The actor Lionnel Astier was, this Monday, in the Pink City, to present the film “Murders in Toulouse”, which will be broadcast, this Saturday, May 29, on France3. He embodies the role of commissioner Simon Keller in a duet with Camille Aguilar who plays Cécile Gimet, “a blue one”.
The two cops will have to unravel a whole series of murders in connection with the song of Claude Nougaro “O Toulouse”. The whole thing becomes complicated when the superintendent Keller touches the infarction, but not that… Lionnel Astier returns behind the scenes of the shooting.
When did you shoot?
The shooting took place straddling July and August 2020, during a heat wave, which was particularly complicated. Fortunately, there were air-conditioned places like the police station. Before living in Toulouse for a month for this shoot, I didn’t know the city. I liked her very much and it is not sycophancy. I knew other brick towns, but from the north, like Lille, Brussels, which have nothing to do with the bricks washed out by the sun, this Spanish side that we find here. There are sumptuous decorations with the presence of the Canal du Midi in particular. Toulouse is a city where I could live.
How did you work your duet with Camille Aguilar?
We didn’t actually work on it, we didn’t need it. Between us, the meeting took place immediately, on the energy, the way of responding to each other. It’s a bit like when you go dancing with a stranger, and the bodies articulate well.
We see you a lot in detective series. What do you like about this genre?
There are a lot of detective series, it must be said… but the cops I play are not the same. What I like ? This is not necessarily the investigation even if for the screenwriter, it is the ideal situation because it allows the characters to travel, to bring them in certain circles and even to talk about their private life, which is the case in “Murders in Toulouse”, where my character has disconnected a little… He is sick and cannot be treated. He is one of those people who say: we’ll see what happens.
Do you prefer to play the good guys or the bad guys?
I don’t care. For me it’s the same thing. Both are convinced of what to do or what they are into. I have no predilection for police roles, but I admit that it gives quite complete characters.
Here, you have a badly licked bear side, does that suit you?
When the producer received the synopsis, he immediately thought of me. I conclude that I must inspire this. As for me, I have already played grumpy characters, but if the role was just that, it wouldn’t necessarily be interesting. Here, it’s the journey my character takes that is fascinating, I see a little rebirth there when he had let go of the ramp.
Before this film, what relationship did you have with Nougaro’s repertoire which serves as its backdrop?
I had the chance to meet him a long time ago in Lyon. We were in the same restaurant. At the time, I was not known, we talked, he got up and started to sing. Nougaro is one of those great figures, as Brassens could be… All these songs are short films, they are extremely colorful. I like “You will see, you will see”, I listen to it regularly.
Your character regularly asks his colleague: does it throb or does it not throb? What about you?
I try to keep the palpitation going. For that, I question myself and I try to flee the comfort.
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