Nominated for the 2026 César, Mélanie Thierry spent two years learning her character’s mother tongue. Another language she still speaks today?
The 51st César ceremony will be held on February 26, from the Olympia in Paris. And Mélanie Thierry is nominated for the César for best actress! The 44-year-old actress is in competition with the film Mariana’s Room.
How did Mélanie Thierry learn this new language?
In this feature film released last April, Mélanie Thierry plays a Ukrainian prostitute who decides, during the Second World War, to hide a Jewish child named Hugo in the closet of the brothel where she lives and works. A gripping, demanding and sometimes dark role on which the wife of singer Raphaël spoke in the columns of the magazine Three Colors. “We knew that the film had to be in this language, that of Aharon Appelfeld’s book. There was never any question of considering it otherwise. The proof, when it had to be dubbed into French, I did not want to do it. The film should not sound other than in this language”she said.
“I decided to learn the language tirelessly, rigorously”she even informed the Parisian. And Mélanie Thierry, notably in competition against the most nominated actress at the Césars, clarified: “For two years, I used a company, Tomatis, which re-educates the ear and helped me to hear Ukrainian music from the inside, to open up frequencies that we are not used to opening. I also worked with two Ukrainian coaches (…) I learned vocabulary, declensions, irregular verbs and I ended up adopting sentence constructions.
Mélanie Thierry can be proud of herself because “two years later, Ukrainian is still anchored in me.” Enough to serve him, perhaps, for other roles in his career.
“Otherwise, I would take everyone with me in my fall“
“It only made sense to me.”said this mother of three boys, named Roman, Alyosha and Isaac. Before continuing: “Performing in Ukrainian, no one cares. Nobody is interested, especially since people will always have complaints about my Ukrainian. It will never sound Ukrainian enough for a Ukrainian”. In general, voters at award ceremonies particularly like the “performances” and this therefore gives him a little more chance than the others of winning the César…
However, Mélanie Thierry was keen to make people forget the language barrier. And the bet paid off! “The challenge was to overcome this obstacle, to be challenged for five minutes, then carried away by the story of these two orphans”she clarified. Before concluding: “To achieve this, this language had to circulate well, not be a hindrance. Otherwise, I would take everyone with me in my fall”. A fall which ultimately led her to the Césars!
