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Vincent Cassel: A Life in Pictures

22 December 2011
A Life in Pictures - Vincent Cassel BAFTA / James Kennedy

The acclaimed French actor and star of La Haine, Eastern Promises and Ocean's Twelve spoke to Jason Solomons

After his break-through appearance in La Haine, Cassel has gone on to star in a wide range of films including the moody L'Appartement, the violent Dobermann, genre-bending Le Pacte des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf) and the highly controversial Irréversible. He has also appeared a number of English language films, such as Ocean's Twelve and Ocean's Thirteen, Derailed, Birthday Girl, The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc, Elizabeth, Eastern Promises and A Dangerous Method.

We wanted to have something new, we wanted to talk about subject matters and people that weren't represented in the French cinema at the time.

Cassel spoke to Jason Solomons about working with David Cronenberg and Viggo Mortensen on Eastern Promises, and the abundance of riches on the set of Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve. He describes how he decided to shoot explicit scenes with his wife Monica Bellucci for Gaspar Noé's controversial film Irréversible, and explains why he was drawn to the role of Jacques Mesrine in director Jean-Francois Richet’s two-part biopic.