The Algerian-French actor talks about learning sign language and “speaking with her body” for her role as a ballet dancer in upcoming film Houria
This article is taken from the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of AnOther Magazine:
“Last year I shot a movie called Houria by Mounia Meddour, who directed me in her debut feature film, Papicha. In Houria, I play a ballet dancer who loses the ability to speak. It was a big challenge because I had to express myself without words for the first time – I only speak for the first 20 minutes of the film. I spent a year preparing, taking dance lessons and learning sign language. Before shooting, Mounia sent me the video for Sia’s 2016 single The Greatest, featuring the dancer Maddie Ziegler, as a starting point. I watched it maybe a hundred times. It was the key to unlocking my character, because she’s dancing and at the same time it feels like she’s speaking with just her body. It’s so powerful.”
In 2021, decked out in a large retro motorcycle helmet, the Algerian-French actor Lyna Khoudri made her Hollywood debut as a spirited student revolutionary in The French Dispatch, Wes Anderson’s esoteric love letter to journalism. To those familiar with the 29-year-old’s previous work – notably the Algerian dramas Papicha (2019) and Les bienheureux (2017), for which she won a César and a Venice Film Festival award, respectively – her ascent will come as no surprise. Trained in contemporary theatre and passionate about telling stories with a strong social message, Khoudri is now tentatively beginning to extend her range. This year she stars in Novembre, a thriller based on the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks; she’s also shooting an adaptation of The Three Musketeers with Eva Green and Vincent Cassel.
Hair: Perrine Rougemont at Caren. Make-up: Yazid Mallek
This article appears in the Spring/Summer 2022 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is on sale here.