In his unwavering commitment to his role in László Nemes’ daunting competition title Mulannewcomer Felix Lefebvre slept in the gray, mattressless cell that he and co-star Gilles Lellouche were filming — for a good few nights.
“There were bats. I had no idea what time it was. And I felt like those guys during World War II, [who] I actually went through it and had a hard time,” says the young French star Hollywood Reporter. “I just wanted to be the best version of myself as an actor.”
To provide some much-needed context, the Hungarian director returns to the Croisette – where he took home the top prize in 2015 for his film. Son of Saula film that would go on to receive an Oscar – with the true-life story of French resistance hero Jean Moulin (played by Lelouch). It follows Moulin’s arrest in June 1943 while trying to reunite secret army forces, and ends up being tortured by the evil Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie (Lars Edinger).
For those unfamiliar with French World War II history, this number may not ring any bells. This was not the case for Lefebvre, who grew up studying Moulin. “He’s in our history class program. We hear all about him – he’s this heroic figure, the leader of the resistance in France during World War II. It’s one of the things you learn at school that you actually remember,” the 26-year-old continues, “because you hear that this guy was subjected to the worst torture and he didn’t say a word. So when I was a kid, you hear that, and you start to think, ‘Well, if I went through a lot of pain, would I feel that way?'” Brave? I have a very vivid memory of [learning about] “This man.”
When Lefebvre – the owner of the largest credit to date, Summer 85which earned him a nomination for a César Award for Most Promising Actor – the Nimes project caught his attention, so he went all in. “He was watching the test through the monitor,” Lefebvre recalls. “There was this distance between me and him, and it was kind of scary. But then I did the first take and I got very emotional… He stood up and came up to me and said, ‘Okay, that was good. But that was too much. I think it could be great if I went deeper into the internal stuff.'”
The more they chatter, the more likable the ferret becomes. Lefebvre secured the part of Martin, Moulin’s cellmate who was once captured by the Nazis. “[What is] What’s interesting about my character is that Jean Moulin, throughout the movie, is paranoid with everyone he meets. “He feels like he can’t trust anyone,” the actor explains. “Everyone around him could betray him and jeopardize the future of the French. So when he meets me, we do these prison scenes that feel like a game of poker – where one tries to understand if the other is bluffing, working for the enemy, or if he is on your side.
As previously mentioned, Lefebvre took this mental poker game between Martin and Jean very seriously. He camped out on the set in Budapest – recreated to exactly fit the dungeon the pair would have encountered – to lose himself in Martin’s headspace, and enjoyed being treated by superstar Lelouch as a peer, rather than an apprentice. “I always love when great, great actors start seeing you as a colleague,” he says. “We were really trying to create something together, trying to find some truth in it together.”
It’s actually the star’s third film to be screened at Cannes, although one of them, Summer 85He was released during the epidemic, so he never arrived at the palace. In 2021, Lefebvre is out of contention SupremeAnd just three years ago, the film Delphine Deloget premiered Nothing to lose In “A Certain Look”. but Mulanhis first title in competition, is particularly special: “It’s my first time [doing] The whole red carpet experience for the movie, a few thousand people watching the movie, and I would discover the movie there as well. (He has not seen the finished film yet.) “I think it will be a very emotional moment.”
It’s just one highlight of a very busy 2026 for Lefebvre, who has “Leopold Krauss.” Microstar It premiered in June, and later in the year, another film titled… The last patient. He considers some of his dream collaborators and Paul Thomas Anderson’s name soon comes up, but so does he afternoonCharlotte Wells and how Having sex Director Molly Manning Walker. “Those two would be dream directors,” he says with a laugh of Wells and Walker [that] I feel like I can say, ‘Hello, nice to meet you’ at Cannes, and they’ll answer me!”
Before he can mingle with European cinema’s most famous auteurs, he must first receive roses for it Mulan. It’s no less than he deserves after this particular way of staying in the cell: “After a few nights, I was sleeping so poorly that I said, ‘Well, now I also need to sleep so I can do my job properly.’”
