The president of Unifrance pays homage to the actor, much loved by the public and his peers, who passed away tragically on January 19, 2022, at the age of 37.
"Gaspard was very handsome and had already achieved so much, both in films and television. He was a leading man in the true sense of the term: he had beauty (celebrated in the commercial for the fragrance Bleu de Chanel directed by Martin Scorsese), talent and mystery, and elegant seductiveness, embodying a kind of romantic fragility. A man of great kindness, too, coupled with sincere humility.
He started his career very young, around the age of twelve, first for television, then in short films, before being cast in his first role in a feature film for Brotherhood of the Wolf by Christophe Gans (2001), followed by See How They Run by Michel Blanc. He went on to play in a host of films, switching from one genre to another, one era to another, alternating costume dramas (A Very Long Engagement by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2004, for which he won the César Award for Best Promising Actor; The Princess of Montpensier by Bertrand Tavernier, 2010; One Nation, One King by Pierre Schoeller, 2018) and contemporary roles, such as for André Téchiné in Strayed, 2003; Rithy Panh in The Sea Wall, alongside Isabelle Huppert, based on the novel by Marguerite Duras, 2008; and Emmanuel Mouret in The Art of Love, 2011. He also played under the direction of Brigitte Roüan in A Greek Type of Problem (2012) and Stéphanie Di Giusto in The Dancer (2016). But we'll remember him best for his magnificent performance in Saint Laurent by Bertrand Bonello in 2014. As well as his deeply moving role in It's Only the End of the World by Xavier Dolan (2016), which won him the César Award for Best Actor.
He starred in two films in 2018: Eva by Benoit Jacquot, once again opposite Isabelle Huppert, and To the Ends of the World by Guillaume Nicloux, with Gérard Depardieu. In 2019, he played alongside Virginie Efira in Sibyl by Justine Triet, which was presented in the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Gaspard had just finished working on the six-episode series Moon Knight for Disney+ opposite Oscar Isaac and Ethan Hawke, which we will discover this year, as well as Emily Atef's film More Than Ever, with Vicky Krieps and Liv Ullmann. He was gearing up to reunite with director Bertrand Bonello for a project titled La Bête.
His sudden passing, in addition to being so heart-wrenching, is an immense loss for French cinema as he was one of the most talented and most touching figures of the new generation of French actors."
