―The Glass Menagerie is known as a memory play ("The scene is memory"). Why do you think this play is so attractive to many people even today? What fascinated you when accepting the role as Amanda? I personally was deeply moved by your performance as Erika in The Piano Teacher (La pianiste).

A combination of several elements. This work is of course a masterpiece of the great author Tennessee Williams of whom I had already acted in A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski. But to be sure, what attracted me also was Ivo van Hove who would direct the production. So these two elements plus the magnificent role, make a perfect combination. This piece, director and role, how could we expect a better combination?

―What is your image and interpretation of the character Amanda? What were clues to your acting? What sort of procedure did you go through to attain your own Amanda?

To be perfectly frank with you, I'd had an image of Amanda as a slightly out-of-date woman from a movie of the 1950s. But reading the play, I had a thought above all that it is Ivo van Hove who would direct it and that the full significance of playing this kind of text or role was to contemporize them, not to be concerned for representing them within the specific time with fixed, slightly outdated codes. And hence, I've played my role in a totally free manner. Amanda is a mother who loves her children and hopes for their happiness so much that she could be over-possessive. All that was needed for me is digging these furrows and it became entirely possible to make the character very close to a contemporary audience.

―There are many productions based on The Glass Menagerie including films and other art forms. Is there any production, regardless of genre, which was quite impressive to you?

I watched a wonderful production directed by Sam Gold who is, I believe, close to Ivo van Hove, starring Sally Field. I watched it on Broadway in New York, USA. It was impressive and Sally Field's interpretation was amazing. I really loved it.

―How was the experience of working with the director Mr. Ivo van Hove while creating a new production?

It was fantastic. Though he as a director proposes a very firm framework, he interferes very little in terms of direction of actors. He gives me full freedom. I take it to be a sign of confidence in me, which I like very much. He rehearses us quite quickly, not for hours and hours per day. He is a person with a very precise vision, we sense it and trust it. For his part as well, I believe, he has full confidence in my interpretation. That's why he tells me the minimum things once he gives me a framework.

Regarding the set design by Jan Versweyveld, I love it. It looks like a burrow. As it is all covered with fur, it is very comfortable to be on stage. Also, there is a very amusing point from a chromatic view. The set is a russet color. Then I, Justine Bachelet acting as Laura, and even Antoine Reinartz playing Tom are all dressed in more or less russet color costumes, too. Thus we somewhat look like animals hidden in this burrow-looking set, which intensifies the anxiety-inducing aspect of the piece and its subject. It is as though we were shut up in this tiny space being cut off from the world, which only aggravates and strengthens the presence of the nervousness as well as the very heaving action, so everything becomes highly intensive. This set inspires us a lot.

―Will you please tell us about your co-stars with whom you will share the stage at the New National Theatre, Tokyo?

We have formed a quite harmonious quartet. There has not been the least bit of difficulty between us. It has been a pleasure to work with the three marvelous actors: Justine Bachelet in the role of Laura, Antoine Reinartz as Tom and Cyril Gueï playing the role of Jim. Justine's Loura is absolutely exquisite, very fragile and extremely moving. Antoine reveals thoroughly the violence and frustration of the character. Cyril's Jim is both wholly reassuring and open until he gets disturbing all of a sudden towards the end, when he tells them something quite opposite to what they ―at least Amanda and her daughter ―expect of him at first.

―You mentioned before that standing on stage is the only sport (physical exercise) you do. What is it like to be a stage actress for you today? How would you situate the theater performance in your life?

Well now, I can't remember very well my saying so, but indeed, the theater is unique. Even though you could be very immobile depending on roles, in any case it surely brings your whole body into play. Contrary to movies where your body is, at least when completed, always divided in parts, it is exciting to be able to use your whole body on stage. It is true that in the theater, in whatever state the body is, I never hold back from making it an element which is not restrictive at all but which, on the contrary, enables to release every emotion, every expression, every fantasy and every madness. It is the body which conveys all these things.

―During your stay in Japan, is there anything specific that you are looking forward to?

For me it is, at all times, a great joy to be in Japan. I don't know anyone who doesn't like the country. In fact, it has habitually represented a fantastical poetic sentiment, a world which sometimes seems far from ours but also which we always take great pleasure in discovering. Coincidentally, this time I am supposed to go to Japan twice with a very short interval, because during the summer I am going to make a long stay there for the shooting of a French movie in Kyoto and Naoshima, and in September I will be in Tokyo to act in The Glass Menagerie directed by Ivo van Hove at the New National Theatre, Tokyo.

(Edited by ONOE Sora)

From the August issue of The Atre