Actors Carice van Houten, Colette Dalal Tchantcho and Kosar Ali talk to The Inside Reel about rhythm, movement and the idea of control vs. chaos in regards to the first season of their Starz drama series: "Dangerous Liaisons."
00:34It's funny, when you're in that, besides the garden scene, there's one scene where you're in a dress shop and you're looking at the different things, the different fabrics.
00:42She suggests one, I forget the exact detail of what it was, but just the way she did that and tried to turn it around and make it her idea, your idea, was a beautiful thing.
00:54It's just sort of manipulation of the space, because it's all about environment and working within the space.
01:00The whole thing is a dance.
01:02It seems like everybody's dancing.
01:04You know, I'm loving how detailed your questions and your comments are, really am, because, yes, I forget what colors Camille suggests to Ondine, but she says it's like the queen.
01:17Yeah.
01:18And she knows that will get Ondine, because Ondine really wants to be top dog at all situations. So her changing her outfit. I think that Ondine really uses her costume as a tool to attract and also allure people in and trap them.
01:38I mean, seduction is such a tool for her. And so at all times, you know, she's, she's learning from her surroundings. I think she's such an observer and from how you see how she has gotten to where she gets to throughout the series.
01:55And it's only because she's a very skillful woman and Camille is right behind her.
02:02There are rules to this.
02:05You're hiding the truth of what you want.
02:08I need to know you understand what love means.
02:14What it takes.
02:16What it takes.
02:21It's like the love for war.
02:23It's war.
02:24Very few people in the, in the, in the animal kingdom overall, including us that can actually communicate and show empathy. And that's the one thing that I was, I took away. I told Nicholas analysis is that, you know, even in the most actually thing, you can see a little bit of empathy in those two characters of Valmont and thing, but it's the devil versus the angel.
02:45Yeah.
02:46Yeah.
02:47Yeah.
02:48Could you talk about that notion of conscience in that world?
02:50What does that mean?
02:51And how does, how does your character see that?
02:55Or does she?
02:56Um, I think there's like a lot, it's just a difficult thing because it's a difficult society and a difficult world.
03:01And I think there's so many themes like power and, and, you know, patriarchy and so many elements that play a part.
03:07So it's hard to battle with your own conscience and your own, I guess, empathy and guilt as a human, but then also you're going to have to do hard things.
03:15So it's a, it's a really hard thing with their characters.
03:17But I think with Victoire, she's, um, I think she has a lot of morality.
03:21I think she brings a lot of that into the, into the series, but at the same time, she's also a human and she does make mistakes and bad mistakes.
03:28Like, you know, she shouldn't have, she shouldn't have taken those letters.
03:31She shouldn't have, she shouldn't have gave that because she essentially was the catalyst to all the disaster.
03:36Um, and I think she does carry a lot of guilt through the rest of the series with that.
03:42Now you stop sulking and come here.
03:46We are getting out of here.
03:49We.
03:55I know what it is to be abandoned.
03:59I'll never leave you.
04:02She's not delusional at all.
04:04That's the great thing is that she knows what she's doing.
04:06Even when you guys come to like Valmont's, uh, flat, she sees exactly, even with his nephew, what exactly is going on, you know?
04:15And that's, uh, can you talk about that notion?
04:17Because most of the characters in this series for better, for worse are deluded about what their actual status is.
04:25Does that make sense?
04:27Yeah, that's actually a really, yeah, really good point.
04:29Um, I think what takes delusion out of Victoire is essentially, I think her life and how she has to behave in that society.
04:36I think she doesn't have the privileges that other characters have.
04:38Therefore, she can't afford to be delusional.
04:41Um, and yeah, she really, I don't know, I think it's kind of her superpower because she really just sees stuff and that's just that.
04:50And I don't know how she has it.
04:51I think it's just something that's literally like a superpower.
04:53I am obsessed with the memory of you.
04:57It's such a fool to wait for you all the time she's waiting to.
05:00It's not the same.
05:02My love for you is the only thing I am sure of.
05:05Then what would you give to have me back?
05:07Everything.
05:10There is a woman in Paris.
05:12If you could seduce her, that might show me you are capable of understanding love.
05:17Then let me prove it.
05:18I want a better life for both of us.
05:21And my last question, could you sort of talk about that relationship with Camille?
05:25You know, because it, it, it looms back and forth and there's a, there's really a lot of great little details that are said in between the lines, those looks, those everything that you did with Alice.
05:36Could you talk about sort of finding that emotionally, intellectually, you know, just physically, because it's about how they actually move around each other in many ways.
05:44I think within Camille and Victoire's relationship, there's a lot of dynamics that play a part.
05:50I think, yeah, they're both women, but you know, it's a black woman, a white woman, a Muslim woman.
05:53And, you know, having this friendship in this society, I think, for me and Alice, it was really important to show their beautiful relationship and, you know, that they have such a sister or bond.
06:03But there's also a lot of difficult things within that relationship and a lot of power plays that take, that take part.
06:09But in terms of, yeah, the looks and I think there's so much you can say, that's not only dialogue that really builds a relationship.
06:16So that was also very important for us to show.
06:18And I think it just, it kind of just happened naturally.
06:21As we started playing the characters, we just found these little looks and crooks to put in little gems that just show the relationship a bit more.
06:27People, you know, even young people can see the modern correlations in all this.
06:53I mean, the letters are those texts that you can't get rid of.
06:56You know, stuff like that.
06:58But it's also secrets.
07:00You know, it's the aspect of what secrets do you keep?
07:02What masks do you put on?
07:03You know, obviously, and that goes even to the end of this season, which I don't want to give too much away, but that's all part of it.
07:09Can you talk about the notion of secrets and then modern sort of parallel?
07:14Because not necessarily in anything specific, but in the fact of that people can sort of see themselves, things are universal, in some ways good, many ways bad, you know, in this society.
07:26I think, you know, it's really interesting because we're at a time where a lot of our everyday is online.
07:34And we see what power that is.
07:36I mean, simply on stuff like Instagram, like everyone has a comment and that comment then sways how you feel about yourself and you feel about your quality of life.
07:45How you feel about everything around you.
07:47And I think that also the way in which people react to when a secret's out and oh, my God, did you hear about it?
07:56That there's so much power in knowing people's secrets.
08:00And then in the same time, we see a direct mirroring of that and how powerful it was then, except we didn't have the cell phones.
08:08But women did gather around and, you know, sit around the chaise lounge and these lounges and discuss.
08:17And that could change, you know, people's positions in society built on reputation and being able to make or break you, you know, so.
08:28And in this world, you know, you have to be careful with who you lie with and what you say.
08:34So direct correlations between this period world and the modern world for sure.
08:42Hide your pain and close your heart to love and the ruin it threatens.
08:51With you, the tide might change.
08:55And what I began, you may finish.
09:08Are you ready?
09:09Well, it's also and I was talking to Nicholas and Alice just before about this, about the notion of control versus chaos and how that sort of time period really played to that.
09:19I mean, all time periods have the thing. Even today, you can see it.
09:22But it's interesting sort of seeing that control and chaos as an overall theme, you know, and where we think we're in control, where we think chaos is, but also where the power lies within that.
09:34Yeah.
09:35You know, the power, the, you know, we're talking, I was saying something to someone before, like the, the, the, the manipulation that you see comes from weakness.
09:45You know, it's, it's, it's that it's where you have to be alert when there's manipulation, that there's something that's not right underneath that people are, you know, they're lose their ground and they need to manipulate.
09:54And I think that's an alarm bell that you have to sort of focus on that instead of the manipulation, you have to look what's underneath there.
10:01And in general, like you have to look, you always have to try to look what's underneath what you see in people, because there's a gem in every person.
10:09Like I, I, I, I truly believe that.
10:12And, and that's also the job as an actor to show people that might not be on the surface, a sympathetic character, what they carry and why they have become how, what they've become and, and, and try to at least get sympathy.
10:28You don't have to be on their side, but at least try to understand where things come from.
10:34To get what you truly want in this city, you must destroy everything.
