San Sebastian: How Audrey Diwan’s ‘Emmanuelle’ Helped Noémie Merlant Rediscover Her Libido
Noémie Merlant found she had a lot in common with her character in Emmanuelle.
Her involvement in Audrey Diwan‘s new film, in the titular role, was so influential that she says it helped her re-examine her own relationship with female pleasure. “Like Emmanuelle, I was completely disconnected with my body,” the French actress tells The Hollywood Reporter.
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With its world premiere opening the San Sebastian Film Festival Friday night, Emmanuelle has received buzz for its graphic content. Diwan’s movie, starring Naomi Watts (Mullholland Drive, Birdman), Will Sharpe (The White Lotus) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Stranger Things), is inspired by Emmanuelle Arsan’s erotic novel — and this eroticism certainly helms the project.
Emmanuelle focuses on a woman on a business trip to Hong Kong working with a luxury hotel group. Searching for a lost pleasure, she seeks her arousal in experiences with some of the hotel’s guests. One of them, Kei (Sharpe), seems to constantly elude her.
Merlant’s performance is subtle. She plays a robotic woman attempting to exercise her autonomy over her own sex life and instead, finds a connection that requires no physical intimacy at all. Below, with answers edited for brevity and clarity, Merlant discusses with THR what she first thought upon reading the script, being inspired by France’s #MeToo movement, and why, if Merlant was a footballer, Cate Blanchett would be her Diego Maradona.
First of all, I want to say congratulations on your film.
Thank you so much.
What was going through your head when you first read that script?
When I first read the script, I thought: “Oh, I’m going to read a script that explores the feminine pleasure, and right now I just need that.” Because like Emmanuelle, I was completely disconnected from my body. After the #MeToo movement, I started to think about all these years where I am doing things just to give pleasure to others. I was like, okay, I know that I’m not really happy, that I don’t really have a libido. Why? As a woman who is already 30 years old, I don’t really share eroticism or orgasms with people. And there is sadness in this. In the script, that is there.
She takes the risk. Emmanuelle, who is like a robot and doesn’t get pleasure… She has the power of independency. But she’s alone. She can handle her life, but sometimes she’s in this luxury hotel where she has to always think, to spy on the others, to make sure everybody gets what they want quickly. I had a strong connection with her. And at the end, she says what she wants and when she wants it: “Can you put your hand here? I want this. Can you change the rhythm?”
Did you find then that playing Emmanuelle helped you explore your own sexuality and your own relationship with that eroticism?
For me, doing Emmanuelle, it was an exploration. It broke something – I feel more comfortable, more free, even just saying what I want out loud. So I can start living a new life of exploration, of my desires.
Were you daunted by the graphic nature of a lot of the scenes, or was it exciting? I wondered if you were at all nervous about shooting a film that some actors would deem so vulnerable.
I’m just vulnerable about being good, to be at the right place in the scene and to give emotion. I don’t feel vulnerable when exposing my body in sex scenes. When there is a respectful environment and strong ideas and a space of respect and consideration offered to me, I can go really far, as far as I want. And that’s what happened in this movie. So I was not scared at all, I was excited. It was, “Oh, this is the best for an actress. I have Audrey Diwan with a fabulous vision, I have a crew that knows what they’re doing.” We had a lot of rehearsals with the actors, with an intimacy coach to think about what we do.
After the #MeToo movement, there are a lot of people who say, “Oh, now with intimacy coaches, we can’t do anything anymore.” I think it’s just a little group of people. Yes, maybe they feel they have less freedom, but for the rest of us, there is more freedom. Audrey once said and I feel the same, that when there is space, a big collaboration between people and even an intimacy coach, we go way further. There are way more surprises because you have more people who give ideas.
I want to ask about the #MeToo movement. Its emergence came from the U.S. but the next country after that to be driving this movement is France, especially at the moment. Audrey said this film is an exploration of eroticism in the post-#MeToo era. What message is she putting out there with Emmanuelle?
Before any message, I think she wants it to be an experience of sensations. We’ve been fed so many images of sex, of nudity, of pornography, but in this patriarchal gaze completely dominated by violence. So she was trying to do a movie where we ask ourselves, “Is there still space for erotism and sensations in [women’s] lives?” She tries to make us take the time. Because erotism and sensation, I think, can grow when you are in the present moment. But to get to this place, it takes time. Same with the female orgasm. It takes time.
Just because it’s a feminist movie, doesn’t mean it’s not for a man, [Diwan] says. We hope that with this movie, when you see that she gets pleasure, the men can also get pleasure. Like all the movies we’ve seen about men, we were watching them, and sometimes we had emotions. So it should be the same in the opposite way. I think she also wants to say that consent is exciting. They work together. No one is forced. Everybody listens to each other. And you can feel excitement through this.
One of the focal points of the film is this amazing connection that you and Will Sharpe, playing Kei, have. I love how it develops and how it actually subverted my expectations in a lot of ways at the end of the film. I wonder how you viewed their connection.
For me, he was like a ghost sometimes. But I liked that he was a mystery, because most of the time it’s the woman who is the mystery in movies. I like the mirror between them, both are disconnected and don’t get pleasure. I like that you can still have a strong relation with someone without having sex. It’s not an obligation. This is the story I told myself with Kei: You represent, for me, the man who doesn’t fit the dominant dynamic of the male gaze. They will not have get pleasure if the woman doesn’t. He is also looking for equality and a real connection. It takes time for him, maybe at the end, after, he will have it again. But he is listening to her. I found it very poetic.
With something like Portrait of a Lady on Fire, I feel like you’ve become a real champion in film for the female gaze. How important was that to you, and how important is a film like Emmanuelle after decades of cinematic experiences for men?
It’s essential, in my life, to try give more space to women. And to work on this, not only for women but for all the people who don’t have faith in this world. Because you have to find sense in life. So for me, it makes sense and it makes things much more surprising and exciting.
How was it on set? You had Will, Naomi Watts, Jamie Campbell Bower. So many Brits. Do you hope to do more English language projects in future?
I would love to because I love this language. There are more opportunities because more movies are made in English. So, of course, you have more possibilities of crazy stuff, working with amazing directors and actors that you admire. I would love to work in different languages.
Is there any language in particular that you would love to do a film in?
Japanese or Korean.
Why?
Because I watch a lot of movies in Japanese and Korean, and I love the language, the culture.
You must have loved shooting in Hong Kong.
Yes! It’s amazing. I thought I would not like Hong Kong, and I loved it.
How come you thought you wouldn’t like it?
I don’t know. Because I felt that it was just too much. But actually, there is beaches, there is space with nature, the people are so nice.
You’ve worked with so many amazing people. Is there anyone on your list, a director or actor, who you would love to work alongside?
I love Yorgos Lanthimos. I love Phoebe Waller-Bridge. I love Nicole Kidman, Jane Campion, Justine Triet.
I wanted to ask about about working on Tár with Cate [Blanchett], who receives her Donostia Award at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival. How was it working with her?
It was fabulous. For me, she is Maradona if I was a footballer. I had the chance to meet an absolutely phenomenal actress. I could watch her so many times because I was the assistant in [Tár]. So I could just stand there and watch how she does the scenes, how much she gives with love to this job. There is something magical, because some people ask me, but how is she so good? There is a lot of things, but also there is something just magic that you can’t explain. She is so nice. I remember there was one scene we shot in one angle and we had to hug, and she was trying to hide her head to make sure I was the one on camera. It was very cute.
That is very cute. And last question, which is simply: What’s on the horizon for you?
My movie, The Balconettes, is out soon. Then there is the Pietro Marcello film [Duse] which will be out soon. There are two more movies I can’t say anything about. [Points.] That’s my agent. [Laughs.]
Read THR’s review of Emannuelle here. Neon has been announced to be circling U.S. distribution rights. Emmanuelle will get its theatrical release in France on Sept. 25 by Pathé.
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