Anatomy of a Fall: It’s a Movie Discovery! Where have you seen young Milo Machado Graner before?

Milo Machado Graner, who will blow out those 15 candles on August 31, has been featured in Anatomy of the Fall at the Palme d’Or since last Wednesday. He plays the young, visually impaired son of a couple played by Sandra Huller and Samuel Theis in the film. The latter is found dead in the first minutes of the film.

If Milo Machado Graner’s face is unfamiliar to you, that’s okay! The young actor has already had several experiences, be it in a TV series, a Netflix production or a movie.

You may have seen (and heard) him in 8 rue de l’homme, Danny Boon’s prison-set comedy produced for Netflix and recently aired on TF1.

As Milo Machado Graner told us at the microphone of AlloCiné, everything started for him with the TV series. “The first shoot I did was for En Thérapie. I have a small role. I shot for two days, where I found a little bit of shooting. I took the opportunity to ask a lot of questions. I started getting my bearings; I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it.“

Did he answer the casting ad? Not at all like that! Chance led him to bump into a famous casting director who was doing “wild casting” for a project other than En Thérapie.

“I was in the 6th grade. Casting director Elsa Faraone held a wild casting call with some friends. We did the casting with my friends and one thing led to another, and finally I went to the role with another young man. Bojangles was waiting. Finally, the director told us that we were too old, things weren’t going well, but he was going to offer us a casting for a smaller role. The day I went to this casting for a small role, my little brother accompanied me (Solan Machado Graner) and decided to hire him for the main role and he got it! I was also cast in a small role on “Bojangles” and at the same time I did the casting of “Ann Therapy”. As I liked it, then I did another casting and hired an agent.”

Humanité from 8 rue de l’Humanité to Anatomy of a Fall

Casting for Anatomy of a Fall was a long-term meeting between director Justin Triet and Cynthia Ara, his “acting collaborator.” Both of them first gave it to a four-month-old visually impaired child. Then, because they couldn’t find it, they opened the casting for sighted children for another three months before falling for Milo: “It was Gilles Gage (Casting Enhancement) who found her. It was immediately impressive, as if he was not playingJustin Triet explains in the press kit.

“He studied the piano intensively, and then together with Cynthia, we looked for the level of vision impairment together with the help of people who specialize in visual impairment. We chose a visual impairment that is as mild as possible, high myopia without affecting peripheral vision. He’s a child with exceptional intellectual and emotional abilities, with a kind of melancholic vibe.”

That’s why Milo Machado Graner had to face some challenges! We also had to play very emotional scenes. To achieve this, the duo Justin Triet – Cynthia Ara has a very specific technique. “Their obsession was to “get to the state”, these are the words they kept repeating,” Milo Machado Graner tells us. At first it was difficult for me to understand. Then we worked. In particular, to get into the crying scenes, or in general, was a sort of ritual or exercise. He had a key and the exercise was to ask: Give me the key! I couldn’t just say that! By repeating it, as if he missed something! I was in tears and we could start the scene! It was quite funny and again, something incredible for me. It was quite an effort, but I have very good memories of it.”

Milo Machado Graner, who is very comfortable in interviews, is happy to talk about his film debut, seeing that he continues to shoot. “If I can do it at the same time as high school, that would be great. During higher education, I will have to make a choice. But for now it’s just fun for me.“We’ll see him soon in Spectateurs!, Arnaud Desplechin’s next film.”