Well, put quotes around ‘like,’ but he responded.”Įventually, Helberg met with Carax in New York City - “He was stoic and comically unimpressed and unmoved by my presence” - and then, well, just kept meeting with him. He actually got back very quickly and he liked it. I didn’t even know if my audition tape could make it to him, but I knew I could at least do my part and play that song and put it out into the ether. I got a response from this hermitic, enigmatic Frenchman who they thought might live in a cave without electricity somewhere. “In some ways, I think it actually worked. “I figured if I could win over Leos Carax, I would just become an honorary French citizen,” Helberg said. (Helberg’s wife is a French citizen and their children attend a French school, so while he’s not entirely out of the French milieu, it was still a stretch.) The tape came with an additional sweetener: Helberg, knowing that Carax was eager to kit out his production with a majority of European citizens in order to secure EU funding, added a note that he was in the process of becoming a French citizen. Helberg eventually got hold of the script and filmed an audition to be sent to Carax. I’m all about having an experience, and this seemed like a pretty good one to risk my life and liberty for.” It’s hard to even really draw any comparison between ‘Annette’ and other films. Of course, once I read it, I was completely fascinated. “I didn’t really even read a script for a while, because it was under lock and key and everything about the whole project was very cryptic. “Leos making a film is an event,” Helberg explained. The 35 Best Romance Movies of the 21st Century, from 'High Fidelity' to 'Carol' International Gay Cinema: 33 LGBTQ Movies to See from Around the World 'Nope' Filmmaker Jordan Peele Wanted to Get 'Inherently Meta' with His 'Flying Saucer' Horror Film 'Nope' Star Keke Palmer Unpacks Jordan Peele's Wild Ending: 'How Do We Perform This?' But Carax couldn’t let it go, and neither could Helberg. Long before Helberg nabbed the third lead in the film, he had been tracking the project, including in its earliest stages when other producers and stars were attached. What was it that so captivated him about the film and the role? “Well, some kind of demonic possession or a desire to just torment and self-immolate,” he said during a recent interview with IndieWire.

Simon helberg