"It was almost inhuman" (Mary Philbin - 1993)

Tous ceux qui sont passés un jour sur ce blog ont pu s'apercevoir de mon adoration pour le Fantôme de l'Opéra et l'oeuvre de Leroux en général. Une adaptation de laquelle je parle peu, mais qui n'en est pas moins un chef d'oeuvre, est probablement la version muette de Rupert Julian de 1925, avec dans les rôles titres Lon Chaney et Mary Philbin (pour un avis sur le film, c'est par ici). En parcourant tumblr il y a quelques temps, je suis tombée sur cet extrait d'interview très émouvante de l'actrice, menée en 1993. Lon Chaney Sr, surnommé à juste titre "the man of thousand faces", était un pionnier en matière de maquillage de cinéma, allant jusqu'à utiliser des procédés assez "barbares". Dans le rôle du Fantôme, en 1925, l'acteur s'était fabriqué une prothèse déformante pour la bouche, et un système de fils invisibles qui lui maintenaient le nez retroussé, qui le faisaient atrocement souffrir mais lui donnant cet aspect assez horrible, qui a marqué durablement les spectateurs...

operafantomet:

“When it came time for the famous unmasking scene I did not have to act. What I mean by that is, Mr. Chaney never prepared for me his makeup for the Phantom. I knew it was very horrible and I could see the yellowish color of his skin behind his neck. It was very early in the shooting schedule, since we had to do all of his scenes first because we had other commitments.

He silently came onto the set and took his place at the organ. I later learned that he could not speak because of the makeup around his mouth. Well, all you have to do is look at the picture and you can see my reaction when I first saw what he had done to his face! But it wasn’t just his face. I will never forget the horrible rage that came from his eyes, and the cry that he let out just before he turned around seemed to come from all around the set. Not from him. It was almost inhuman."

(Mary Philbin, 1993).