Michel Vuillermoz ・ Comédie-Française

Michel Vuillermoz was shy and not drawn to the theatre from a young age. He had a classical education with average results in Orléans. There was just perhaps the desire to be noticed, to draw attention. He made his first short feature with a high school friend. This would prove to be a decisive moment when, later on, Michel embarked on discovering the joys of acting. After the Conservatoire d’Orléans, he took the Jean Périmony course in Paris before enrolling into the Conservatoire national supérieur d’art dramatique in 1986.

He played in Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas directed by Nicolas Lormeau, Gabor Rassov’s Les guerres picrocholines and Shakespeare’s Richard III, both directed by Pierre Pradinas. He directed and played in David Pownall’s Master Class and in Jean-Claude Grumberg's Linge sale. There was also the desire to work with friends on staging a show based on characters, a desire reinforced by his work at Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil. In 1996, André le Magnifique came to fruition at the Maison de la culture in Bourges, a collective creation he instigated. Denis Podalydès was part of this show, which was a great success and won seven Molière Awards. In 2000, he starred in two plays by David Mamet: American Buffalo by Michel Fau and The Old Neighborhood (Paradis Perdus) by Pierre Laville. The following year, his interpretation of Fouché in Victorien Sardou’s Madame Sans-Gêne by Alain Sachs, earned him a nomination for a Molière Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 2003, Marcel Bozonnet, at the time the Comédie-Française’s Administrator, hired him to play Infortunatov in Ostrovsky’s The Forest directed by Piotr Fiomenko. This encounter with a grand master of poetic and magical theatre was of crucial importance for the young pensionnaire. In 2007, he became the 515th sociétaire of the Company.

Michel Vuillermoz has made his mark on certain characters. In 2004, his Géronte in Corneille’s Le Menteur by Jean-Louis Benoit earned him a nomination for the Molière for Best Supporting Actor. Denis Podalydès offered him the title role in Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac. For this, he won the 2007 Critics’ Union Award for Best Actor. In 2008, he played Figaro in Ödön von Horváth’s Figaro Gets a Divorce staged by Jacques Lassalle, as well as the Count in Beaumarchais’ The Marriage of Figaro (Le Mariage de Figaro) directed by Christophe Rauck. In 2009, he carried the title role in Le Loup after Marcel Aymé’s Les Contes du Chat perché directed by Véronique Vella. In 2010, Alain Françon entrusted him with playing Aleksandr Ignatyevich Vershinin in Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. They reunited in 2012 on Goldoni’s The Villegiatura Trilogy. In 2014, he was a profound and mysterious Tartuffe in Molière’s eponymous play by Galin Stoev and a charismatic Theseus in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Muriel Mayette-Holtz.

Arnaud Desplechin had directed him on film in My Sex Life or… How I Got into an Argument (Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle)) and in The Forest, a television film based on Ostrovsky. In 2016, Desplechin cast him as Captain in Strindberg's The Father staged at the Salle Richelieu. In 2017, he played Pinglet in Feydeau’s The Free Exchange Hotel (L’Hôtel du Libre-Échange) directed by Isabelle Nanty and appeared in Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Katharina Thalbach. Robert Carsen saw in him a melancholic and brittle Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.
As a director, Michel Vuillermoz worked with Laurence Colussi on Peter Handke's Introspection and with the student actors of the Academy on Rémi de Vos’s Kadoc shown at the Studio-Théâtre.

Besides working on television and short movies, Michel Vuillermoz has played in over one hundred films. He has appeared in Albert Dupontel’s Bernie, Le Créateur and Au revoir là-haut. He has also participated in the three latest films by Alain Resnais: Wild Grass (Les Herbes folles), You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (Vous n’avez encore rien vu) and Life of Riley (Aimer, boire et chanter). Alexandra Leclère cast him in four of her films: Les sœurs fâchées, Maman, Le grand partage and Garde alternée. In 1992, he was cast along with Denis Podalydès, Philippe Uchan and Isabelle Candelier in Bruno Podalydès’ A Night in Versailles (Versailles Rive-Gauche). This group of friends meets regularly on Mister Podalydès’ pictures: Only God Sees Me (Dieu seul me voit), The Perfume of the Lady in Black (Le parfum de la dame en noir), Parc Benches (Bancs publics), Granny’s Funeral (Adieu Berthe ‒ L’enterrement de mémé), The Sweet Escape (Comme un avion), and Bécassine. He shared the billing with Valérie Donzelli in Lionel Baier’s Longwave (Les Grandes Ondes (à l’ouest)).

Michel Vuillermoz is Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters (officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres).

During the 2018/2019 season, Michel Vuillermoz will be playing in Goldoni’s La Locandiera by Alain Françon and in the rerun of Feydeau’s Free Exchange Hotel (L’Hôtel du Libre-Échange) by Isabelle Nanty.