Malou Khebizi: From Rough Diamond to the Golden Triangle
Meeting with the actress revealed by Agathe Riedinger in 2024 who masterfully carries on her strong shoulders the tight and tense closed-door thriller by Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz.
Two years ago, you landed on the big screen in Rough diamond by Agathe Riedinger discovered in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Looking back, how did you experience this first on all levels?
Malou Khebizi: I really had an extraordinary experience in Cannes. Their arms were opened to me like never before in my life. I discovered this incredible cinephilia where everyone is willing to wait for hours in full sun to get a seat for the evening screening. I also didn’t know that there could be a cinema as large as the Grand Théâtre Lumière. Plus, my parents were there for the screening of the film. I really experienced this Cannes as a permanent wonder. And all the more so since I wouldn’t even have dared to dream of finding myself there one day
How do we manage afterwards? Were you certain that you would continue to play?
In fact, I had the chance, before Cannes, to meet Igor Gotesman who hired me in his series Young millionaires. Having landed this role just like another, smaller one, in Enzo by Robin Campillo even before the release of Rough diamond was obviously reassuring. Because, on paper, I wasn’t at all sure about continuing. I couldn’t afford to engage in a precarious job. I had no lifeline, no safety net. I had actually planned to spend the summer following the Cannes Film Festival working on the Corsica Ferries cruise ships before being hired on Young millionaires. On this set, I also had a great experience. Three months of filming with a series rhythm proved to be extremely educational. And it also allowed me to have the money to go to Paris where I was also lucky enough to be able to rely on my agent, Elise Fécamp, whom I met on the set of Rough diamondwho trusted me very quickly, understanding my determination. So I was able to go through the castings and I got the one for 15/18 by Cédric Khan (in theaters November 18), which has just been selected in competition in Venice
What did you learn from contact with Cédric Kahn?
To adapt to his look, to his rhythm: Cédric shoots with three cameras, so there was much less waiting than on most shoots. It was really stimulating. And then, we were almost all beginner actors on the set. There was something very refreshing about it. And that reassured me in the idea that I was probably going to be happy in that environment and that I was going to be able to earn my living there. Looking back, I must admit that I was quite happy not to win the César for revelation. Everything had already happened so quickly that I was afraid of being overwhelmed…
When did the meeting with Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz take place to The Golden Triangle which, too, was presented in Cannes just like the choral Orange flavored wedding by Christophe Honoré, of which you are one of the wonderful soloists?
Around the same time but there were date issues. The filming then continued to be postponed. And then Hélène contacted me again about a year ago. We had already met once in casting and I had read her script but there, she organized a real meeting. And that was the first time I was offered a role. Again, that’s not nothing!
In The Golden Triangleyou play the role of a young woman hired into the service of a rich Saudi and his mistress in a private hotel which will be transformed into a golden prison. What immediately grabs your attention when reading this behind-closed-doors thriller?
First the element of surprise. I never imagined such a story possible. And then I loved that this film was produced by Marie-Ange Luciani who I knew from Enzo. A woman that I admire enormously.
How do you prepare to play this character?
Hélène very quickly gave me different books to read, including Serving the rich by Alizée Delpierre, a sociologist who conducted an investigation for 7 years on the side of both employers and employees and really dismantled an entire network. I devoured this book which described totally unimaginable situations in every detail. We also discover that families belonging to an old aristocracy will rather hire racialized people while the nouveau riche will call on white people as an external sign of wealth, to show that they are able to pay them! Through these pages, I understood that everything Hélène describes in her film is true. And I was able to see it with the house where we filmed. The bars on the window were pre-existing for example, they were not added by the decoration team! Filming in this villa meant a lot to me. There was something truly disgusting in this opulence, in this endless number of rooms. I also read The Fugitives by Hélène Coutard in which I learned that there are a lot of women who disappear every year. Whether domestic or, like in the film; women from extremely patriarchal cultures who evaporate as soon as their rich lovers, men of power, no longer want to hear about them. What describes The Golden Triangle is not fiction. But although I have done a lot of odd jobs in my life to get by, I had never heard of something like this
Did films also accompany you in your preparation?
Yes Rome by Alfonson Cuaron. Because I knew that this film had had a great impact on Hélène for its rhythm and the relationship with the bourgeoisie that was developed there. But I also met servants who taught me very concrete things. How to save time by making a bed for example. I also did a lot of sport for the physical connection of my character which clashes with the extremely feminine side of the woman for whom she works. We even did a sort of survival camp with Hélène, a very masculine world which brought us back to our status as women because we were the only two girls and people looked at us a little strangely. But to be honest, it was a bit bogus for a survivalist thing because we could hear the cars passing right by! (laughs)
Would you say that you have already developed your own working method?
I truly believe that I learn from each film. But I will say that all this preparation work mainly serves me to create empathy for my characters and to love them. Much more than being fair in my actions. Because when I love a character very much, I have the feeling that afterwards I can take him anywhere. Whereas if that’s not the case, if I don’t understand it, I can’t play it. With each film, I really have the impression of building a new alter ego
And what kind of cinema viewer have you become over the last few years?
I have a lot of gaps in the great classics that I’m trying to make up for over time. Like recently 120 beats per minute, Seven, Interstellar, pulp Fiction… On the other hand, I’m pretty knowledgeable about everything that’s been released in theaters over the past three years because I’m very diligent. But I look forward to what I have to discover. All this is so new to me that day after day I discover a huge, fascinating bottomless pit. I love going to the movies to cry, it’s such a perfect outlet. But I also received my education there according to the filmmakers’ visions of the world. In a world where the algorithms of different platforms are tailor-made according to users and where we are all locked in our own thought bubbles, cinema allows us to break this circle and get out of our comfort!
The Golden Triangle. By Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz. With Malou Khebizi, Soudos Mosbah, Ziad Bakri… Duration: 1h30. Released July 29, 2026
