of our character in life. Sometimes you just have to go and get something out of yourself that you are less used to looking for. It is this trip that is interesting, it forces you to do it quickly and have self-confidence.
Pierre Niney : Lou was great in a lot of movies but now she’s great in a whole new way. The first time I saw you with that haircut, the tailors, that character who has a big job … Seeing you take on that role, I thought it was really great. It’s obvious when you see her on screen, I think it’s great.
Lou arrived late on the project and it was obvious, she had a little Sharon Stone side, super sure of herself, brilliant, a little The Social Network side when it speaks quickly and it’s technical. It was impressive.
Pierre, the role of Mathieu Vasseur evokes that of your friend François Civil in Le Chant du Loup, did you mention it?
rock : Yes totally. Except that I do it better, that’s the difference (laughs). Every year, we will play characters who have the same jobs. There, we’re going to play mechanics in two different films (laughs). Indeed, it is the same family of jobs. Except that one is underwater and the other listens to what happened in the air. François had the military side and this codified aspect which is also fascinating.
The French Bureau Enquête Analyze is very, very well known. We are envious of our expertise.
It’s different in Black Box with the BEA which is less well known. However, the French Bureau Enquête Analyze is very, very well known. We are envious of our expertise. When there is a crash and it’s tense between two countries, we send the black box to France because we have independent experts, very strong, very technical, we really have good nerds at the BEA. It is a French pride. In any case our two characters indeed spend a lot of time with headphones, eyes closed to listen to try to understand the sounds.
How to appropriate the flaws of such complex characters?
Lou : They are already written. Yann Gozlan writes well enough that everything is already in the script. We have fun with that, we adapt to his proposal.
rock : It’s the interest of the film, it’s that it is not monoliths. All these flaws and these psychological, intimate weaknesses, which we will discover as the film progresses, that makes all the salt of the intrigue.
Lou : For me there was something almost mathematical in the writing, how Yann Gozlan brings it all. There is something very geeky about it. I also found it interesting to see how you nuance a character from …
