On the terrace of the elegant brasserie Le Wepler, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, Benjamin Voisin, in cream trousers and a multicolored motorcycle jacket on his back, sports an easy, sometimes crooked, if not chatty, smile. His words are free and voluble, generous, his look almost innocent and his phlegm has all the characteristics of someone who succeeds in everything. He likes to tell his story – often with his hands -, talk, talk informally, make jokes, act interestingly. Extroverted and exuberant.
Far from the character of Meursault, which he plays in The stranger by François Ozon, which hits theaters this Wednesday, based on the novel by Albert Camus. A mythical and mute figure, indifferent and inscrutable. The opportunity to ask the 28-year-old actor how he got into the shoes of this hero of the absurd that everyone has read, that everyone has projected. And why him, anyway?
How did François Ozon direct you? The stranger ?
Sure Summer 85 [de François Ozon, sorti en 2020]He directed me a lot, it was really very well done. Indeed, it was necessary to represent the fantasy of a time that I knew and that has become an old memory, sometimes precise, sometimes vague. In any case, François had very specific things in mind. For The strangerIt was completely different. Nobody knows who Meursault is, what is in his heart, in his stomach. Therefore, François did not give me any instructions, except perhaps not to play, but simply to be. And he also asked me to read. Notes on cinematography by Robert Bresson, who distinguishes between “actors” and “models.” The first are those that reproduce while the second are interior, they have presence.
Does that mean?
François let me live. He told me, “If you want to leave the set, leave it.” He also explained to me that I was going to take the film, that the camera was going to be very close to me, that there would be almost no voice-over and that it would be in black and white while Camus talked so much about colors. What he wanted is for me to have an enormous imagination, what Bresson calls the “ejaculatory eye”, the eye that others do not have, the eye that, like Meursault, has escaped conformity. I had to develop a world, my own world. Obviously it was going to be heavy, serious, but we didn’t even talk about it together. He had seen me in the theater [dans Guerre d’après Louis-Ferdinand Céline, mis en scène par Benoît Lavigne, au Théâtre de l’Œuvre en 2025] where I showed these emotions a little. He could also tell, with this piece, that I was a real worker.
So how did you manage to “be” Meursault?
I became another person. It was the most difficult. The filming lasted a month, but I became Meursault for four months. It was a real sacrifice. I have read 300 times the stranger, 150 times the novel and 150 times the script. And for four months my phone was turned off, I no longer responded to my requests because Meursault does not lie, he cannot lie. I also isolated myself, I became sad, without energy, I became confused with several loved ones. I read pessimistic authors like Schopenhauer, I looked at Hopper’s paintings about loneliness. As soon as I had an emotion close to my own, I stopped it. And being alone, I began to wonder why we are born, why we die, why we live. Feel the absurdity of life. I had never immersed myself so much in a role. When we were filming I no longer understood why we had to do several takes, it seemed absurd to me. On the other hand, the difficulty for the actors who played me was not to let themselves be lulled by my pace, my depression, my slowness. To stay alive.
Why did you accept such a sacrifice?
Since François entrusted me with such a dangerous task, I wanted to return the favor. Especially since he didn’t need to put himself in such danger by adapting The stranger. His last film, When autumn comesstarring Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko, who collect mushrooms, registered 675,000 viewers last year. But I won’t make this small sacrifice with all filmmakers. You need real confidence. I feel that we are going towards the same place, that our humility is walking in the same direction.
What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
The final scene, when Meursault confronts the prison chaplain, played by Swann Arlaud. We filmed it first. I told François right away that I was going to do it fifteen different ways, one crying, another laughing, another screaming, another looking at Swann, another without looking at him, another conscious of the entire shoot, another unconscious. And finally, during editing, François kept a mix of all of these… although he mainly used two.
Why do you think François Ozon chose you to play Meursault?
On paper, I’m not the first to think. But I love that François gave me this role because in the future perhaps other directors will tell themselves that I can do many things that I don’t do. And that is my goal. I like actors who are versatile. And I like to do new things, not get bored. It’s not that the discomfort is comfortable for me, I won’t go that far. Simply put, I love to prepare extensively for roles. On the contrary, I hate filming because it is the moment in which you are paralyzed, in which you have to give answers while everything is open in the preparation.
And do you have any other suggestions?
It depends. People can often lack imagination. After Summer 85I received 15 roles from bisexual guys. After lost illusions [de Xavier Giannoli, en 2021]I received 25 poet papers. After Lent [série de Martin Bourboulon, en 2025]I had 20 series proposals. But that’s out of the question because, first, it will get people drunk and, second, I will get drunk doing it myself.
Source: BFM TV
