Léa Seydoux – The Beast: “Gaspard Ulliel was there with us”

Bertrand Bonello explains to us why he could not replace him with another French actor.

The disappearance of Gaspard ulliel, on January 19, 2022, was a shock for French cinema. Especially for Léa Seydouxwho was very close to the actor. “He was part of my cinema family. Our paths are parallel (…) We grew up together, played together, we should have grown old together…”, she confided in the columns of Sunday Newspaper few weeks later. “I was supposed to make Bertrand Bonello’s next film, but I don’t know when we will be able to shoot, because we first have to replace Gaspard“.

This film is The Beast. It was released in theaters this Wednesday, and Léa Seydoux plays opposite George MacKay (Captain Fantastic, 1917), who therefore had the difficult task of taking Gaspard Ulliel’s place against two of his close friends. Bonello had directed Ulliel and Seydoux in Saint Laurent. Then the two actors met at Xavier Dolan’s house in Just the end of the world.

“I also said yes to this film for him“, explains Léa Seydoux in the latest issue of First, currently on newsstands. However, there is no question of leaving the adventure: “After his disappearance, it was essential for me to do The beast, precisely towards him. But all along, I thought of Gaspard, he was there with us.“

Bonello immediately made the decision not to replace him with a French actor.so that there is no possible comparison. Otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to make this film. I would have spent my time imagining how Gaspard would have played this or that scene. By choosing an Anglo-Saxon actor, the comparison became impossible.“ It will be George MacKay, the young 31-year-old British actor. A single test scene with Léa Seydoux will be enough to convince Bonello of their chemistry.

The Beast: Léa Seydoux exceptional in a dizzying film (review)

Gaspard Ulliel was also to play the role of Jérôme Attias in Of money and blood, the series by Xavier Giannoli currently broadcast on Canal Plus. He was replaced by Niels Schneider, who recently said he wanted “pay homage” to the actor who died tragically at the age of 37: “The work, the difficulty was trying not to imagine his interpretation of Jérôme Attias. To copy what he would have done. We are very different actors and he would have made a fantastic Jérôme Attias, I am sure.“

Money and blood: Niels Schneider wanted to “pay homage” to Gaspard Ulliel