«I love Marseille. I love its light, its atmosphere, its raw beauty, its powerful identity, its people, their personalities: you know you’re in Marseille the minute you get off the train! I come back every other weekend if I’m not filming. My parents are here and so are my friends, one of my sisters and my best friend from childhood. This is where I acted in C’est Tout Droit, ou l’Inverse, the first play I wrote and produced with my best friend. Going onstage at the Quai du Rire comedy club – the boards and the red curtain – it was like a call to connect with the imagination and at the same time a way of never letting go of childhood. Then, between small parts, while filming in an Ikea ad, I met Pascal Chaumeil. He spotted me and trusted me and it all took off, creating a virtuous circle that led to me meeting Dany Boon.
Generosity and benevolence
Those are the two finest qualities in my view. Dany Boon embodies them perfectly. When he invited me to act in Supercondriaque with him it was my dream come true. I was really one of the gang now! Laughter or emotion, it doesn’t matter. My role in Claude Lelouch’s film Un + une is romantic, not comic. Claude has a natural way of making women sensual and seductive. That’s real glamour, with no fancy dress. I like to compose the part, adapt the way I move, meld into the director’s world. But also, if he gives me the chance, within that framework I can throw myself into it like a child in the playground. In Danielle Thomson’s Cézanne et Moi, partly filmed in Aix-en-Provence, I’m Alexandrine Zola. I just loved the character’s gradual morphing from age 20 to 50. Danielle films her actors without trying to crush them, that way she knows she can lead them into all kinds of places. After her film I’ll be back with Dany Boon for Raide Dingue.»
1991: At 19 I leave Marseille for Paris
2011: Pascal Chaumeil’s Un plan parfait,the film that put me in the public eye
2014: Supercondriaque (Supercondriac): I meet Dany Boon, my big brother
Par Claude Ponsolle
Photogrphie : François Berthier
Côteweb 2021, création de site Internet sur Nice