French American actor Jean Marc Barr can’t fully describe his role in Lars Von Trier’s new film Nymphomaniac.
“I play a gentleman who is a debt collector and is approached by a nymphomaniac who tries to … find his weakness.” The actor descends into fits of laughter but he is far less coy about Von Trier’s approach to sex on screen when talking to The Green Room.
“Sex has been faked by cinema for 40 or 50 years. 95% of sexual representation is done through porno and kids today are getting their sex education from pornography. There’s a huge obsession with hyper-masculinity which is not normal and the abuse of women is more and more obvious.”
Nymphomaniac which opens in Irish cinemas later this week is reported to contain real sex scenes, a feature which Barr supports in film.
Shia LaBeouf is out
The publicity around the film has focussed as much on the antics of its star Shia LaBeouf as its sexual content. LaBeouf walked out of a press conference quoting Eric Cantona and later appeared on the red carpet wearing a brown paper bag over his head with the words “I am not famous” written in black marker.
Barr believes LaBeouf has burnt his bridges with Hollywood studios.
“In Hollywood he’s s**t in church. He said things he shouldn’t say and in that world you’re out.”
Pressed about his response, Barr says “Hollywood is like the communist party. If you don’t play the party game, you don’t get to play.”
“He (LaBeouf) made millions of dollars doing big budget motion pictures and then all of a sudden he says I want to do real cinema with Lars Von Trier. You can’t get any worse than that.”
Playing Jack Kerouac
Barr who first became famous for his starring role in the Luc Besson film The Big Blue was in Dublin for the Dublin Film Festival screening of Big Sur. The actor plays Jack Kerouac in the film adaptation of his book. Barr says the Beat writer was a huge influence on him throughout his life.
Listen here for the full interview with Jean Marc Barr on The Green Room with Orla Barry
The Green Room airs on Saturday evenings from 9pm-11pm
