Jérôme Pouly ・ Comédie-Française

Following two years in the Classe libre at the Cours Florent and one year at the École nationale des arts et techniques du spectacle, Jérôme Pouly trained at the Conservatoire national d’art dramatique before joining the Comédie-Française in June 1998. He was appointed the 510th sociétaire on the 1st of January 2004. He made his debut within the Troupe as Lubin in Molière’s Georges Dandin under the direction of Catherine Hiegel. Another of his Conservatoire teachers, Muriel Mayette-Holtz, directed him in Feydeau’s Chat en poche the same season.

Jérôme Pouly forged a solid reputation in classical repertoire. He played in a number of Molière’s comedies, such as the title role in George Dandin directed by Hervé Pierre and in Amphitryon by Jacques Vincey. He was Master Jacques in The Miser (L’Avare) by Catherine Hiegel, Pierrot in Dom Juan by Jacques Lassalle, as well as Zéphire in Psyché by Véronique Vella. In Shakespearean tragedies, he was the Boor in A Winter’s Tale by Muriel Mayette-Holtz, Grumio in The Taming of the Shrew by Oskaras Koršunovas, Cassio in Othello by Léonie Simaga, Count Paris in Romeo and Juliet by Éric Ruf, Laertes in Hamlet by Dan Jemmett, and Stephano in The Tempest by Robert Carsen. Otherwise, he has played Vatelin in Feydeau’s Le Dindon by Lukas Hemleb, Ossip in Chekhov’s Platonov or Fatherlessness by Jacques Lassalle, Carbon de Castel-Jaloux and Jodelet in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac by Denis Podalydès, Don Carlos in Victor Hugo’s Hernani by Nicolas Lormeau and Paillardin in Feydeau’s The Free Exchange Hotel (L’Hôtel du Libre-Échange) by Isabelle Nanty.

Jérôme Pouly has equally been cast in contemporary plays. As such, he has played Gervasio Penna and Gregorio Di Spelta in Eduardo De Filippo’s La Grande Magie by Dan Jemmett; Father in Le Loup and the Dog in Le Cerf et le Chien, both by Marcel Aymé and directed by Véronique Vella; Octave in The Rules of the Game (La Règle du jeu) after a screenplay by Jean Renoir and directed by Christiane Jatahy; and Clark in Brecht’s Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Katharina Thalbach.

Several renowned directors entrusted him with very important roles. For Giorgio Barberio Corsetti, he played Beauperthuis in An Italian Straw Hat by Eugène Labiche, to whom he returned to play the Lover in La Dame aux jambes d’azur under the direction of Jean-Pierre Vincent. Jérôme Deschamps cast him as Jean in Feydeau’s Un fil à la patte, while Alain Françon envisaged him as Cecco in Carlo Goldoni's The Villegiatura Trilogy. He also played Mercure in Anatoli Vassiliev’s version of Molière’s Amphytrion, and Cléonte in Le Bourgeois gentilhomme by Jean-Louis Benoit. He worked with Laurent Pelly on two occasions, first as Mathias in Brecht’s Threepenny Opera at the Salle Richelieu and then as Aïrolo in Victor Hugo’s Mangeront-ils ?, shown at the Théâtre national de Toulouse.

In 2011, he directed the reading of Antonin Artaud’s Textes de la Conférence du Vieux-Colombier and staged, in 2013, the reading of Albert Camus / Francis Ponge : Correspondance. In June 2018, he went back to Alexandre Dumas’ Henri III et sa cour as part of the Journées particulières.

Along with playing in several crime series and historical documentaries on television, Jérôme Pouly appeared in the following films: Friday Night (Vendredi soir) by Claire Denis, 5x2 by François Ozon, Saint-Jacques… La Mecque by Coline Serreau, The Lookout (Le Guetteur) by Michele Placido, If I Were a Boy (Si j’étais un homme) by Audrey Dana, Black Tide (Fleuve noir) by Erick Zonca, and L’Empereur de Paris by Jean-François Richet.

During the 2018/2019 season, he can be seen in Marivaux’s L’Heureux stratagème by Emmanuel Daumas, Hans Christian Andersen’s Little Mermaid by Géraldine Martineau, Les Oubliés (Paris-Alger) written and directed by Julie Bertin and Jade Herbulot - The Birgit Ensemble, as well as in the rerun of Feydeau’s Free Exchange Hotel by Isabelle Nanty.