Five Minutes with Gaspard Ulliel

HK Magazine: What are your thoughts on the role of Yves Saint Laurent?
Gaspard Ulliel: It’s one of the most challenging and complex roles I’ve ever worked on. He’s very paradoxical: He can be shy, but at the same time confident, fragile and strong. I think his greatest talent is not only his style and his clothes, but it’s also the way he captured the essence of an era. We’re talking about this precise decade [the 60s-70s], where the world is changing, and he knew how to find clothes that would match this evolution. He was the first to mix up masculine and feminine codes. He was the first to reveal women’s breasts—but it was never vulgar, it was always very classy. He created this modern, strong, woman.

  

Gaspard Ulliel plays the titular fashion giant, Yves Saint Laurent

HK: Did you find it difficult to go in and out of the character?
GU: That was something quite new to me. We shot the entire film in Paris. Usually, I prefer to be shooting away from home, because you can immerse yourself in the entire experience. Off set, I would still remain very concentrated on the character. I wouldn’t go out and hang with my friends: I would stay at home, concentrated. I also had to remain very skinny—I lost 27 pounds for the role, so I couldn’t really go out and eat and drink.

HK: How did you feel about going nude?
GU: It was the first time I had to do a frontal nude scene. I can be quite reserved in my own private life, but somehow it was not that hard on set. It’s about work, and the character, so it doesn’t feel like you’re revealing anything about yourself, even if in the end it is.

HK: Was it awkward shooting the romantic scenes?
GU: Well Jérémie Renier [who plays YSL’s long-term partner, Pierre Bergé] is a very close friend, and we’ve known each other for many, many years, so in the end it was just very odd and funny, not awkward.

Louis Garrel plays Jacques de Bascher, Yves Saint Laurent's love interest