Dominique Frot's funeral will take place this Friday. As we pay our final respects to the actress, Entrevue magazine has chosen to republish an interview she gave us in 2018. This interview takes on a particular resonance today, as death, the awareness of one's own mortality, and the passing of others played a significant role in her conversations. Dominique Frot spoke frankly about these topics. When we asked her if she was aware of death, her answer was immediate: "Yes, I wake up every morning knowing that we are going to die. I wonder how the day will measure up in light of that." The actress, however, refused to see it as morbid or depressing. On the contrary. "Joy doesn't exist for me if I don't have this awareness," she explained, before adding: "For me, this awareness is a height rather than an abyss." " As her family, loved ones, and those who cherished her bid her farewell, these words take on a special significance. In tribute to Dominique Frot, Entrevue is republishing the full interview below."
Jérôme Goulon: You're starring in a play that highlights the absurdities of everyday life and the meanness of some people. Which of these flaws do you hate the most about yourself?
Dominique Frot: The worst character in the play, I think, is the mother who's ready to shoot her son. She's a narcissistic sociopath, ready to do anything to maintain her own equilibrium. Human beings are dangerous!
Have you ever encountered narcissistic abusers?
I've met several people in my life who were like that. I even think that society is structured that way, that it forces everyone to be at least somewhat narcissistic and perverse.
You don't like the current society?
The joy I felt within me clashed with a growing lucidity about the world. If I look at the world squarely, the very image of modernity, for me, is Auschwitz. The day I become clear-sighted about the relationships between people, I see Auschwitz, on a smaller scale, certainly, but I see what leads to such horrors. Humans are driven by their own survival. We can see small things in daily life that, on a larger scale, could reveal monstrous things. Someone who clung to their job, wanting to kill their colleague to ensure they stayed, is a guy who, tomorrow, if his life is at stake, will be capable of shooting his neighbor if he has a gun in his hands…
"If my survival were more important than something here, then life would no longer interest me."
Would you shoot your neighbor?
Every day, I do what I need to do to find a place within myself where I couldn't do that. If my survival were more important than something there, then life would no longer interest me. I knew a friend who ended up on a train between Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was given a portion of food. But at one point, during a crush, he gave his portion to a schoolteacher. In the chaos, the teacher disappeared. But the teacher came back and gave him back his portion of food, risking his own life. So that's my answer to what you're saying. There's a part of a human being that allows them to have a perspective on life that transcends their own survival. I try to reach it every day, and for me, that's the actor's place. Being an actress, for me, is much more than being famous and having a career… I have always said, my job is not an end in itself, it is a tool to achieve that.
I imagine that in this environment, you've come across people who don't care about the fate of others…
It's true. Some unsung heroes from the street approached me about acting, and I was just happy. I didn't care about the money. Until I realized that these guys were there to build their own careers using what I'd gained. Now they're all making 15 million a month. You bring them success, and not a thank you…
The series Soda, in which you played the role of the "headmistress," made you very popular with young people. Was that a surprise to you?
Yes! And I loved it. It was a revelation. I have to tell you about the first time I noticed young people staring at me. Before, even when people recognized me in the street, it didn't bother me. But this was different. I saw kids running after me and waiting for me outside my building with their cell phones.
Downright ?
Yes, and it led to some funny moments. One morning, they chased me in the Buttes-Chaumont park. I was jogging, and some kids followed me shouting "Soda!" I pretended not to hear. And they kept shouting "Is that you?" at 8:30 in the morning, on my way to class. I had headphones on, and the kids kept repeating, "Are you the principal of..." Soda"Is that you?" and I kept running. Suddenly, the kids were running alongside me. There was a group of children.
And you finally decided to talk to them?
At one point, I took off my helmet and said, "What's wrong?" And a young man asked me, "Is that you?"
And what did you answer?
I replied, "What do you mean, it's me? Yes, it's me, why isn't it you?" And he looked at me, a little astonished. He said, " Soda"?" I retorted that I was running with Beethoven in my ears. And I added, "Wait, do you want me to call the cops or the doctor? Look at the time, you have to go to class!"
How did he take it?
Then, a bunch of kids brought their friends. They kept repeating, "Is that you?" and I said to them, "Damn, you're all crazy!" And one by one they said, "It's you!" So every time they said that to me, I told them it was lame, and so on. It seemed to completely excite them that I told them it was lame, so they kept shouting. After a while, I said to them, "Aren't you tired of this? I'm leaving, I have other things to do!" And they started again! I finally told them, "Screw it, go fuck yourselves!" and I ran away!
Was it a good experience for you?
At least I had a relationship with them! It was always gentle, even if there were a few hysterical ones. Today, they're grown up, and when I see them again, they come up to me to talk about themselves and what they're doing now…
"My work has become a kind of permanent return to what I abandoned as a child in order to become an adult."
Today, some people think that the education system isn't strict enough. What's your opinion?
That's a big question. I remember school, in kindergarten, there was a line for spanking… At one point, I was put in charge of a drama class at the conservatory in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, and I've always had a great rapport with young people. I have a thing for kids. I didn't go through a rebellious phase, but my life is a permanent rebellious phase. Through my work, I've created a kind of permanent return to what I abandoned as a child to become an adult. So I have a connection with kids.
What do you think of the controversy surrounding the bus driver who slapped a teenager who had crossed without looking, and who insulted the driver?
The kid probably didn't realize what he'd almost gone through, and the bus driver must have felt terrible fear and a sense of injustice at the kid's insults. It reminds me of a story I experienced. I was coming back from Strasbourg; I was 23. I'd learned of a friend's death. I'd taken a short trip to process it. This friend came home drunk, climbed onto the balconies, and fell. So I had a car accident with my Peugeot 504 against a hearse. I signed the accident report on a coffin. I wasn't reacting. I got back on the road, fell asleep at the wheel, and found myself facing a truck. It was a close call. The terror was so intense, it washed over me from head to toe, like a wave. And so the bus driver must have felt this terror, while the teenager did not experience the terror, and that led to this situation.
You're still in contact with Kev Adams. What do you think of his success?
Yes, always. He has this truly incredible quality when you play with him. Kev Adams hasn't changed. His career has taken off, but he remains a human being.
When people ask you why you became an actress, you say it wasn't a choice but an escape. Why?
I was running away! When I was little, whenever I sat down at the piano, my parents would say, "You're going to the conservatory!" And the idea of being cooped up with people doing the same thing as me—what a nightmare! I would cry. So I started doing math. Day and night, I did math. I lost all sense of death. I felt like a clone.
"I wake up every morning knowing that we're going to die."
Is the awareness of death something you have?
Yes, I wake up every morning knowing that we're going to die. I wonder how high the day will stand in comparison to that.
Isn't that depressing?
No! Joy doesn't exist for me if I don't have this awareness. But I don't tell myself, "We're all going to die someday," you understand? For me, this awareness is a height rather than an abyss. The people I've loved in life, right to the end, they were full of life! The more people live wanting their death to be fundamental, the more terrible they are. They're inhuman. These people who bother us because they're going to die in 40 years, while all around them there are people dying every day in Iraq, in Syria, not to mention the migrants who are drowning…
If you could resurrect an actor and act with him, who would it be?
Two names immediately come to mind: Coluche and Dominique Laffin, who played The woman who cries by Jacques Doillon. She died at 33, in 1985. Just when she had found peace in life, she had a heart attack. I had made a film with her that was never released.
You describe your profession as "a tool." Could you stop?
No, I still need it, and I have some lovely projects…
