He came to Nice to present his “Best of” reflecting on his 30-year career but also to sponsor the Association of Guide Dogs for the Blind in the region. Before returning in the fall for another humanitarian effort against Cystic Fibrosis with his show, he is the star of the Nice-Matin Summer Festival. A meeting with a man of heart.
With some hindsight, I realize even more the immense privilege of having met, one-on-one in his dressing room at the Palais de la Mรฉditerranรฉe in Nice, Roland Magdane just before his “Best of” performance. The moment is exceptional because he tells me right away that he never gives an interview to a journalist before going on stage. Did you know he was supposed to become a doctor?
Explanations
Nice-Premium: How do you go from medical studies to theater?
Roland Magdane: In fact, itโs even more serious. How does one go from being a 12-year-old boy with a speech defect, I put my tongue between my teeth. Fortunately, it wasn’t a palate defect and I saw a speech therapist who also gave acting lessons. While waiting for my session, I watched the end of an acting class. I, who wasnโt interested in anything, said at that moment, โthatโs what I want to do.โ The speech therapist told me, โitโs not serious, weโll fix it,โ and 6 to 8 months later the problem was over but I persisted in saying “I want to do theater.”
He told me I was too young and that the minimum age was 15. I waited and the following year I repeated that I wanted to do theater, โYouโre still too young and I said 15 not 14. I was determined and told him, โI donโt want to wait,โ and he gave in by giving me a text to read. So I did theater like other children took judo or football, but I also wanted to make it my career.
For children of immigrants like me, we understand the difficulty of living, especially with a father forced to work as a coal miner. Under these conditions, it was hard to say that I wanted to make theater my profession, especially since my father used to tell me, โit will be hard, you’re going to be in trouble all your life.โ So as my studies were going well, I started medicine. At some point, I told my father, โmedicine is fine but you know Iโd much rather do theater.โ It’s better this way. Anyway, as I am very forgetful, I would have been one of those doctors who forgets their instruments inside patients…
NP: Your first theater, it is that of La Cour des Miracles, a sign of destiny?
RM: I hadnโt thought about it but looking back, that’s exactly it. It was my first “one man show” and it immediately took off, there was the magic. Before that, I did many things, in particular, with the company of Michel Fugain. Since I sang, I participated in musicals, but at some point I grew tired of being one of thirty-five on stage, I wasnโt visible enough, especially to my mother, and at 30 I decided to do “one-man shows.” It was then that the โCollaro Showโ gave the starting signal.
NP: You had a great career in France and suddenly in ’86 you decided to leave for the USA. Why?
RM: In fact, it followed a car accident that could have been serious. Before I slid under the truck because the car was decapitated, my life flashed before my eyes and I realized I hadnโt done anything with my life even though I was famous. Before I couldnโt because I didnโt have money, after I was working too much. While I was in the hospital but came out unscathed, I then decided that from now on I was going to do everything I wanted to do. Since then Iโve acted throughout my career without questioning things. I wanted to go to the USA and left for a few months. I stayed 9 years even though everything was going well, I was in a running series, best foreign actor, but I said to myself, โI miss France. Letโs go back.โ I said I wanted to do films and they said, โcomedies?โ No, dramas! It’s always like that and the big miracle is that it worked. Now, no matter what I do, no one is surprised. I can do anything and do what I want like theater in January.
NP: A play you direct or in which you act?
RM: The direction is by Jean-Luc Moreau and I act in a theater, that of the Porte Saint-Martin, which I consider the most beautiful in Paris with its 900 seats and old-style decoration. A play with 4 characters about the television world but all societies will recognize themselves in it because it addresses the theme โI want to be the caliph instead of the caliph.โ Itโs both funny; excessively mean towards the TV world. I look forward to it, at the moment we are reading because the casting isnโt finalized yet.
NP: Before that you present your last show โBest ofโ on your thirty years of career. How were the sketches chosen?
RM: A real problem. In reality, I kept those where I truly had fun, without cheating because I never cheat. I didnโt have a pre-established list. I told myself if I laugh, the audience will laugh too and thatโs what happens as with the โDentistโ one which still works as much after 15 years, itโs madness during the encoreโฆ
NP: You like to surprise, to find yourself where you’re not expected?
RM: Thanks to that, I keep my passion. I always have the passion for my profession but itโs true that โone-man showsโ tire you after five years like any job where you do the same thing. At the end of the tour in December, itโs true that Iโll be tired of it and then, hop, I embark on another adventure for a year, two years… When Iโll come back to โone-man shows,โ Iโll return with the same passion as in the beginning. I try to alternate because I know that in this alternation, as I write, passion can trigger something.
NP: Outside of the stage, we saw you on television in the series โLe Tuteurโ on France 2 where you played a character that some say is recurring but which I personally find terribly humanistic and which resembles youโฆ
RM: It’s extraordinary what happened with this character. It was created by Pierre Grimblat, who made โQuai Nยฐ1โ, โLโInstitโ, โNavarroโ, who didnโt know who would play this Tuteur. One day while at a restaurant at a nearby table, at the end of the meal, he came to tell me โI wrote this character, itโs for you.โ It happened without an audition: โYou are exactly the character even if I didnโt write it for you,โ the author said while looking at him.
NP: We talk about a generous character on screen but you are also generous in real life without talking about it too much?
RM: I committed myself as a sponsor of this association of guide dogs for the blind, in principle for one year. But Iโm ready to commit until my last day. For a blind person, a dog is the way to get out, itโs the start of life and when one is healthy, can walk, see, one should do something. Since weโre talking about it, Iโll return in October or November, for a charity gala in this same casino for the fight against cystic fibrosis.
