Tanya Lopert: “I have often been told that I look like a feminine Woody Allen”

In 1963, she moved to Paris out of love for Costa-Gavras, then a young assistant director who had turned her head. The idyll ended, she never left.

Sixty years later, Tanya Lopert has retained a charming accent from her New York past – which she admits to having tried to erase, in vain – and a typically Anglo-Saxon humor. Doesn’t one have to have a great sense of self-mockery to title his autobiography “Memoirs of a failed actress”? “I found it funny… And then, it’s true that I missed out on my career,” she jokes, when she welcomes us to her pretty apartment on Boulevard Raspail, filled with memories.

When you are an actress, you only live in the gaze of the director.

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Tanya Lopert is funny, maybe that’s her misfortune… She dreamed of being a huge tragedian, of shining in melodies, of camping Medea. In short, to “make you cry”. Instead, most of the filmmakers she met only saw her as a comedy actress: “I’ve often been told that I looked like a feminine Woody Allen. »

With Philippe Noiret in “L’ami de Vincent” (1983), by Pierre Granier-Deferre.

© DR ​

Claude Berri even wanted to make her the heroine of a series of comic strips, a sort of parody of “Martine”. Tanya Lopert refused, as often. “Would I have liked to be a big star? Maybe. But, above all, I would have liked to have been a great actress like Vanessa Redgrave. »

Now the bitterness of the past is digested

The list of directors who made him work is nevertheless impressive: Téchiné, Resnais, Sautet, de Broca, Molinaro, Ferreri… But almost always for second or third roles. Even Federico Fellini or Claude Lelouch never deigned to make it their muse: “They liked me, but I didn’t inspire them. When you are an actress, you only live in the gaze of the director. »

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Jealous, she was. From the charm of Fanny Ardant, the beauty of Marthe Keller, the success of Catherine Deneuve… From now on, the bitterness of the past has been digested. She laughs thinking back to one of her first auditions, in 1971, for a play with Bernard Blier, during which stage fright had made her lose her means. At the back of the room, she had then heard a voice rise: “The American is so bad that we wouldn’t even take her in an acting class!” She needs to change careers! “At the time, she came out collapsed and threatened her husband, Jean-Louis Livi, nephew of Yves Montand, to end his life.

Romy Schneider had a hard time living, like many actresses. Like me.

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Tanya Lopert assures not to be nostalgic. Even if the walls of her apartment are covered with black and white photos: there, we see her on stage with André Dussollier; here, she replies to Alain Souchon; and there again, to Philippe Noiret. Daughter of producer and distributor Ilya Lopert, who introduced European cinema to Americans, Tanya grew up surrounded by celebrities.

As a child, she dined with Charlie Chaplin and Ingrid Bergman. As a teenager, she rubbed shoulders with Marilyn Monroe and Tennessee Williams. Later, she flirts with Warren Beatty and Burt Reynolds, becomes friends with Jane Fonda, Susan Strasberg and Romy Schneider. The latter called her the day before her death: “I don’t care if she committed suicide or not. She was so sad that her heart gave out. She had a hard time living, like many actresses. Like me. »

Me, this job, I expect nothing more

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In her Memoirs, she tells the truth of the world of cinema, far from the glitter, with its share of dramas, aggressions and humiliations. An environment where actresses live in fear of aging and no longer arousing desire. “I wrote this book as a testimony for the new generation. For those who dream of doing this job, she explains. Me, I don’t expect anything anymore…. “Even if, some days still, she hopes that the phone rings and that at the end of the line she is offered the role of her life.

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Tanya Lopert: “I have often been told that I look like a feminine Woody Allen”