Maud FORGET
Film director

Maud received a writing grant for her next short film. 

What is your artistic background ?
First of all, I was an actress for more than fifteen years. I started in cinema, playing the title role in the film Mauvaises Fréquentationsby Jean-Pierre Améris, alongside Lou Doillon and Robinson Stévenin. I then met Olivier Dahan for La Vie Promise, in which I played Isabelle Huppert’s character’s daughter. Other feature films followed, notably for the director Xavier Gens, and theatre and TV films. The desire to direct came later.

How do you see your profession today ?
What I'm going to say is very clichéd, but it's both the most beautiful profession in the world and the most difficult. It is more and more unstable and precarious. It took me a long time to understand it but, right now, if you want to do your job, you have to create your own projects and try not to depend on X or Y's wishes. Don't wait. Do it. Above all, go for it. It may be harder, but I have the impression that you get more out of it. No one is essential anymore. You have to know how to surprise and constantly renew yourself. I think that increases our creative force tenfold. As I progress in this "profession", I realise that nothing can be taken for granted. That we really learn every day and that we must never rest on our laurels. It's exciting and very stimulating. 

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years ?
I hope that in 5 or 10 years I will still be going strong. And I would like to have made a feature film too. Life is more important than anything else. It has its share of surprises. Three years ago, I didn't imagine I would be able to make my first short film, win a prize at the Saint-Jean-de-Luz festival and discover the Porosus Foundation!

This interview was conducted in 2015
Photo credit: Rémi Chapeaublanc