Benoît Magimel: “We wanted to be like Delon”

A fan of Le Cercle rouge, Mélodie en sous-sol and Le Clan des Siciliens, the actor tells us about his relationship with Alain Delon and why his disappearance marks the end of an era.

First pays a final tribute to Alain Delonwithina special issue tracing his career. His peaks such as that Full Sun Or The Cheetah, of course, but also his lesser-known films. We give the floor to a few guests. Among them, Benoît Magimel recounts his relationship with Delon, a model at least as important as Bébel for his generation.

Here is an extract from this interview to be found in full on newsstands, accompanied by the memories of Maïwenn, who would have liked to see him play Louis XV in Jeanne du Barryor Norbert Saada, who notably produced Mr. Klein And Death of a rotten man.

FIRST: What was the first Delon film you saw?
BENOÎT MAGIMEL: Melody in the basement Or The Sicilian Clan. I can’t separate them: they both left their mark on me with the power of the stories of friendship that were at the heart of their narratives. But I grew up with Belmondo and Gabin, and I discovered Delon late. I only really became interested in him when I started to become an actor. Most of Bébel’s films were more easily accessible to the child I was. I came to Delon through a more cinephile approach. Over the course of my discoveries, he is an actor that I loved for his contradictions between his ultra-masculinity and the fragility perceptible in his gaze. For his voice too, so charismatic, and the dignity that there was in his roles. We wanted to be like him.

Few people dare to say it, as if its beauty were inaccessible and it would be almost pretentious to want to reach for it…
I think the desire to look like magnificent actors has always existed. It’s even what makes us love them so much. Gabin in Renoir exudes stunning beauty and charisma, to take just one example. Delon’s beauty grabs you with its roughness and the melancholy of his gaze. It was unique. I grew up in the 80s when the fashion in French cinema, apart from Depardieu, was for fragile men in fragile bodies. In that world, Delon astonished and stood out. That’s probably why I wanted to look like him, and why I was able to identify with him. However, I obviously had neither that physique nor that charisma. He was, deep down, almost like a father figure.

While Belmondo, himself, would represent the big brother?
Exactly, but it comes from their origins. Belmondo gave off something uninhibited because he grew up in a world of artists with a sculptor father, and he had followed a fairly classic acting career. He had the codes. Delon, he’s a guy who could have become a pork butcher, who did Indochina, so rubbed shoulders with death! I wanted to be like both of them because they were complementary. But Delon had something extra in my eyes: he came from nowhere and that made you believe that everything was possible, even when, like me, you were light years away from this environment. He made me understand that you could succeed without taking drama classes, without going through the traditional route.

Did you watch his films again to prepare for some of your roles?
What always struck me about him was his way of acting without needing to say things. His silent roles in Melville particularly inspired me and helped me understand things about some of my characters and the way to tell them. And then there is something that I wanted to do again once in a film and that he often does, precisely in Melville: his very singular way of turning around before leaving
a place, to open the door and take a look at the empty room before leaving! When he heard about his disappearance, I went back to his filmography, there are still about ten films that I haven’t seen. And with some, like The AdventurersI enjoy discovering other facets of him. Obviously, his string of masterpieces in the 60s is crazy. But I also like seeing him fool around with Ventura on a boat, and moving me in the final scene – when Ventura puts his hand on his face as he dies.

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