Out Director Olivier Peyon Takes Fresh Look at Lost Love in VOD Release 'Lie With Me'

EDGE: Tell me about casting Julien De Saint Jean as Thomas. We never see him as an adult, but his character is the bridge between the film's two parts, past and present.

Olivier Peyon: I told Julien De Saint Jean, "Okay, you don't have lots of scenes, but everybody's talking about your character in the movie." I totally meant it; in effect, [Thomas] is the main character of the story.

And I totally understand why. When Julien De Saint Jean smiles, it's so beautiful; my casting director, who is a woman, told me when we met him for the testing, "Men and woman can be in love with Julien." It was exactly [as with] the character; in the novel, everybody's in love with [Thomas], and [in real life] you could see everybody, man and woman, was in love with Julien.

The most important [element] for me was the chemistry between the two young actors. When I met Jérémy Gillet [who plays the young Stéphane], he was really good; when I met Julien De Saint Jean, he was really good. I had some other young actors, too, but the difference was made when we put [the two of] them together during the casting, and it was like this [indicating an instant connection]. They didn't have a love story in real life, but for the first time [in the casting process] I was looking at my casting director [with excitement], it was so intense between them.

It was a long way between the casting and the shooting, but it was a good thing because Julian and Jérémy became friends. It was really important for them to know each other, and now they are best friends. They're always together. [That friendship] was important for them to play the sex scenes, they told me; because they felt confident [in one another], they said okay to it. The sex scenes are really intense, and they were able to put [such] intensity [into the sex scenes] because they were really connected. I saw that for the first time in the casting, and that's why I chose them.

EDGE: What do you hear from people who read the book and loved the book? Or people who saw the movie and then read the book? Do you hear, "I liked the book better." "I liked the film better." I think they both are wonderful, although they're very different.

Olivier Peyon: I was really lucky because Philippe Besson, the novelist, loved my movie. And the readers? Nobody was disappointed by my adaptation. You always have one or two people who say, "Why didn't you [include] this scene from the book [in the film version]?" but the readers of the book loved the movie, so I was relieved.

The biggest compliment I had was from Philippe Besson's closest friend, who told me, "It's amazing how it is not the book – but it's totally book!" And I understand why he said that. As I told you, I invented lots of things [for the adaptation], but the spirit and the purpose of the novel were really in my movie.

"Lie with Me" is available now on VOD. For more information, follow this link.