Félix Maritaud

How would you describe your character, Léo?

We feel the need to help him, but he is in the place he wants to be. He belongs to this place; he is happy there. He’s not complaining. He’s just a young man who wants to give love and tenderness, and he’s found this world as a male street hustler. You see him blossom there.

The role looks physically demanding…

It’s not as tough as it appears on screen. What you see on screen is something that is inside the time between ‘action’ and ‘cut’, and after that it was all really joyful. It wasn’t hard, it was intense, because this character is intense. But tough is not the word. It’s not hard to play a character; it’s intense.

You were also in 120 BPM. Do you have an interest in telling gay stories?

I love telling stories. Sometimes they are gay stories. In BPM, there are gay characters, but the story is about the whole country, the epidemic that touched a lot of people, not just gay people. Sauvage doesn’t speak about being gay, it speaks about being in love with a man, when you’re a man. JW