Denis Ménochet Is Your Favourite Filmmaker’s Favourite Actor

Your favourite filmmakers enjoy making Denis Ménochet suffer. In Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, Ménochet is the sweating farmer interrogated by Christoph Waltz during the infamous opening. In François Ozon’s Peter von Kant, Ménochet embodies the title character during a gradual breakdown. In the trailer for Ari Aster’s upcoming Beau Is Afraid, the 46-year-old French actor screams during a car crash. It’s no surprise, then, that Ménochet endures psychological and mental torture as the lead of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s astounding slow-burn thriller The Beasts. “In those films, yeah, I suffer,” Ménochet grins. “But have you seen Custody? I make people suffer in that one.”

In a just world, Ménochet would be speaking to me shortly after some Oscar success for The Beasts. As a consolation, Sorogoyen’s film is a monstrous hit in Spain, where it won nine prizes at the Goya Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and, of course, Best Actor for Ménochet. In terms of the UK, it might be the best film released so far in 2023.

New to Galicia in Spain, a married French couple, Antoine (Ménochet) and Olga (Marina Foïs), dedicate their lives to ecological farming and restoring abandoned houses. When a businessman proposes building a wind turbine in the area, the locals all agree to the lucrative buyout except for Antoine, who effectively ruins everyone’s payday. In the countryside, Antoine soon learns, there’s nowhere to hide when it comes to vengeful neighbours with a literal axe to grind.

Funnily enough, Ménochet resides in a small village in Brittany, which he calls the French Cornwall, and, on a WhatsApp video call, he spins around to show me the greenery surrounding him. “There were hunters hunting way too close to my yard, and they scared my dogs and the kids who were here,” the actor says. “I was furious. I was like, ‘Don’t do this at my house. This is stupid.’ This morning, I was walking my dogs, and a car stopped nearby. It’s the same hunter. He goes, ‘Sorry about the last time.’ I go, ‘No, it’s fine.’ He says, ‘By the way, I saw your film. Now we know how to get you.’ So it’s good this film exists, because now my neighbours make fun of me!”

Antoine’s main nemeses are two brothers, Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido), both of whom have been farming in the area for decades, versus Antoine’s two-year stint. Referring to Antoine as ‘Frenchie’, the siblings spit in his face, poison his water supplies, and intimidate Olga at night – and that’s only the first third of the film. The masterstroke of Ménochet’s performance, though, is that the viewer isn’t entirely on his side. Antoine, a former teacher, is patronising and classist; he’s unmoved by the financial woes of the local farmers who complain they “always smell of shit” and can’t raise a family.

For the role, Ménochet learned Spanish and lived on the same farm as Antoine and Olga. “I wanted to wake up there and have all the smells,” he explains. “You understand why they moved there. You have a very foggy morning with the sound of cows outside.” As Antoine looks constantly exhausted, were there other aspects of method acting involved? “My job is to live truthfully in imaginary circumstances. If you believe in those circumstances and have done your homework, then you suffer like the character.”

Beforehand, Ménochet watched the 2016 documentary Santoalla, a major inspiration for The Beasts, and the 1971 thriller Straw Dogs. As depicted in Santoalla, a real-life version of The Beasts occurred to a terrorised Dutch couple in Galicia and resulted in murder. “The documentary helped me get into the zone,” Ménochet says. “I tried to feel the life of my character. I listened to a lot of Tchaikovsky.” Because that’s what Antoine would listen to? “No, for me. It’s like a new colour when you start painting. You go, ‘OK, I’m going to use that one this time.’ And it worked.”

Ménochet started acting in 2003 but wasn’t internationally known until 2009’s Inglourious Basterds; a few years later, Tarantino selected him for a live reading of The Hateful Eight before it turned into a film. “Quentin put me on the map,” says Ménochet. “I will always be there for him.” Having been cast by filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Rebecca Zlotowski, and Ridley Scott, he’s also aware that John Waters named Peter Von Kant his favourite film of 2022. “John, I love you. If you read this, hire me.”

In Spain, it’s surely no coincidence that The Beasts arrived the same year as Carla Simón’s Alcarràs, a quiet drama about peach farmers whose lifestyle is threatened by the potential arrival of solar panels. “It’s a topic that’s important to everyone nowadays, even where I live, here, in French Cornwall,” the actor says. “Everyone cares about renewable energy and how to have a sustainable future. It’s good for movies to talk about it as well … More than a million people saw [The Beasts] in Spain, and almost half a million did in France. This film isn’t ours anymore, it’s theirs. And that’s beautiful.”

It’s often said that every actor – male ones, anyway – fantasise about playing cowboys in a western. Did The Beasts feel like a western set in the countryside? “It really did. The scenes in the bar, like when they played dominoes, they really had a western feel to it. But some people in Galicia said, ‘This is not the way to depict our people.’” The locals weren’t pleased with the portrayal of Xan and Lorenzo as violent xenophobes? “Most of them love the film, but some people said, ‘This is not how Galician people are.’ Of course it’s not! It’s a film playing with fantasy.”

On Mary Magdalene, Ménochet acted alongside Joaquin Phoenix, and the pair reunited recently on Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid. “This old, bald guy came up to me, and gave me the biggest hug. I was like, ‘Who the fuck is that?’ And it was Joaquin as the older version of himself, like you can see in the trailer.” Aster informed Ménochet he was cast specifically because of his towering performance in Custody. “I’ve never been on a movie set where people stop to watch the video village screens. On this one, Joaquin’s so fucking hilarious and deep. I’m so proud of this film. It’s going to be epic. Ep-ic!”

Ménochet’s other upcoming project is Monsieur Spade, the new TV show from Scott Frank, the writer/director of The Queen’s Gambit. “And that’s it,” he says. “I’ve got no work. I’m just trying to lose some weight and clear my head. That’s all I want to do.” And hopefully not start further fights with the nearby neighbours? With a droll smile, he responds, “I hope this isn’t the last time you see me.”

The Beasts is out in UK cinemas and exclusively on Curzon Home Cinema on March 24.