Gaspard Ulliel Quotes

I am one of the actors who think that inactivity can be beneficial, it allows you to allow yourself to let go, to go deeper into yourself, to question yourself and to refocus.

I have to thank my surgeon who did a great job. It [his scar] almost looks like a dimple. When I was maybe 6 years old, I stayed at my parents’ friend’s country house in France and they had this huge dog. The dog was sleeping on a tree and I jumped on his back like I was riding a horse or something. The dog wasn’t aggressive or mean, but it was just totally surprised when I did that and he tore up my cheek with his big paw. But it’s true, maybe the scar helped me in some way because it adds something to my face. It’s very interesting because it’s asymmetrical. It’s like a dimple that I only have on one side of my face. Many directors have used it for scenes in their films. The most memorable one was in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s A Very Long Engagement where I’m kissing Audrey Tautou and she runs her finger across the scar. [Laughs]

I don't often use the word pride. Even if sometimes the feeling is there, I can't quite admit it to myself, I try to keep humility. But looking back, I think I'm pretty proud to be where I am today. Especially when I think back to the shy and withdrawn child that I could have been. I suffered, like surely many children, from a lack of confidence. This is also why my journey began by chance, and why it was arranged in a somewhat winding way.

I think I was around 17 years old when I had my first parts in feature films and that’s when I really started to get interested in all of cinema, not just acting. After high school, I went to film school for 2 years. That was a great moment for me because I discovered a lot of directors from around the world and a lot of different types of genre. It would’ve taken me a long time to make these kinds of discoveries on my own without school, so I’m really thankful. At the time, I wanted to express myself with my own films as a director, but as I was getting more and more offers as an actor, I had to stop those studies to focus on acting. I feel trapped now because I really enjoy acting. But it’s true, I wake up every morning with this idea stuck in my mind that I want to write and direct my own film one day. As I work more and more on different sets, I see how hard it is to be a director. It’s insane the amount of work and confidence that goes into it. I’m so respectful of filmmakers and I admire what they do. I hope that one day I’ll find the right subject and the confidence to try it. I’m still young.

Many people talk about this scar, and a few directors before [Peter Webber] were seduced, if I can say so, by this scar. I'm going to phone the surgeon and thank him for it. [laughs] I was six years old and a dog was sleeping in a garden, and I just jumped on his back like I would have done on a horse. And so he just hit me with his claws, and that made a nice little scar. But it looks like a dimple. It's nice, and it might help, sometimes, to express feelings in my acting. I'm not really conscious about this because I can't really see my face when I'm acting.

I think one really memorable experience for me was on a film called Strayed by André Téchiné, a great filmmaker in France. That was an experience where I learned the most because he wouldn’t leave me alone, even for a second, between takes. [Laughs] He was really focused on his actors and that was really wonderful. I was really young at the time and that was a really important film for me.

I love music. My secret dream has always been to be a jazz musician. I tried the saxophone for a year or two when I was younger, but unfortunately I had to face the fact that I was not really talented !