“I stood naked in front of the team and announced: ‘Now the rehearsals are starting’ ‘

In the first scene of the Israeli actor Tom Marseille in the drama series “We Are Who We Are”, which was produced in collaboration between HBO and the Italian Sky Atlantic network (and airs tomorrow, Wednesday, on HOT), he appears in full frontal nudity. For this Marcia is not the first experience with nudity in front of the camera – in “Synonyms”, Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear Award-winning film, in which he starred in the lead role, Marcia appeared in full nudity in several scenes. And yet, he says it was really not easy for him.

“I was afraid of it,” he reveals to Ynet in a zoom conversation from his home in Paris in recent years, “it was personal to me, because one nudity tells a certain story, and nudity another tells a different kind of story. Nudity always throws you out of the story – into a world of virtues, of desire. And image. So I got to the set that day, we started rehearsing for the scene – and because I was stressed, I just came naked. I stood in front of the team like that, naked, and announced: ‘Starting back now, because that’s how I decided’. It was a very big set, very American. “And I just decided I was going to turn it around, take my pressure and use it.”

I guess you were looking for how to regain control of the situation.
“Exactly, and my way of taking control was to give it up completely, to go out to them naked and say, ‘That’s how it’s going to happen.'”

And what was the reaction?
“It was very interesting. During all the filming, Luca (Guadnino, director and creator of the series – Twelfth) spoke English with me and the crew. I did not know he spoke French. He looked at everything that had happened during these rehearsals, and then he approached me and started talking to me in French. And I felt completely protected. It moved me terribly. I do not even know how to explain it, but there was something terribly intimate about it. He reassured me greatly. You know, it’s hard. You get to the set, you don’t know anyone, and suddenly you have to undress completely and get in the shower in front of the cameras, you have to get into that thing. “

Were you afraid of any labeling? “Tom Marseille spreads in every movie”?
“Yes. There was apprehension. But it’s a process – you develop as an actor, and you consider things more deeply. ‘If I do it, then I’ll get caught,’ or ‘If I do, that’s how it will affect the next roles they offer me.’ “You weigh everything. This is an international arena, this is HBO that is distributed all over the world, and there are serious players here, and there is Luca.”

“We Are Who We Are” is unlike any other HBO series. And actually, it’s unlike any other series, period. Although the Italian Guadnino gained much fame in late 2017 with his acclaimed, nominated and award-winning film “Call Me by Your Name”, he even earlier established his status as a reputed art house director, with a unique fingerprint. And this fingerprint – visually and narratively, with an intoxicating impressionistic expression and an attentive ear to the sounds of the young heart – is evident in every frame of the bitter / sweet adolescence story that unfolds “we are who we are”.

The series follows two young men, an American boy and girl, who meet at a military base in Italy and grapple with questions of friendship, adolescence and sexual identity. You will find echoes from “Call Me by Your Name” in abundance – especially at the level of the plot line that connects 15-year-old Frazier (Jack Dylan Greiser, “Shahazam!”, “It”), to the young and attractive officer who plays Marseille.

For Marseille, the opportunity to work alongside a creator considered like Guadnino was certainly not a trivial matter, not to mention that the fascinating cast of “We Are Who We Are” includes the wonderful Chloe Sabini, the brilliant rapper Kidd Cady and Alice Braga (“City of God”, “Queen”). the South”). This is a serious premium, in other words, another luxury HBO project produced in Italy following the success of the “Genius Company” series, and an impressive achievement for Marcia. But after his intense and gripping performance in “Synonyms,” which earned him a host of superlatives and flattering comparisons (from Marlon Brando to Jean-Paul Belmondo), the cast’s attention was guaranteed – and the road to such a select project was paved.

“I was at the Berlin Film Festival, and when it was over, I came back to Israel,” he says. “My agent said Luca was happy to meet me, so I went to the third ear to take his films and watch them. I had seen ‘Call Me by Your Name’ before, but I did not know the early films. .

“I came to him as a person who had just started studying cinema. When we started working on ‘synonyms,’ Nadav Lapid educated me in a very interesting and powerful way in French cinema and European cinema – so while I started working in cinema, I discovered cinema. The meeting with Luca took place in Greece, we went “At the Acropolis, he is interested in everything – cinema, art, sculpture. And he is a very impressive person, constantly working, constantly on the move.”

How was working with him, compared to working with Lapid?
“Working with Nadav was very specific, because it was a very specific role. I delved very deeply into the French language, I was net in this metamorphosis between the Israeli Sabra and the Jew considerably, it was an intense preoccupation with identity. But Luca kept me away from it all. ‘You are not in Paris, you are not. In Israel. The character was different, the work process was different. Suddenly it was filming with Luca and an American team, in English, after the very French experience of ‘Synonyms’. But I found that I connect to Luca’s mentality very easily. I realized it much faster. Than French directors I worked with. “

And the work with Chloe Sabini? How was this experience for you?
“Listen, she’s a great actress. A quality actress who has penetrated the mainstream, and still done a lot of interesting things along the way. We sat down once for dinner and talked, and it was very pleasant. As a new actor on the set, who never played with Americans, I was very happy to interact with her. “She was very much in her place. I mean, ‘respect me but don’t get too close.’ That kind of American politeness, which also has distance.”

And the young cast participating in the series – Jacob Dylan Greiser, for example? How was working with him? After all, there is a clear sexual tension between your characters. Was there a level of discomfort, for you?
“When you read a script like that and you see a connection with a child who is a minor, and you’re the one who has to play the adult in the connection, you have to find the place of purity – and that’s what I did. If I chose to go to a dark place, it would be a very dark time bomb. Even so, putting yourself in a relationship with a 15-year-old boy. “

From thousands of miles away, in zoom, the conversation with Marseille sometimes migrates to abstract realms. It is the processes that interest him, the meeting points between him and the creators he works with, and his development as an actor who only two years ago was inexperienced and completely anonymous. He was born 27 years ago in Tel Aviv, the son of top bookmaker Michel Marseille and former model Ronit Zilberstein. He studied judo and dance, was discharged from the army due to health problems. For “Synonyms” he is cast after only one audition. Nadav Lapid apparently recognized in him this charged intensity, which simply bursts from the screen in the film.

And as mentioned, Marcia’s fierce and brave game display has garnered the attention of critics from all over the world, so that apart from “We Are Who We Are”, he has found himself in a number of other projects since injuring “Synonyms”. “The Rope”, for example, a project by French director Dominique Roche which was filmed in France and Morocco, and will air on the Arta channel. Marcia plays the lead role in it, and in addition has already shot a film last year in Paris with a director, and “there is interest from the United States, what one agent is following me.”

Are you unequivocally aiming for an international career?
“I did not aim for it, but I did not return to Israel either, so that’s how it turned out. Paris is a cultural center, so a lot of things drain here.”

And Marseille himself drained there. Like the enthusiastic and unexpected young man he embodies in “Synonyms,” he began learning French – as a child he did not speak the language even though his father was born in France – and moved to Paris. Now, he is experiencing the corona crisis there, alone. “All in all, it’s the same as in Israel,” he says, “we have a closure from six o’clock, but other than that it’s quite similar. There’s also really nowhere to go. “Now, because it’s too cold to leave the house. I usually train outside, but now there’s no situation.”

How does it feel right now, in light of the crisis, compared to the country?
“It’s different. Without the people, Paris is not the same city. I have lived here for almost three years. I moved here with job offers and things, I started traveling in Europe, I lived on the suitcase. Even after the Corona started I continued to travel and work. In 2020 I was on two projects , One in Paris and one in Belgium, and I even came to Morocco. So I’m not used to this status of ‘not traveling’ yet. It’s a miracle, that I was able to move and work until now. But the status now, that I have to stay here and try to build a life, build a house, I’m more I do not know how to deal with it. “

Longing for home, family and friends, is there?
“Sure, very much. In the past year I have visited the country twice, during the plague. I took all the necessary measures, isolations of two weeks.”

Paris is already home for you?
“I do not know if I treat it that way. A house is something with a specific value for each person. In my case, my house will be the projects I participate in. I got answers from them to many identity questions I had. The house in Paris? I find it hard to tell you one hundred percent. Even when I am in the country, it is not a home. “

Yoav, the character you play in “Synonyms,” is an obsessive, difficult, impenetrable type. Was it hard to release such a complex and difficult character, after you played her? The hard feelings about Israel, for example – is this something that has seeped into you?
“Obviously, it could not help but seep in. But this strong process of Yoav’s repression also created a great rapprochement with me. I am not possessive towards Israel, she is not an object for me. “For the experiences it offers and the things that are only in it. My whole life has been spent here, in Paris, so somewhere I lived the film – but I’m constantly looking for roles and reasons to return.”

And the situation in the country? Is politics something you follow? Or did you break away from it?
“I do not think it is possible to really disengage from it. My strongest feeling when I am in the country, from the little I was recently, is that people have lost all confidence in the system. You feel it everywhere, in Russia, France and the United States. But fortunately, I deal with it mostly through the scripts sent. To me, that somehow a lot of them have a touch on these issues. “

Are you more attracted to art house and indie, compared to the mainstream? Because as a player, at your election level, it definitely looks that way.
“I do not define it that way. Right now I have finished watching ‘Queen Gambit’, and at the same time I am watching the French version of the Israeli series ‘In Treatment’. I found that I was very attracted to it. When I was young, ten years old, I was in therapy myself. “Insanely interesting, for me. The goal is to go between the edges, indie and mainstream, art house and mainstream.”

Were you able to see yourself in a completely mainstream project? Let’s say you call Marvel, let’s play a superhero with us.
“I do not have black and white, I do not have this dialogue. If this interests you – go for it. Me, for example, could be interested in playing in these series of Friday night at nine-thirty, at the level of ‘what can I give the viewer now, after Friday dinner, When he lies in front of the TV. “

Wait, wait, are we talking about “playful explanations” here?
“Yes. After Friday dinner, the viewer lies in front of such series, in a kind of semi-dimmed situation like this …”.

So I understand you’re looking for the challenge, then.
“The job is to get there, to know your lines well, to give work. But if you can take that grain of risk, the challenge – that’s what interests me.”