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Mathieu Kassovitz on Hit French TV Spy Drama ‘The Bureau’

Mathieu Kassovitz in “The Bureau.”Credit...Kino Lorber

James Bond he is not. In “The Bureau,” Mathieu Kassovitz slips into the role of Malotru, an undercover agent for the French intelligence service, who, returning home to Paris after a six-year mission in Damascus, struggles to relinquish his alias — and a forbidden affair with a married Syrian woman. And suddenly a small untruth, juxtaposed with the lie that is his life, begins to snowball.

“He gets himself into a situation where he wants to do good — but the more he wants to do good, the worse it gets,” said Mr. Kassovitz, 49, best known to Americans for his roles in “Amélie” and “Munich,” and as the director of the César-winning “La Haine,” about a riot in a multiethnic French housing project.

“The Bureau,” Éric Rochant’s cerebral spy thriller, is a smash in France and a chart-topper on iTunes in the United States (you can download the first episode free), and it was named best television series by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics. Focusing on the human toll of espionage, but with enough cutting-edge gadgetry and au courant story lines to keep things provocative, the series was granted access during production to the Dírection Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, or D.G.S.E., France’s equivalent of the C.I.A.

So just how much does the show get right?

“When we asked them, they said, ‘Of course I cannot tell you — or if I tell you, I’ll have to kill you,’ ” Mr. Kassovitz recalled. “But they gave DVDs of the first season to their wives and kids and said, ‘Look at these characters, and you might find me in there.’”

In a telephone call from Paris, where Season 3 begins shooting in September, he discussed the show’s success, its American attributes and what he called his big mouth. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

Much has been made about “The Bureau” being an American-style show, with a showrunner and a writers’ room. What does that mean for French filmmakers?

French cinema is very auteur-driven. That’s why we’re not very comfortable with writing in a pool and having a director obey a guideline. And in France, we also have creative control, meaning that directors have the final cut, not the producer. So what Eric managed to do was not only to find a mood and pace for the series but also to get other directors who are independent and not made to obey orders to follow his path. He was very successful. And the budget for this is a tenth of the cost of an American season. We’re $800,000 for an episode or something like that.

People in France watch the series roll out on a weekly level, but in the United States we’re more inclined to binge.

I told people on social media, “Please don’t binge.” The real pleasure is to let it sink in and keep the wait up for next week, because the series goes higher and higher and higher.

Describe your character, Malotru.

Malotru is a guy with an ethic, and sometimes your personal ethic goes against your professional orders. And what you have to do for your country is not exactly what you need to do for yourself. So you get your hand stuck in that machine: If you lie once, then you have to lie all the time.

Season 2 has already aired in France. What can we look forward to?

What I like is that they are still pushing the same direction but making it way more international. And my character becomes just one of the characters. His errors and mistakes drive the others to react. And the ending drove people crazy here.

Is there enough to keep it exciting in Season 3?

As long as we have wars, as long as we have geopolitical problems and people are spying on the others, this show has legs. But whatever amazing story we can come up with, reality is going to kick us back.

Did the terrorist attacks of the last two years have any impact on the series?

Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan took place while we were shooting, and both times we had to come in one morning, look at each other and start to do scenes that were close to the actual situation. That’s why people like the show — because they’re seeing something that is really close to what they watch in the news, but it’s a little more honest.

You spent a decade in Los Angeles before returning to Paris two years ago. And in a 2013 interview in The Guardian, you renounced French cinema. Has your attitude changed with this project?

No, because you wish that this show wouldn’t be the exception, that it would be part of a movement. It’s a blessing to be part of something this good. But you’re sad that others are not good enough in that same way so that you can have people to talk with, to have fun with.

In that same interview, you said you were no longer proud to be French. What about now?

I’ve always been proud to be French. The problem is that France forgot that it was French. A few years back, with Nicolas Sarkozy, we lost a lot of our integrity and our way of thinking. Now with all the social mayhem that’s going on, I see my French fellows picking up and keep on fighting every day and night. And yeah, I feel a little more French.

You are famously outspoken on social issues. Has that hurt your career?

I think they know that I’m a big mouth. Steven Spielberg knows. He didn’t care [with “Munich”]. I open my mouth all the time, I yell all the time, and my movies are like that. So directors know that when they come to me with a crazy idea that’s going to annoy people, they will have my ear. I will listen.

You’ve directed and you’ve acted, both with great success. Where are you at this point?

Directing is one of the most interesting, stimulating jobs in the world. But acting is so easy and so well paid and so fun to do that why not? And this is the perfect job because I can be part of a very interesting project of which I would be very proud to be one of the creators, but I don’t have to deal with the drama. You see how painful it is for them, but you’re just enjoying the process while they’re suffering. So now it makes me think [laughs], do I want to go back to directing? Or do I want to keep my job as an actor and enjoy seeing other people suffer for my glory?

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