Lyna Khoudri is Wes Anderson's Newest Star
Photographed by Marili Andre
Styled by Vanessa Bellugeon
Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch is one of the most anticipated new films. starring alongside an all-star ensemble cast including Timothée Chalamet, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand, the rising French-Algerian actress Lyna Khoudri holds her own. In the film, Khoudri plays Juliette, a student activist in Paris. Motorbike helmet on, she protests for women’s rights with her equally passionate boyfriend, played by Chalamet.
“When I auditioned for the film, I still hadn't received the César [for Promising Actress] for Mounia Meddour’s Papicha,” Khoudri tells L’OFFICIEL. "Wes had never seen me on a screen before. It all started with a video to be sent to production. One night I filmed myself with my cell phone. I had to introduce myself. I talked about participating in a job at my high school in Saint-Ouen: I skipped classes and went dancing on the street with my friends." Three weeks later, Khoudri passed her first casting in Paris without knowing anything about the role. While waiting for a response from the production, she filmed a short film with friends in Algeria. “It was my first time in the desert, I was amazed. The rest of the world seemed so far away. I only looked at my emails at night. My agent was looking for me everywhere to tell me that I’d got the part. But I still didn't know anything about my role! Nor who my costars would be.”
Khoudri then found herself in Angoulême, France for costume rehearsals. The treasure hunt to discover her character’s love interest continued. “There was mystery about everything. Each cast name was incredible...Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand. And I only realized later that Timothée Chalamet would play my boyfriend.”
On set, Khoudri had only her lines, about 15 pages, leaving the rest of the script a mystery. “Then I got my share of the script, which was 40 pages, but never the full plot. Only the technical team had it. I once ran into Bill Murray who told me about his shooting of the day...Together we were able to understand a bit of the story. But only at the final screening did I discover the plot in its entirety.”
Every night during production, Anderson helped the actress expand her cinematic knowledge. "In the lobby of the hotel where we were all staying, there was a table full of DVDs,” Khoudri remembers. “Dinners were almost like quizzes. Wes would ask me: ‘Did you watch Partie de Campagne by Renoir?’ ‘No.’ ‘Watch it.’ I went into my room and watched it immediately. After devouring it, I threw myself into Jacques Rivette’s Le Pont du Nord. It was the reference for my role, especially with the motorbike helmet and the leather jacket that the hero—played by Pascale Ogier—wore. Juliette is as rebellious as Ogier in the film. And then Le Pont du Nord is a bit magical. It fed me. It is impressive to see Wes' love of French popular culture. He knows exactly how to create a dialogue with this while remaining the American director he is. Everything is controlled. Its accuracy is impressive.”
After Anderson's film, Khoudri played the sunny and spontaneous role of Diana in Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh's short film Gagarine. “This is a humanistic film about the peripheries, the suburbs,” the actress says. “It was a dreamlike and positive job.”
In a way, Khoudri herself grew up on the fringes. “I was born in Algeria in 1992, when extremist politics were on the rise,” she says. “My father was a politically engaged journalist, and he was in danger—we had to leave the country. But my social awareness started with the 2005 workers’ strikes in France. I felt that, fundamentally, I was on the strikers’ side.” But Khoudri didn’t give up. “When you are in Algiers, you feel the soul of the city, the Ottoman Empire, Haussmann's France, the last 50 Arabian years.” This blend of cultures is written in the actress’ soul. And for her, Algeria represents history, but also colonization. “The Algerian war and the colonization were terrible. I started to read anti-establishment writers such as Aimée Césaire and Frantz Fanon. They built my understanding of where I am from, and who I am.”
She keeps her home close. Algeria and the East are tattooed on the inside of Khoudri’s wrist. “It is a hand of Fatima. I chose it because I am very superstitious: it rejects bad energies.” On her other wrist, she wears a bracelet of red thread with a pearl. “My mother loves cultured pearls. I've only had cultured pearls as a birthday present since I was born, and the red thread in the Jewish religion is a symbol of protection."
Today, Lyna is preparing for her next role in a still under wraps international film. “Two hours of swimming and one hour of weight lifting a day. It's much more intense than my 10 years of modern jazz...I wanted to be a dancer. It was my passion before cinema,” she says.
Five minutes after having spent hours talking about cinema, Khoudri sends me a text message: “Obviously among my cult favorites is François Truffaut's [The Story of] Adele H.–A love story...she is part of me.”
Hair Stylist Nabil Harlow
Makeup Gregoris
Photographer Assistant Enzo Le Hen
Stylist Assistant Cindy Lucas
L'OFFICIEL's September 2020 Issue is available on newsstands and online now.
