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We are with Stacy Martin. Hello!
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Hello.
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You are on "Taj Mahal", a french movie
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written and directed by Nicolas Saada,
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that will be released on December, 2nd.
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And you play Louise,
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the daughter of two expatriates
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who decide to move to India.
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This is based on a real story.
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Can you tell us how you took on the story?
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For me, let's say that it was
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one of the big challenges,
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to combine the real story
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and my part as an actress,
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in order to create a movie
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that was not just like a documentary
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but a movie that makes people think,
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that makes them wonder about things
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that they wouldn't have thought about otherwise,
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questions that don't belong to our daily life
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and that are not necessarily answered in the movie.
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People have to find the answers within.
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And I think there a not many films that
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do that nowadays,
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and that was what I was interested in,
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how can I actually play something
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something that already exists,
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without feeling limited or make a caricature.
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Because that was not the point
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And precisely, Nicolas Saada,
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the director of the movie,
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had met the real Louise. How about you?
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Yes, I did.
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I met her 3 or 4 weeks before shooting.
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And I was terrified,
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because I didn't want her to think
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that I was going to steal her story,
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or that I was going to change it
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I really wanted her to feel comfortable,
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to think about the project and the people
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she was giving the story to,
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and then to trust us.
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And when I met her,
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I told her right away:
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"Listen, I am a sponge, the sponge of
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your story, I am not here to play Stacey Martin
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in a hotel room in India,
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I'm here for your story".
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And she really was calm, open
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and open-hearted, she is like a diamond,
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she put so much trust in me.
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Were you surprised by any difference
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between the story you pictured with the script
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and the one she told you ?
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Well, she told me the script was very close
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to the reality as far as sensations
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or writing are concerned.
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It was very similar.
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She came on the set and she was chocked
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to see that it looked just like her room
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And...
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We actually didn't ask her the colors
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of the bed, the walls,
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It was really...
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an instinct that we all got
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when we were doing the movie
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and it matched in a very... very good way
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Thanksfully laugh
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Did you find it stressful to play
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a real story that belongs to a real person ?
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Yes, Yes.
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In this story,
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she lived things I can't even imagine myself
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Very intense things,
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I didn't want to do something caricatural,
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I didn't want to do something
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she couldn't be proud to watch
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It's a great story to share,
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She didn't tell it to everybody,
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And there is a reason why she tells it know
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so it's important to have that in mind
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when we do the movie.
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So no pressure at all laugh
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I am even more impressed by you,
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now I know that because when I was
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watching your performance,
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I wondered if you went through similar traumas
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to be able to give so much emotions to the role.
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Not at all.
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Ok. Well go see the movie !
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Cecile Martin is impressive in it.
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Seriously there are long moments in the movie
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where you are alone in the hotel room.
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So in order to keep the spectator in suspense,
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as you did - I was personally captivated -...
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You do that on your own.
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I wondered how you lived those scenes ?
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How long did it last,
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being alone in a bathroom with a old phone
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With a Nokia which didn't work
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It was interesting because i've made my preparation
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I did a lot of the work that I could alone
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Before starting