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The Scar’s Real and Not a Good Makeup Job: There’s a hint of a smile on Gaspard Ulliel’s face even when he’s not grinning because of the slight scar on his cheek. That real scar added something extra to the character of Hannibal the Cannibal in Hannibal Rising. “Many people talk about this scar and a few directors before were seduced, if I can say so, by this scar,” admitted Ulliel. “Well I’m going to phone the surgeon and thank him for it (laughing). I was six years old and a dog was sleeping in the garden. I just jumped on his back like I would have done on a horse and so he just hit me with his claws and that made a nice little scar. But it looks like a dimple. Yeah, it’s nice. It might help sometimes to express feelings in my acting. I’m not really conscious about this because I can’t really see my face when I’m acting.”
Acting in a Foreign Language: Hannibal Rising is only the second film in which Ulliel speaks English, and the first film was only a small role. “It’s very tough. It’s very tiring because you need to be concentrating the whole day long. It’s different from acting in French because you have to just try to take some distance with all the English lessons you take and the accent coaching. You have this music in your head and you have to really take some distance with it so that your lines come out naturally. This is something that I don’t have when I’m working in my own language. And, also, sometimes it’s a bit hard because I think English people have different intonations to express feelings. It’s different from one language to another and so you have to be aware of this.”
The Taste of Fake Flesh and Blood: “The fake blood was strawberry flavored. About the only moment where I clearly take a bite is at the end in this scene with [spoiler deleted]. It’s fun because when I arrived on the set in the morning, the prosthetic was already on the actor and I could barely see the fake cheek. Then we rehearsed the scene many, many times and when we shot the first take, they asked me to bite in his cheek and this was very odd. I had a precise point where I had to put my teeth on, and I tried it and it felt so real. It was made of silicon or something like this and the texture was so real, it felt like a real cheek. I had to pull very hard to take it away. Yeah, it was very, very odd.”
Working with Gong Li: “She’s a very pretty lady and very cheerful and very nice in real life,” said Ulliel. “And on set she has this kind of Asian way of working, you know, very concentrated all the time, very serious, and this was very helpful for me. And also she’s very generous. She gives a lot to her partners during the scene and this is nice also for a young actor like me.”
Gaspard Ulliel on His Upcoming Film: “My next project is very different. It’s a very small art house film and the role is kind of the opposite of this one. I’m playing a guardian angel and it’s a director from New Zealand, Niki Caro, that did North Country and Whale Rider. It’s a nice small story about a vintner, a winemaker that is going to meet his guardian angel. It’s going to be shot in France and in New Zealand and it’s with another French actor, Jérémie Renier, and the actress that was in the last Scorsese [film], The Departed, Vera Farmiga.”
