Pierre Arditi opens up about his suicide attempt at 32

At 79 years old, Pierre Arditi is not ready to retire and he remains more dynamic than ever. Unfortunately, last September, he felt unwell on stage at the Edouard VII theater where he played alongside Muriel Robin in the play Rabbit by Samuel Benchetrit. After being urgently hospitalized, he recovered and chose to return to the stage.

But new illnesses in October, then in December, forced the tireless actor to withdraw to rest longer. Now in better shape, he was Aurélie Casse’s guest in C l’hebdo and he chose to confide in a tragic moment in his life… Moved to tears, he confided in his suicide attempt at 32 years.

A romantic breakup at the origin of his suicide attempt

While he was in a relationship and very much in love at 32, Pierre Arditi’s partner suddenly ended their relationship. “She told me one evening near Pigalle that she was leaving me” The rejected actor experiences this as an unbearable bolt from the blue and sees everything collapse around him, completely losing his taste for life. “It was a Saturday evening, there were a lot of people in the street, I had gone deaf and I could no longer perceive anything. It made me suffer so much that I went into the apartment we lived in and took what I needed to end life. That is to say medicines”he revealed to Aurélie Casse.

Fortunately, his partner at the time found him before the worst happened. “It didn’t work otherwise we wouldn’t talk to each other. She came home, I was taken away… But before doing that, when I was walking on the boulevard, I said to myself: ‘I’m done I’ve had enough, I’m tired.“he confided, still moved by this episode in his life.

A turning point in his career

“A few weeks later, I was asked to play in a very famous play, called “Rosencrantz and Guldenstern are dead” and I accept because it took me out of the pain. And at one point the character I’m playing says, ‘Oh, I’ve had enough, I’m tired.‘.” explains Pierre Arditi. A disturbing and revealing mirror effect for the actor. “It’s very complicated for me to talk about this because it devastates me again. These two things matched. And what I hadn’t yet understood was that I hadn’t yet used myself to play. I imitated the actors I admired but it wasn’t me. And all of a sudden, this pain came like tracing paper. And I became me, I finally discovered what I was.”confides the actor.

Ultimately, this suicide attempt allowed the actor to rebuild himself and use his injuries to better embody his characters on stage.I believe that an actor cannot play everything he has to play until he identifies himself.” Moving confidences.