Wyssem ROMDHANE
Actor

Wyssem received a grant to help him finance his studies at the École Régionale d’Acteurs de Cannes. 

What is your artistic background ?
I started theatre at the age of 18 at the University of Nice. I stayed there for a few months, because the classes were more theoretical than practical. I enrolled at the Antibes Conservatory. I stayed there for two years, I only did two hours a week because the course didn't offer more. So I decided to take the ERAC exam. In spite of my very little experience, I was able to reach the second round, which I failed. I still had positive feedback, and I was able to join ARPA, which is a system set up by ERAC, it offers master classes that last several weeks spread over the year. It is aimed at young people (living in Provence) who wish to take the competitive exams of the Grandes Ecoles. At the same time I went to Paris, with some savings, to train more. I passed the competitive examination of a public school, where I spent a year, then I spent another year at the Conservatoire du 14ème arrondissement where I worked with Nathalie Bécue. Today, I'm in the 27th class of the ERAC. 

How do you see your profession today ?
It's the best profession in the world. Of course it requires a few sacrifices, but in return, we spend our time reading, playing, talking to people, transmitting emotions, making them experience things. And we don't really feel like we're working, because the pleasure is there. We say things. I'm not someone who talks about himself a lot, out of modesty, or otherwise, I don't really know how to do it, so doing theatre is also a way of expressing myself. Theatre is having a place where you can talk, with texts that use the words that don't come to you to say what you want to say, where people listen to you and moreover they pay for it! It's even better than a shrink! Finally, I'm not trying to be a guide but I have the hope that with my work I can help, if only a little, or that I can inspire someone, as I was inspired by Tupac, Eminem, Gérard Depardieu and others. ‘I'm not going to change the world, but I'm going to create the trigger in the head of the person who will’ said Tupac. 

How do you see yourself in 5 years ? In 10 years?
Making films. It has always been a dream for me. Acting in front of, or behind the camera, and why not writing screenplays, if I can master the difficult art of writing. In theatre, I would like to play certain roles, like Scapin for example. I would also like to travel, learn languages, practise other arts, but always with the aim of strengthening myself as an actor. In 10 years' time, I will have an Oscar.

This interview was conducted in 2018
Photo credit: Céline Anaya Gautier