In the film Simone: The Journey of the Century, actress Elsa Zylberstein underwent a major transformation to closely resemble Simone Veil. Find out how the actress did it.
France 2
Sunday January 19 at 9:10 p.m.
16/9 | Prohibited for children under 10 years old
Released in cinemas on October 12, 2022, Simone: The Journey of the Century is a biographical film that traces the life of Simone Veilfrom his childhood to his major political battles. In this biopic by Olivier Dahan (La Môme), it is Elsa Zylberstein, actress at the origin of the project, who plays the role of adult Simone Veil at various times in her life.
The more the film progresses, the more the actress has been aged to resemble Veil as closely as possible. Certain sequences in the film required more than 7 hours of makeup for Zylberstein, who explained the creative process of his transformation to LCI. “I didn’t want to have my face. Simone Veil is a personality that is too well known, too loved by the French. I wanted to have her face to stick as closely as possible to what she was.”
Stepping into this role was “troubling” for the actress. “I was in full possession of my acting weapons, but I was no longer in Elsa’s body. I had gained nine kilos, every step I took, it was no longer me. When I see photos from the shoot, I don’t recognize myself.” However, Elsa Zylberstein did not necessarily want to only be made up to play Simone Veil “because if it is only make up, everyone can be made up…” She says she prepared “for a year” in order to enter “in his shoes, in each of his steps, in each breath, each word, each gesture. I wanted to integrate him into myself in a visceral and true way. I also had to find his pains, his faults, his intimacy.
Synopsis – The destiny of Simone Veil, her childhood, her political struggles, her tragedies. The epic and intimate portrait of a woman with an extraordinary journey who shook up her time by defending a humanist message that is still burning today.