Excluded. Vincent Lacoste talks with humor about the changes in his life since Les Beaux Gosses

Vincent Lacoste is back at the start of the school year in the dramatic comedy A very serious profession by Thomas Lilti. Wednesday September 13, 2023, the 30-year-old actor appears for the third time under the direction of the director, after having collaborated on Hippocrates (2014) and First year (2018). This time, he plays young Benjamin, a substitute mathematics teacher in a college. Quickly, he realizes that he has the future of many students in his hands and must learn to be respected while interesting the teenagers in his classes. Fortunately, he can count on a team of close-knit teachers, who are also plagued by doubts and difficulties. On the eve of the release of this touching film in theaters, Vincent Lacoste agreed to speak in the columns of Tele-Leisure.

Télé-Loisirs: What is it for you? A serious job ?
Vincent Lacoste: Surgeon, doctor, or teacher, because we transmit knowledge. Actor, for example, is absolutely not a serious profession (he laughs). I do it seriously, but very few people consider it as such.

“I became an actor not by accident, but by complete chance”

TL. : For Thomas Lilti, you were a medical intern and now a math teacher. You who only knew cinema after high school, what career would have made you dream?
LV: I started making films so young that I never really asked myself the question. I would have liked to be a Formula 1 driver… or a real estate agent in the PACA region, to show large homes!

TL. : The magic of cinema… you play a teacher when, you say it yourself, you were not very good at school.
LV: I was a fairly mediocre, lazy student. I didn’t listen in class. But my favorite subject was math. This is the one where I got the best grade in the baccalaureate: 14. I had a very good teacher in college. The film allowed me to realize that it is an art to succeed in capturing the attention of young people. I had cute sixth graders and third grade teenagers who had to be held. The scenes were written, but since Thomas Lilti likes improvisation, sometimes I believed in it.

TL. : This is also the third time that you have played under the direction of Thomas Lilti. You also played three times for Christophe Honoré. Is it important for you to be faithful to the directors?
LV: To those I like and whose work I admire, yes. For me, being an actor also means collaborating with people you admire. It’s a chance to be able to follow filmmakers for several years. With Thomas Lilti, we started with Hippocrates. It’s a film that was very important for me because it brought me different roles. I really like what he does, but also the person. We get along well at work and have become friends. Christophe Honoré too, I admired him enormously. I loved love songs, The beautiful person. I always said to myself that I would love to tour with him. When it happened, it was an exceptional experience.

“It was better to do cinema than to be in college”

TL. : In A serious job, you play an uncertain teacher who hardens over time. How do you approach dramatic roles like this?
LV: When I was younger, I was offered a lot of comedies. Now, the older I get, the more I get offered dramatic or villain roles. I play everything the same way. I’m trying to be fair. You have to be sincere and believe in what you are playing. Afterwards, it also depends a lot on the directors. Thomas Lilti, for example, has a written scene, and around it, we begin and end with an improvisation. Either he cuts or he keeps. It gives things alive and natural. Christophe Honoré is more written. All directors have their method.

TL. : It is often said about you that you became an actor by accident. Do you agree with that?
LV: I became an actor not by accident, but by complete chance. In every acting career, there is an element of luck and an element of work. I didn’t have the idea of ​​being one. But once it was done, I immediately loved it.

TL. : Impossible to talk about Vincent Lacoste without talking about the Beautiful Kids. Since then you have made more than 30 films. How do you view this career?
LV: I said to myself quickly afterwards The Beautiful Kids that I wanted this to be my life. It was better to be in cinema than to be in college.

TL. : Do you regret this route which made you grow up in the spotlight?
LV: No, I’m very happy.

“I have more confidence in myself being 30 now than when I was 15”

TL. : You have been rewarded witha César for best supporting actor for Lost illusionswhat has this changed for you in your vision of your career?
LV: It made me extremely happy at the time. It is recognition of the profession and it is a beautiful object to have at home, it sits in my living room. It came at a good time.

TL. : You went from pimply teenager to handsome movie star, before our eyes… Two diametrically opposed cursors. But in life, who is Vincent Lacoste really?
LV: I’m at the center of it all. I’m a midfielder (laughs). As a teenager, I was quite different from my character in The Beautiful Kids. Today, who am I? I do not know. I’m just myself, an actor doing roles. I think that a character is the meeting between the person who plays him and the character. We bring our sensitivity, our interpretation.

TL. : Being on screen so much, has it consolidated a form of confidence in you?
LV: I think getting older makes you gain self-confidence in all cases. I have more confidence in myself being 30 now than I did when I was 15. I haven’t reached the firmament of self-confidence either, but I hope it continues this way. I think that where we know ourselves best is at the end of our lives. Is it positive? I don’t know (laughs).

TL. : 30 years, more than 30 films. That leaves little free time. And the loves in all this?
LV: You know, in acting life you have a lot of free time. Sometimes I don’t tour for two years. We don’t realize it because film releases are regulated. But I don’t tour all the time. Last year, in 2022, I made six films in a row. But this year I only made Gilles Lellouche’s film. I had nine months to ask myself questions, to have a love life, to live what.

TL. : Being a movie star doesn’t help? In Society you say that after Les Beaux Gosses a young girl kissed you by surprise.
LV: I wasn’t even famous at the time, it was just my natural charm. Now I don’t know if it’s just my charm. But it’s true that it makes meeting people easier. People come to talk to you.

TL. : Besides, speaking of love, we will see you this year and next year in Time to love by Katell Quillévéré and in Love phew by Gilles Lellouche. What are the next projects?
LV: I don’t know, I don’t have any filming planned. I’m offered things that don’t always interest me. I’m actively looking for a great movie.