Aurélien Gabrielli, the actor who wanted to live his life

He is selected among the revelations of the year 2023 of the Academy of Caesar. However, the 32-year-old Corsican, who decided to return to the island last year, is careful not to feel euphoric. Him, all he wants is to play. But on his terms.

“You meet Cotillard, Hazanavicius, Duris coming out of the toilets… It’s another world. I spent a strange evening. The day before, I was in Erbaghjolu, and there I found myself in the middle of all these people . It’s as fascinating as it is disturbing. When I left the party, I wasn’t well, actually.” Aurélien Gabrielli sinks into the electric blue vinyl seat of a café in the Cours Paoli, in Corte. The hint of an embarrassed smile on his lips.

The 32-year-old actor is one of the thirty revelations chosen in 2023 by the Césars. The academy salutes his performance in The world after usthe beautiful first film by Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas. Aurélien Gabrielli plays the role of Labidi, a young man from immigration who, between small shenanigans and small jobs, tries to write a book on the Algerian war. And will see his world turned upside down by the irruption of a young girl, Elisa.

So last week, on the occasion of the announcement of the revelations, he returned to Paris, and lent himself to the game with good grace. In appearance anyway.

“That’s all that intimidates me. I know it’s fleeting, all that. It’s just one night, and at the end, you go home thinking you were kindly given a taste of this world, but you are not yet part of it. But the bright side is that I had chosen Gustave Kervern as godfather, and we got on really well!”

This Wednesday, January 25, he will know if he is part of the last four of the selected, those who will compete on February 24 to win the César for revelation of the year.. But he assures that he does not attach that much importance to it. Before acknowledging that it may be to protect themselves from possible disappointment. “It’s nice, but it’s a job where you have to protect yourself. And then, what matters to me is to be able to continue working. And the Caesars, everyone knows it, it’s a good way to get noticed by directors and producers.”

During Florent, when I was playing Racine, the other students burst out laughing because of my accent.

When we retort that it must already be the case, with the pre-selection of the academy, and the very good critical reception of the film, he replies tit for tat: “for the moment no !”before bursting into laughter.

It must be said that Aurélien Gabrielli does nothing to facilitate the new Parisian projects. While all the aspiring actors in the country are heading for the capital to try to break into a very closed environment, where you have to see, and above all be seen, to get a place, he has made the opposite journey.

After twelve years in Paris, devoted to learning the profession of actor, at Cours Florent and at the Conservatory, he decided last year to return to Corsica, to his village of Erbaghjolu. “Everyone warned me, and I replied that nothing was final, but that I needed to go back”.

Aurélien is not the type to brag about it, but during these Parisian years, he chained roles for cinema and television, but also on stage, where he met, among others, Michel Fau, Jérôme Deschamps or Michel Bouquet, and interpreted Ibsen, Tchekov, Musset or Ionesco. A nice revenge. “At first, during Florent, when I was playing Racine, the other students burst out laughing, because of my accent. And then over time, it all ended up smoothing out.”

This return to the island is obviously not the sanction of failure. “The most important thing is to find a balance, I think. It doesn’t matter what the consequences are.”

I ask myself questions, about everything, all the time. On acting, on what I should or shouldn’t do.

The consequences are the risk of a virtual disappearance from the radars of the very centralized French cinema.

“This year, I worked a lot, a lot in Corsica. And I have no shortage of projects. But in Paris I have the impression that they must see my departure as a kind of radicalization!” After a short silence, the thirty-something adds, more seriously: “Sometimes I wonder if it’s not true…”

For the young man, doubt is like second nature. “I ask myself questions, about everything, all the time. I’m all day thinking about this job, about what I should or shouldn’t do… Sometimes I wonder if it’s still useful, d ‘being an actor, with everything that’s going on. Platforms, new modes of cultural consumption, films that are no longer released in theaters, or just a handful of days… I’m actually lost. Over time, I realized that it was impossible to be sure of anything”.

The one thing he doesn’t doubt is where he wants to live. “Now that I’m back, I know I need to stay here”.

For a year, Aurélien has operated a kind of personal riacquistu. “It was time to reconnect with my corsitude. As soon as I entered, I registered at the university, at Praticalingua… I also take singing lessons. I work with Jean-Pierre Lanfranchi, we toured this summer with four plays by Molière in the Corsican language, and thanks to him I rediscovered this language which in fact I did not really know. When you start to work on it, you realize that a language, it’s a new way of seeing the world. It’s become an obsession”.

In the café du Trésor, in Corte, this icy January morning, we are far from the gold of the Théâtre du Châtelet, where the next Cesar ceremony will be held. And Aurélien is no worse off. “For five years, I very rarely go to the cinema. Often, I am bored there. I know that it is not good, that I should! I read the synopses, and I tell myself that I have not at all want to see it”.

He who devoured the films of New Hollywood that his brother made him discover, at the end of adolescence, the films of Al Pacino, Robert de Niro, Coppola or Scorsese, he who then plunged greedily into the cinema French of Depardieu, Galabru, Marielle, Dewaere or Serrault, recognizes it. Now he”hard to be dazzled”.

What I like is to play. So. And sometimes I wonder if I’m doing this selfishly.

“The last thing that thrilled me was an American documentary about a guy who climbs the peaks, without being attached [The alpinist – NDLR]. It’s the extraordinary side that I like, I like to see things that take me completely out of everyday life, things that are out of the ordinary. That’s what captivates me, fascinates me.” Aurélien pauses. On his face fleetingly passes the shadow of an almost childish excitement. “Knights, for example! Do you see what I mean?”

An actor who does not go to the cinema. Decidedly, Aurélien Gabrielli is surprising. “I think what I love is playing. That’s it. And sometimes I wonder if I’m not doing it selfishly. But maybe that’s what is expected of us. pleasure, in order to give it to the spectator…”

To play, and more broadly, to create. In Erbaghjolu, Aurélien also writes. A lot. He would like, perhaps, to make a film of it. That he would realize. But once again, when he approaches the subject, it is with caution: “in any case, I want to try. We’ll see if I have something to say”.

As the time to part ways approaches, the young actor is asked who he would love to work with. “It would be someone American, it’s so extraordinary, what they are able to do. For me, the top is the one who made There Will Be Blood. Paul Thomas Anderson !”

A hesitation, as expected.

“But I don’t know if… I’m already having trouble finding myself on a big French production, It paralyzes me, big machines. We’re not free, everything is calibrated, there’s the sound, the light, the make-up artist… You can’t even move, you’re a puppet, in fact. And in the process, you have to release a text, and put emotions on it. It seems complicated to me.”