Nicolas Maury’s gay pride at role of Herve in Call My Agent!

Camille Cottin attracted a lot of the heat for her role in Call My Agent! but life has also changed for the actor who played her colleague Herve.

Role model: Laure Calamy and Nicolas Maury in Call My Agent!

The hit series Call My Agent! was groundbreaking in France because of its depiction of gay characters. Never before had they been so incidental and normal.

Camille Cottin, as the lead character Andrea, the lesbian boss of the Paris talent agency where the series is set, may have attracted a lot of the heat but Nicolas Mau­ry, who plays her hilarious scene-stealing gay colleague Herve, has made a huge contribution as well.

Speaking over Zoom, the openly gay Maury notes how he was proud to play a strong gay character – even if it was not really like him.

Asked if he drew on himself at all for the role, he responds with a chuckle: “Myself is a big country, you know... I drew a lot on the film world around me.” The series’ success was a big surprise, he notes.

“I’ve actually received a lot of messages on Instagram from people around the world who love the show, and I know Australians love me. I want to come to Australia. I’ve never been.”

Maury admits his life since the series has been frenetic, not unlike Isabelle Huppert’s madcap storyline in her hilarious episode.

“I might be doing TV in the morning, theatre in the evening, having a photo shoot and getting dressed on the train before an interview – all this during the course of a day,” he says Maury’s major feat has been to direct his first feature film, My Best Part, and he will surely be pleased that the film will be part of The Sydney Film Festival program.

Initially, it was selected to premiere in Cannes last year, though the festival did not go ahead. It went on to premiere at The Angouleme Film Festival before being part of Toronto’s Industry Selects. The film was well-received when it released in France last October.

The Hollywood Reporter notes that “Maury is clearly a talent to watch who is capable of juggling extreme tonal shifts and who manages to come pretty close to that thing that people like Demy and Honore manage to do in their best films: suggest the potent alchemy of euphoria and melancholy that comes from being in love and, even, from simply being alive.”

Maury stars as Jeremie, an actor who moves in with his mum following a break-up with his boyfriend (Arnaud Valois). But he remains extremely jealous and struggles to get over it.

“It’s a classic coming-of-age story but I’ve approached it in an unconventional way,” Maury explains. “I was looking at jealousy as if it comes from a restlessness in our hearts; the heart of someone who tells himself too many stories but who also worries too much about others and is seriously lacking in confidence.”

He brought a lot of his Call My Agent! buddies along for the ride, most prominently Nathalie Baye, the subject of the third episode in season one, as the mum.

Laure Calamy, now a major star, has a cameo, as does Huppert, who gets a lot of laughs.

“Isabelle is my goddess,” Maury confides. “I knew her before because she always supported my theatre career, as did Nathalie, but to a lesser extent. “Call My Agent! was a great place to meet actors, though I have to say my most significant encounter on the series was with Isabelle Adjani.”

He notes how his Herve and Jeremie characters are opposites. “Herve constantly wears his social mask and remains upbeat, while Jeremie is embracing his disaster and his depression.”

Maury, likewise, drew on his own characteristics in creating Jeremie though, again, there are major differences.

“I’m not an actor who is suffering. The film is about building his passage with cinema. There’s a lot happening in his life and the reality for me is even stronger. I have someone in my life so am unlike Jeremie in that regard.”

Maury brings a youthful vigour to his roles. He recently celebrated his 40th birthday and when asked about this wells up with tears.

“I’m so sad to be 40, I feel so young,” he sighs. “I’m sorry, I’m embarrassing you,” he adds, wiping away the tears and quickly composing himself.

Maury is an emotional kind of man and he enhanced this trait in creating his Jeremie and Herve characters. Might they be viewed as caricatures?

“Caricature is not necessarily negative,” he says.

“In fact, caricature is an art, it’s a line. As an actor, when you’re a good actor, you’re the drawer of your line. And yes, the line can be thick.

“But when the line falls, there’s a man behind and that’s what I’ve attempted, especially with Herve.

“I’ve met people in real life who go a lot further than that, so we should be really careful about calling this realism, because realism can be boring and depressive and that’s not necessarily what people look for in a show. Herve is a little firework, but he’s still a firework.”

Is Maury a firework? “Me? No, I’m wiser. I’m an old guy.”

The actor, who was bullied when he grew up in a small, conservative town in southwestern France, describes Call My Agent! as a huge leap forward.

“One of the most exciting things that happened to me was when I received a message from a 16-year-old Brazilian on Instagram,” he says.

“He wrote to me that his father was a homophobe, until he started watching Call My Agent! and admired my character.

“I grew up in the provinces, so I know there are a lot of homophobes in France. It was very important to me to play a gay char­acter and put him in a living room.

“I wish I had a TV role model like Herve in my youth. It would have been very helpful to me.”

My Best Part screens in the Sydney Film Festival sff.org.au. Call My Agent! streams on Netflix.