It's not every day that people from Tarn-et-Garonne walk the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival, one of the biggest film festivals in the world. Patrice Tépasso had this honor on September 7 with the entire team of "Our father the Devil", the first film by American director Ellie Foumbi. The opportunity to talk with the actor born in 1976 in Montauban and who spent all his youth in Beaumont before starting, first in Toulouse then in Paris, a career as an actor.
Patrice, how did you come to the cinema when it was not the path you had chosen at the start in your studies?
Indeed, I was doing a Master's degree in education. I came to cinema in 2010 after starting to create a small play with friends. I lived in Rabastens in the Tarn and we had created an association to support Pierre Louhoua, an Ivorian without papers. We presented a little musical show called “Les asparages sauvage”, with a repertoire by Brel, Brassens and Bobby Lapointe. I was playing a character there. A friend who we had asked to debrief our performances on stage said to me: “You should go to the Théâtre du Ring in Toulouse. They offer training in acting. This is how I registered for this diploma course “Towards a plural actor”. It was intense, 30 hours of lessons per week for 8 to 10 months. I learned a very free theater there. When I left, I had my first intermittent status. I had a year ahead of me, so I took the opportunity to attend ENSAV, the Toulouse audiovisual school. I went there as a volunteer for graduation projects. This allowed me to refine my desires a little. I who was a musician at the start, I finally turned to the cinema.
I learned a lot as an extra, but you have to get out of it quickly to avoid being put in the wrong box.
To practice this profession, we know that it takes talent of course, but also a little luck, a helping hand. Sometimes there are encounters that change everything. How did it go for you?
It happened in a training pursuit, in Paris, where I arrived in 2012. I needed to experience situations in front of the camera. I pushed the door of the Pygmalion studio, in Montrouge where I stayed for a year. At the same time, I began to develop my network. I started from not much and above all I did not know anyone in this environment. I started to make my first extra stamps. A shoot is something very well oiled, it allowed me to discover the very precise way in which it happens, but you have to quickly get out of the figuration to avoid being put in the wrong box.
You ended up landing your first supporting role in the cinema thanks to Catherine Corsini.
Yes, it was in 2015 in “La belle saison”, with Cécile de France. I played Christophe, an activist of the FHAR, the homosexual revolutionary action front who organizes an expedition to free his boyfriend. In this film, I was in the middle of the girls of the MLF. I keep a very good memory of it and I stayed in contact with Catherine Corsini. I hope to work with her again one day.
The film "Our father the Devil" received a very warm reception in Venice. The spectators were standing at the end of the screening. Now, I hope we will find a distributor in Europe so that the film can be shown in theaters.
Let's come to your news for this month of September. You are coming back from the Venice festival. How did it go on the Lido?
Wonderfully good! I was there with the whole team of the film “Our father the Devil”, by the American director Ellie Foumbi. For her first film, she had obtained a grant from the Venice Biennale. “Our father the Devil” was presented, along with three other feature films, in the Biennial College Cinema section. We shot in June in Luchon, because the producer of the film, the American Joseph Mastantuono, has family ties in the Pyrenees.
How was this film received at the Venice Biennale?
Very good. It was projected three times and the spectators were standing at the end of the session. Now, we hope to find a distributor in Europe so that this film can be shown in theaters. It is a very strong film, with harsh scenes. It tells the story of Marie, chef in a retirement home in Luchon, who sees her past as a child soldier in Rwanda reappear, the day a priest arrives at the EHPAD to take care of the residents. She recognizes in him the one who had placed weapons in her hands.
What is your role?
I'm the accountant at the retirement home. He's a somewhat lost guy, who tries to make friends, to create social ties, but he doesn't do it very well (laughs).
I just made a call back in Rome for a Netflix Italy series that tells the story of Lydia Poet, the first Italian woman to become a lawyer.
After Venice, you headed for Rome. Could your career now move to Italy, the country of origin of your paternal grandparents?
It is possible. 6 months ago, I found a new agent in Rome, so she put me on artistic projects in Italy. I went to his agency because I wanted to apply for the casting of Dario Argento's next film. There, I went there on September 9 for a call back, the last stage of a casting for a Netflix Italy series which traces the story of the first Italian lawyer, Lydia Poet. I like period films and people like me in these roles (Editor's note: Patrice Tepasso played in "Cézanne et moi", a film by Danielle Thompson released in 2016; we also saw it on TF1 and Netflix in season 1 of the series "The Bazaar of Charity). I am waiting for the answer after this call back in Rome which gave me the opportunity to visit the Cinecitta studios. It was great !
Do you have any other projects in the cinema or on television after your remarkable performance in the TV movie “Crime dans le Larzac” which we saw in February?
It's true that it was a great ratings success on France 3 with 6 million viewers. It was a Saturday night and we did as well as “The Voice”! I hope to work again with Francis Fourcou, with whom I shot in 2016 in the Toulouse region "Laurette, 1942". It was he who introduced me to Ellie Foumbi. There, Francis is preparing a detective series which will be shot in Occitania. He will have an important role to entrust to me.
Do you often come to Beaumont or Toulouse where your mom lives?
I make sure to organize myself to go down one weekend a month.
He also advertises rugby on TV
For a few years, those close to Patrice Tépasso have also been following his career as an actor, on TV, in advertising screens. The latest spot shot by the Beaumontois did not go unnoticed. We see him in full frame, jumping for joy, in a gallery, in the middle of rugby fans. “For this LNR communication campaign which aims to encourage people to return to rugby stadiums, it made me very happy to be called as Tarn-et-Garonnais”.
Patrice is the youngest son of Marius Tépasso, the late president of Stade Beaumontois Lomagne rugby who died in 2012. Larrazet, he is part of the rugby family, like his brothers Philippe Tépasso and Christophe Larrieu. Last Saturday, the SBLR Facebook page did not fail to relay the clip from the LNR. “These Beaumontois are everywhere! »
