Comedian, screenwriter, director and actor ... Kheiron has more than one string to his bow. Today he comes to our microphone to defend his new film Brutus vs César, to be discovered on Amazon Prime Video.
AlloCiné: Brutus vs César, it's your first real comedy after We three or nothing and Weeds. Why before waited so long and why tackle the history of the Romans and Gauls?Kheiron: When you are a stand-up comedian and go to the movies, we are expecting you in a comedy. So I wanted to surprise and do something else. When you do two dramatic social comedies that talk about various subjects that you don't necessarily tackle on stage, you then expect a more traditional comedy. And when we tell you Brutus vs Caesar, you don't expect that. I like to try to surprise my audience. And I chose this subject because I wanted to rehabilitate a famous traitor in history. I find the time interesting for many reasons: it can allow anachronisms and to travel a little too.
It is true that we forget but your pseudo Kheiron is a reference to a character from Greek mythology.Yes indeed. Chiron the centaur. We are in the midst of the Greek beliefs which were taken over by the Romans. He is a character that I particularly like, he is fair, wise and he is an educator. He initiated Achilles and Ulysses. He is in the sciences, medicine and the arts. A very complex and deep character.
Now that you are on your third film, how would you describe your style as a director?I don't know... isn't it for others to describe your style in general? I think we do things instinctively. If someone had tried to give me a style after two first films, I just broke it with Brutus vs Caesar. If we try the same exercise now, I'll "break" it again with my next feature film. My goal is not to be in a box. If you want to surprise your audience, you have to dare to throw them off the hook.
There is something that made me laugh a lot in the film, it is the choice of music. It creates a sort of interesting gap.It is a real bias. There are some very epic moments that we played hard. We also played the comedy card with very modern music. I wanted that from the first part of Brutus vs César, we tell ourselves that it's a big rubbish and that it can go in all directions.
The first part?I would love to make a sequel. I know it's not smart from a marketing point of view to announce it because if it didn't happen, it would have meant that the film didn't work and that it was a failure. People are afraid of it. In life we fall and it does not matter. The film was written for a sequel. If the audience gets hold of the film and it wins, Amazon will order me another one. And if not, there won't be any more.
So it will eventually be an Amazon saga?The film was supposed to be released in theaters, but we started with Amazon on the first. If there is a sequel, I will stay true to them.
A sequel on famous traitors for example?It will be a surprise! But once again it will be surprising.
When you see a historical film, you inevitably ask yourself the question of fidelity to the work. Would you say comedy allows you to get over it?Yes, because otherwise there is no added value. If you change the past, just to change the past, it can be a bit treacherous. There may be no noble motives behind it. Like a desire to rewrite history. This is not always the case, but it can be seen as such. Whereas when you change the past to have a laugh, we forgive you because there is no message behind it. We are not advocating anything. We forgive humor. And so much the better.
In the case of Brutus vs Caesar, it may have been surprising to see minority actors playing white historical figures. You, as a screenwriter and director, is this a subject that crossed your mind?It's completely voluntary. It is no coincidence that in the Senate, there are women, blacks, Arabs, Asians and Caucasians. It is no coincidence that the notion of sex or gender is not present in this film. There were never any women who fought in the Roman legions. I have it. We made armor specially to let the breasts pass. It cost us more money to do these details, to bring buses of Caucasians or Asians to such remote villages in Morocco to shoot the film. It would have been easier to take locals. It was a real desire on my part because I want to bet on this card. I bet on crossbreeding, diversity and I know that people need heroes. To be able to identify. For decades we had white actors to play it all. It is time for that to change too.
Vast subject than comedy. You recently said this sentence on social media: "You have the right to decide what makes you laugh, not what is funny". And precisely I read in an interview given to our colleagues at Première that you initially wanted to talk about Judas but that you restrained yourself for obvious reasons.Yes, I had created a mini-series a few years ago called "Les Voisins du haut". The concept is a shared apartment in Paradise. There is Jesus, Judas, Buddha, Shiva, Parvati, Khadija the wife of Mohamed. He does not appear and it was said jokingly that it was for "obvious survival reasons". All these characters cohabited in peace. They were winnowing each other. Today I think I could not do it again. We regressed on the general level of acceptance in humor. It would have been to shoot me in the foot to go on Judas. The goal is to be free when writing something. If we feel that we cannot go on a subject, the goal is not to go there to provoke. It's still family entertainment. But I deplore the fact that we cannot actually laugh at everything.
It seems to me that you took advantage of the confinement to write your next feature film.Yes ! I'm just waiting for Brutus vs Caesar to come out to start canvassing with the partners, to see in what format and with whom we will do it.
Perhaps the rest of the saga?No, it will be something else entirely. Even artistically. It is unlike anything I have done so far.
Three good reasons to see Brutus and Caesar?There are a host of incredible and brilliant actors, it's nice to see them all together on screen. I sincerely think the audience will laugh and have a good time. It looks like nothing that has been done: either we love it or we hate it. I'm not saying it's great and you'll love it. You can hate it. But at least a proposal like this has the merit of existing.
Interview in Paris on September 14.