Sébastien Marnier & Billy Johnson
ph. Jonathan LLense
text by Clara Bouteille
Billy Johnson is a proud, one-meter-long cat with the fangs of a vampire who has chosen green beans as his drugs. Sébastien, director and scriptwriter, is fascinated by this half-Maltese half-Siamese creature, which sprawls himself across his appointed chair.
The cat is my Wednesday...
“I'm a director and screenwriter, I've made three feature films, and I've written novels, which involved long periods alone at home during my writing periods. My background as an extremely lonely writer has given me the desire to have a cat to fill those moments of solitude. To have this presence, to allow myself breaks, has taken me into reverie, into fantasy. This complicity has developed over the years. As a child I was given a cat at school that I had to give to my grandmother, as my parents did not like animals. The cat is my Wednesday, like when I was a kid, and I used to go to my grandmother's house where "everything" was allowed for me; the TV and finally the cat.”
Billy Johnson
“I wondered who this cat was, what his personality was, and it's quite funny because although he's obviously a sentient being, I think a pet ends up being whatever you put on it. I've concluded that if Billy Johnson were a human, I would find him unbearable, he would be very vain, too sure of his own beauty, eager to be observed, far too arrogant. At home he has a totem pole which acts as a scratching post, so we can avoid having a horrible cat tree. Billy is almost always on it, I guess he loves to be admired on that high seat. He is definitely showing off. Billy Johnson is large, imposing, almost menacing with his vampire fangs and gigantic claws.
He doesn't get into much mischief, but like all cats, he can be possessed by the devil for 15 minutes. It's very different from a dog, where there is a total loyalty to the master, the cat is more of an independent witch. Even after nine years of sharing a flat, I sometimes spend long hours observing him. His paws, his gestures, the way he washes himself, everything fascinates me. I have a lot of stuffed animals in my house, and as a kid Billy Johnson was fascinated by this squirrel on my desk. He would sometimes lick it, so I would humorously observe the strangeness of this scene. My husband Laurent, I and him share the flat, and I could notice that there was a ‘before’ and ‘after’ to Billy Johnson's arrival in our daily life. He brought tenderness, appeasement…”
The encounter with the green beans...
“This cat mainly feeds on green beans, it's a bit like his cocaine. We discovered this at a medical visit when he was two years old and he was already enormous. The vets told us to try canned vegetables and mix them with tuna juice. I tried it and it was the first time Billy Johnson met green beans. Now he eats one and a half cans of green beans a day. He has been able to regain a little bit of waist in his figure. He's a bit like a model. His Siamese side makes him take up a lot of space, with his deep, carrying voice. He makes himself understood, imposes himself on us. I would love to film him once.”
