Out Director Olivier Peyon Takes Fresh Look at Lost Love in VOD Release 'Lie With Me'

EDGE: I expected the movie would be a May December romance, but it isn't, which felt surprising and fresh. Was that part of what drew you to the novel?

Olivier Peyon: Philippe Besson is a famous novelist in France. He's a gay novelist. The biggest part of the novel is the romance between the two teenagers, and the encounter between the writer and the son of Thomas is not a romance at all. It's more like a pretext to remember the past. I loved the love story between the two teenagers, but this encounter [between the adult Stéphane and Thomas' son Lucas] was original. I was touched by the son, who suffered so much from the silence of his father. Each of them has pieces of the puzzle, and finally when they meet each other, they understand why they suffered so much.

EDGE: This is a film about lost love – a couple of different kinds of lost love, really. But it's also a very funny movie. Did you have to write a lot of the humor into the film yourself, or was the humor in the novel?

Olivier Peyon: [Laughing] I really love Philippe Besson's writing [but] all his books are so sad and depressing. The humor is more from me. I like the mix from these two different feelings.

EDGE: Most people can probably identify with the theme of a lost love, but for LGBTQ+ people it's especially meaningful. Often, we aren't allowed to have a first love that runs its natural course, the way straight teenagers are, and we might carry those unresolved feelings with us the rest of our lives.

Olivier Peyon: I totally agree with you that first love for gay people is more difficult. But in the end, it is the same [for straight people, too]. I discovered with all the screenings we did in France. There were lots of straight people who came to see the movie [and] were really touched by the gay love story. They discovered that the gay story is not so different from the straight love story, and I discovered that a lot of straight people also have this kind of experience. Of course, it's more easy [for them], but not so much; I mean, you know, they're all traumatized [too] by their first love story.

The subject of the movie and the novel is the choices in your life. It's about Thomas, who doesn't have the courage to come out. Of course, there is a specificity about the first gay love story [in the lives of these characters], but it's a more universal story than that.

EDGE: You don't have to answer this if it's too personal, but did you have a lost love from your youth that you remembered and that gave you inspiration for this film?

Olivier Peyon: I'm going to answer that. In fact, no, it was not about my first love. It was more about why isn't sufficient to [pretend to be straight]. I could have been a Thomas; I have two kids, but now I have a gay life. My coming out was very late in my life. It felt really intimate to tell this story. I succeeded [where Thomas failed]... it was not about the loss of my first love, because I am more Thomas [than Stéphane], and that's why I was so touched by [Lucas], the character of the son, because I have two sons. Perhaps if I was always ashamed of myself [like Thomas is], I would be traumatized. But finally, no, everything is okay – so, I think I made this movie for them.

EDGE: Tell me about casting Julien De Saint Jean as Thomas. We never see him as an adult, but his character is the bridge between the film's two parts, past and present.

Olivier Peyon: I told Julien De Saint Jean, "Okay, you don't have lots of scenes, but everybody's talking about your character in the movie." I totally meant it; in effect, [Thomas] is the main character of the story.

And I totally understand why. When Julien De Saint Jean smiles, it's so beautiful; my casting director, who is a woman, told me when we met him for the testing, "Men and woman can be in love with Julien." It was exactly [as with] the character; in the novel, everybody's in love with [Thomas], and [in real life] you could see everybody, man and woman, was in love with Julien.

The most important [element] for me was the chemistry between the two young actors. When I met Jérémy Gillet [who plays the young Stéphane], he was really good; when I met Julien De Saint Jean, he was really good. I had some other young actors, too, but the difference was made when we put [the two of] them together during the casting, and it was like this [indicating an instant connection]. They didn't have a love story in real life, but for the first time [in the casting process] I was looking at my casting director [with excitement], it was so intense between them.

It was a long way between the casting and the shooting, but it was a good thing because Julian and Jérémy became friends. It was really important for them to know each other, and now they are best friends. They're always together. [That friendship] was important for them to play the sex scenes, they told me; because they felt confident [in one another], they said okay to it. The sex scenes are really intense, and they were able to put [such] intensity [into the sex scenes] because they were really connected. I saw that for the first time in the casting, and that's why I chose them.

EDGE: What do you hear from people who read the book and loved the book? Or people who saw the movie and then read the book? Do you hear, "I liked the book better." "I liked the film better." I think they both are wonderful, although they're very different.

Olivier Peyon: I was really lucky because Philippe Besson, the novelist, loved my movie. And the readers? Nobody was disappointed by my adaptation. You always have one or two people who say, "Why didn't you [include] this scene from the book [in the film version]?" but the readers of the book loved the movie, so I was relieved.

The biggest compliment I had was from Philippe Besson's closest friend, who told me, "It's amazing how it is not the book – but it's totally book!" And I understand why he said that. As I told you, I invented lots of things [for the adaptation], but the spirit and the purpose of the novel were really in my movie.

"Lie with Me" is available now on VOD. For more information, follow this link.