There are no grey areas with Tom Mercier. The Tel Aviv-born French-Israeli actor has a complicated relationship with Paris, the city he’s lived in since 2017. “Sometimes I want to take a bullet to my head,” he admits over a Zoom call from his kitchen, “and sometimes I want to hug the whole city all at once. You can feel both of those feelings. Paris is a central place for me to live, to pass, and to grow up… I’m looking for myself, I’m building myself here.”

Evening shirt with pleated collar in silk, trousers in wool and mohair. All clothing, Lanvin.
Evening shirt with pleated collar in silk, trousers in wool and mohair. All clothing, Lanvin.

Bruno Staub

Mercier’s first role, and reason for leaving Israel, was to play the part of Yoav – a young Israeli man who heads to Paris under the notion that France could be his salvation – in Nadav Lapid’s critically acclaimed film Synonyms. “You have a lot of pressure with your first role,” he says, “but I realised that the pressure is actually far less when you’re new. I can be a failure but nobody knows me. I’m an unknown man, an unknown person, and when you’re unknown, you can allow yourself to enter into a new world where you’re still discovering everything. One of the most beautiful things about cinema is that sense of discovery, and that’s why I think so many great actors don’t want to learn their text. They want to transform the character, so they can live it every day, in the same shoes. Just like great painters. Like Picasso, who spent his whole life trying to draw like a child, it’s important to try not to be so professional all of the time.”

Double-breasted balloon sleeves coat in wool, long-sleeved polo shirt in printed silk, straight trousers in wool. In the background. Pleat trousers in wool and mohair, tailored shorts in silk and virgin wool. All clothing, Lanvin.
Double-breasted balloon sleeves coat in wool, long-sleeved polo shirt in printed silk, straight trousers in wool. In the background. Pleat trousers in wool and mohair, tailored shorts in silk and virgin wool. All clothing, Lanvin.

Bruno Staub

Raised in the beachfront suburbs of Herzliya Pituach, Mercier managed to avoid Israel’s mandatory military service “because they found that I didn’t have the capacity to do it, so they gave me a release”, he says. At 18 years of age, after having “begrudgingly” attended a few theatre classes simply as a way to get into the school he wanted to go to (“My grades were so bad that I had to do something”), Mercier had a breakthrough. “I was laughing and messing around with my friend one day, and my teacher gave me an Arthur Miller book, and she told me to take it and read it aloud. I was trying, really trying, and I was still giggling with my friends, but then I found myself… My face was laughing, but I felt that rhythm coming through the words, and it felt so natural to me. At the same time, I had struggled with reading and writing since childhood because I’m dyslexic, but for the first time I found myself excited. This giggle that I had in me became the wave that gave me the first feeling of what it means to interpret something.”

Polo shirt in printed silk, shorts in cotton denim. All clothing, Lanvin.
Polo shirt in printed silk, shorts in cotton denim. All clothing, Lanvin.

Bruno Staub

Hearing Mercier speak of reaching the fluid emotional highs of theatre, it’s impossible to ignore the resounding sense of self-discipline that reverberates throughout his life, serving as a current, or force, propelling him forward, encouraging him to do better, to achieve more at all times. Having been bullied as a child, his parents put him into judo classes so he could learn to defend himself. He ended up practicing five times a week from the age of six. “It’s an art,” he says. “It takes a lot of dedication. There’s no talking, no punching beneath the belt. It’s very self-disciplined.” In his teen years, Mercier went on to become a professional athlete, representing Israel in competitions. “I learnt a lot from that, because you have to be disciplined. And for me, as a child, it gave me a sort of frame, and at the same time I think that I found my liberty within that same frame, and this is why I love ballet, judo and sports in general. When you see a very high-performing athlete, you see that they are extremely disciplined men, but at the same time they’re looking for freedom through their art, so I take a lot of elements from judo and put that into my acting.”

Embroidered silk asymmetric pajama shirt and shorts, slip on shoes in calfskin with gros-grain bow. All clothing, Lanvin. Louis Durot Spiral chair, Jaymar.
Embroidered silk asymmetric pajama shirt and shorts, slip on shoes in calfskin with gros-grain bow. All clothing, Lanvin. Louis Durot Spiral chair, Jaymar.

Bruno Staub

(Continues)

Fashion credits: 
Photographs by Bruno Staub
Styling by Delphine Danhier
All clothing, Lanvin
Stylist assistant Théo Guigui
Hair: Ramona Eschbach, make-up: Patrick Glatthaar, both @Total
Set design: Olivia Aine @ Artlist
On set: Kitten Production

Opening photograph: double-breasted shawl collar coat in wool, shirt in cotton with embroidered bow, tailored shorts in silk and virgin wool, Sugar bag in lambskin. All clothing, Lanvin. 

Read the full interview by Samira Larouci and see the photo shoot by Bruno Staub in the May issue of L’Uomo, on newsstands from April 13th