During the Champs Elysées Film Festival , which took place from June 21 to 28, Just Focus had the opportunity to interview Julie Ledru, a promising young actress in Lola Quivoron's Rodeo. Feature film voted jury's favorite at Cannes, Ledru made her acting debut through the front door. Back on the journey of the young woman, from her passion for cross bitumen to her arrival in the world of cinema with this first feature film. 
JF: Can you present yourself in the way you want?
Julie Ledru: Julie Ledru, I was born in the 95, originally from Villiers-le-Bel. I worked a lot in temporary employment because I had to replace my mother who fell ill. I took over his job, I quickly had to stop school, I was initially in CAP gastronomic catering. In the end, I never really dropped out, because a salary when you get out of high school is appreciable. I stayed in the same environment, and in the same box for 4 years. Regarding the bike, I have been doing it since the age of 9, I learned with my little brother. He had asked his father for a motorcycle so that we could learn everything is two. Together, we went to train on the banks of the Oise. We were a lot of forest, FFM competition (French Motocross Federation)…. My curiosity pushed me on social networks, I opened my Instagram under the name of inconue95 and I discovered on the application the cross bitumen. From there, I went a first time, then a second time. I didn't leave the cross bitumen at all until I joined the first French cross bitumen group, which is the Dirty Rider Crew (DRC) and here I am, arrived at the film.
JF: So what made you want to do cross bitumen was your family?
J.L: Cross country itself, my mom did it when she was younger. We came across the family book with a picture of her next to a Suzuki. When we saw this picture with my brother we said "But what is that?! Did you ride a motorcycle?" So she explained to us that yes, she was doing cross country in the forest. It came from her.
JF: What are your experiences in cinema?
J.L: My TV (laughs). None, it's my very first feature film. I didn't study, I wasn't interested in the world of cinema at all. I loved going to the movies, I went there once a month. But no more interested than that.
JF: What are your references in terms of cinema?
J.L: I will say Fish Tank first, and Rosetta second.
JF: What makes bike life poetic?
J.L: You have to go to the lines to see that. I think it would leave a lot of people speechless to see the figures in themselves. There is like a form of weightlessness, lightness. The biker is on a motorcycle, carried by a single wheel when it is supposed to ride on two, without leg support, without brakes, he just has his hands in support. There is only one element that connects it to the motorcycle. I think it's beautiful.
JF: What is your favorite figure in cross bitumen?
J.L: No-hand, which I can't do even though I'd like it a lot. It is a figure without hands, where you have to stand in "i". The goal is to stay stable in your speed, you really have a drop. There is always a gesture of one's own, even from one country to another.
JF: Are there international competitions?
J.L: No, not really. There is a competition that has just been created in the United States in New York, at the level of a square. It's a huge crossroads where Americans are used to riding. This year, they brought a Frenchman to the United States to participate in this brand new wheeling competition.
JF: Is cross bitumen a female environment?
J.L: No, women are quite rare. When I started, there were two of us. Now, when I go back, it's starting to open up more and more and it's cool. It's still timid but it's being done.
JF: Do you practice mainly in the 95?
J.L: No, not necessarily. At the very beginning, the bike was in the forest so close to home. But then, the advantage of cross bitumen is that you can travel anywhere in France, you will always find someone on a line. I made my trips alone, I went on the lines alone. I made all the most famous lines.
JF: What do you do when you're not playing and cycling?
J.L: I like to be with my friends, have drinks, we are very partygoers in my group of friends. 
JF: How long did the shoot take?
J.L: It seems to me that it lasted 29 days. I was there for two months and two weeks. There was a two-week stoppage of filming because I was injured at the very beginning. I twisted my ankle.
JF: Did you have any apprehensions about filming?
J.L: Yes, necessarily. After, as I tend to say, Lola accompanied me well from the first meeting when I arrived on the set. She took me as her infant and gently dropped me on set. I didn't feel anything. She prepared me. Our relationship was clear, it evolved with the writing, with the film so there is something very transparent between us. There is great trust in each other.
JF: Wasn't it too difficult to be one of the only girls on set?
J.L: No, I'm used to it. I often surround myself with men so no, I didn't feel any problem with that.
JF: How did you feel about having to improvise most of the scenes? Wasn't it a complicated exercise?
J.L: The most complicated thing would have been to remember the scenes. At school, I was very bad, I didn't hold anything back at all. There, we read the script, so we made the story in mind, the stakes and we just had to live it in the present. We could turn, argue, enrich.
JF: What was the most difficult scene to shoot?
J. L: There was no more complicated scene to shoot. It's more than the body telling me "Stop, I can't take it anymore". It was often in the evening, at 2am, where I was told "End of shooting in an hour" and then finally two hours later I was told "End of shooting at 7am, we're sorry". You can just tell yourself that you won't make it to the end of your night. My character is never cold. We often see him t-shirt, bra and shorts or underpants, and so full night, it was a little complicated. All that, mentally, it was a little hard.
J.F: On the contrary, the scene you preferred to shoot?
J.L: Everything that happened on the motorcycle, it was incredible. Not because I was on a motorcycle, but because it changed me to be on foot and to have the cinematographer in front of me. There, it was more technical, I could play with the camera. Sometimes I could be very close to the vehicle carrying the camera. I loved it. 
J.F: Did you have trouble interfering in the character's skin?
J.L: No, I don't have any trouble because the character has been shaped a little in my image, at least from what I was before. I knew a little bit about his background. Julia, I didn't know her directly, but I glimpsed who she was. What was more complicated was to assume the anger she had and have to play it constantly.
JF: What makes you look like her and on the contrary, what makes you totally different from her?
I look like her because as I said, she was rather an old Julie. I was fed a lot by anger, violence. The motorcycle was my outlet. After that, I don't look like her because she's a big thief, and I'm not one.
JF: What makes this character a feminist?
J.L: Feminist, I wouldn't say that. I would say who defends the in-between. I don't think she defends women and her gender, I don't think she defends men and her gender but that she comes to put something right in the middle. It offers what it is, and I hope it will speak for itself. Sometimes people talk to me about it and I love it because we live today in a completely open world or one that is trying to open up. It is sometimes difficult for both women and men. For the woman, for example to assume her hair because we are in a world where we no longer necessarily want to shave, take the time to do it and that, Julia, it does not bother her. The soutif, the fact that we see the nipples, we don't care about it! This is not a tempting sign. On the contrary, compared to men, if you want to be feminine and not be in football at all, you have the right. If you prefer to do comedy and dance, you can. It's really about leaving a free choice.
"To be, and to assume what you want to be."
JF: What did you think the first time you saw the film?
J.L: It was hard, I didn't watch the film, I looked at myself. I spent my session telling myself all the best I could have done. Or to say to myself "Oh this scene has been deleted, why is this one not there?" We analyze a lot.
JF: Without revealing what happens, what did you think of the end of the film?
J.L: The ending is amazing. It leaves plenty of possibilities for the spectator in his imagination to continue or not, to bind or not. There are many dimensions, to believe or not what we see.
JF: What do you hope the film will provoke in the viewer?
J.L: To be interested in cross bitumen, not to think that it is an illegal sport, and therefore that it is necessarily bad people who practice it. It is a passion above all, it is a way of life for some. And understand from all that can be seen in the rasso the beauty of this sport.
J.F: What can we wish you for the future?
J.L: Lots of great projects! Thank you for this interview, we hope to see Julie Ledru on screen soon, and we do not doubt it for a second! Rodeo, in theater today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsYvhC805nA
