“It Feels Like A Scam That This Is My First Movie!” – First-Time Actor Guillaume Marbeck Talks Nouvelle Vague

Guillaume Marbeck has walked down a career path many don't think exists anymore.

An aspiring director, he followed a stint at film school by working every lowly job he could find on sets to understand how everything on a shoot should work. After a decade behind the scenes, he unexpectedly moved to the front of the camera as the lead in his first-ever film; depicting a young Jean-Luc Godard in a high-profile biopic from Richard Linklater.

“It feels like a scam that this is my first movie”, the actor laughed to Zavvi. “When I first got the call, I was one of the sceptics thinking that this kind of thing never happens – everything since then has been the universe telling me to shut the f**k up and prove that it can!”

Nouvelle Vague is, in the Linklater tradition of hangout movies like Dazed and Confused, Boyhood and the Before trilogy, less of a straightforward account of how the inexperienced Godard made his influential debut Breathless than it is a laidback trip back in time. It’s been embraced by cinephiles (surprisingly, even the more cynical French ones have got on board) but has an easy-going charm which can easily appeal to anybody without the slightest interest in this era of moviemaking.

Marbeck knew that if his performance wasn’t spot on, he’d have a target on his back. But after immersing himself in biographies and much of Godard’s early film criticism, soon realised that taking a too studied approach to bringing him to life might hurt the film more than help it.

He explained: “This process helped because it made me discover that he was funnier than I thought, someone who was always humorous without ever trying to be. The image I ended up getting was of the kid in the dark corner of your classroom, who isn’t really friends with anybody, but makes everybody laugh once a day with an off-the-cuff remark and gets respect for that humour; Godard was that fisherman waiting for the fish.

“After doing all the work, I wanted the focus of my performance to be keeping it respectful, as he’s not here to tell me if I’m doing a good job or not. Plus, a lot of people have opinions on him, and many of those will give me future jobs, so that thinking was my focus in order to keep going!”

However, it couldn’t be too respectful, as this was Godard before proving that he could be a filmmaker. The shoot of Breathless was notoriously chaotic, and Linklater’s film doesn’t shy away from depicting how inexperienced the director was, from never planning scenes or dialogue before the day of shooting, to the time he abandoned a shooting day to have an early lunch.

“It’s the magic of Richard Linklater”, Marbeck continued. “He would always remind us that we weren’t playing icons; the magic that would happen to make them these marvellous artists hasn’t happened yet.

“It reduces the dramatic expectations to the point this feels like you’re watching the ultimate student film being made, where anything can go right or wrong at any moment. I think it can speak to anybody about what it means to make that first big project, whether it’s in filmmaking, journalism, banking, anything – the thing you’ve been dreaming of your whole life is here, but you don’t know it it’s going to work.

“You own the moment and the space where you are, and no matter what happens, it’s yours and nobody can take that from you.”

This mirrors the advice Linklater gave Marbeck on set, encouraging him to “own the space”, and even getting him into the headspace of a director by making him tell the rest of the cast and crew his notes before shooting each scene.

“He’d just tell the actors to listen to me, and to follow what I told them – of course, he’d already given me the specific instructions of what to say to them, but it meant it really did end up feeling like I was directing the scene within the scene! It also helped us tackle the problem of whenever his script sounded weird in French or had an expression or turn of phrase that didn’t sound era-appropriate, which became a collaborative challenge, and felt like a new field to express ourselves.

“We knew that the script was good as we’d spent months workshopping it; Richard wants you to bring every improvisational idea you have to the table, as he doesn’t want anything to be overlooked by the time we get to set. He allows us to get involved with the writing, and once the script is set in stone, it allows us to be looser and more playful with our physical expressions.

“This meant we never doubted what we were saying, but had to ensure it still felt fresh, that the audience could believe this was the first time we were saying it. At one point, Richard said that he had the take, but wanted us to try something new, which gave us the green light to just enjoy being there and do whatever we want – because it’s those moments when the magic happens.

“To surprise the people we’re working with and to find spontaneity in an overly prepared process was very helpful. Godard could do that in 1959 by turning up with a camera on a street; we’re trying to recreate that period with a much larger crew, so finding that newness helped us avoid making it feel like a period piece.”

Since making Nouvelle Vague and embarking on an international press tour, Marbeck has shot a small supporting role as a “bitchy makeup artist” in Angelina Jolie fashion world drama Couture and hopes he’s inching ever closer to his ultimate goal of directing.

“Making a film with Richard Linklater was a masterclass; every day at lunch I’d be asking him every question I had on how to make the best movie, from how you choose costume artists, the process of auditioning actors, to pitching projects to producers. Every question a new director has, I had the master in front of me to give me the answer, and it helped me discover that it’s a lot simpler than I expected.

“And after playing Godard, I now believe that I should persevere even when nobody believes in a film I want to make. The first person you have to convince to direct a movie is yourself.”

Nouvelle Vague is in UK cinemas now