Is there life after life is more beautiful? With the end of the series, whose last episode will be broadcast this Friday on France 3, the question arises for the hundreds of technicians who worked on the set of Belle de Mai, in Marseille. But also for the actors.
Because acting in a soap opera like this is inviting yourself every afternoon to the French salon. And he agrees to fade behind her character.
“Wherever I go, the Mistral travels with me”This is how Laurent Kerusoré, interpreter of Thomas Marci since 2005, evokes
“They stop me and ask me: ‘Aren’t the others there?'”explains the actor, in the recent book by the journalist from telerama Pierre Langlais, embody a series.
“good notoriety” Where “golden cage”?
“Three quarters of the time, when they stop me on the street, they talk to me about the series. Sometimes they call me Barbara”abounds on BFMTV, the actress Léa François, who has been playing Barbara Évenot since 2009 in life is more beautiful.
Because in 18 years of daily broadcast and 4,665 episodes, the series has created a very strong bond with the public. A pioneer in many social issues such as same-sex marriage or harassment, the soap opera has been both a mirror of society and an engine of change.
Associated with the success of the series, the actors are very popular with the public. “It’s quite a notoriety, a very popular notoriety”emphasizes Fabienne Carat, who played Samia Nassri for 15 years.
All the recurring actors in the series point out that this role is above all an opportunity, in such a difficult and competitive profession. “I know so many actors who find it difficult, that when you’re lucky enough to make it work and shoot so much, for so long, it would be a shame if you found it difficult.”says Lea François.
Within embody a seriesLaurent Kerusoré also evokes this status of”privileged intermittent” conferred by such role. But compare it at the same time with a “golden cage”.
“Gold is relative job security. (…) The cage is screwed: I was and will continue to be Thomas Marci for the majority of viewers, channel decision makers and producers.”
A time consuming shoot
the actors of life is more beautiful they certainly aren’t the only ones locked into one role. But they may suffer from the popular image of the series, but also from the shooting conditions. And a bloated cast.
“It is a series with many characters and actors and not really stars.”analyze pierre langlais. “It’s hard to shine in an environment like this, which offers a fairly small playing space.”adds the series specialist.
Many scenes, few takes… The rhythm of life is more beautiful nor is it necessarily conducive to acting performances.
And it is all the more difficult to move forward since the shooting of the telenovela, very slow and intense, makes it difficult to carry out other projects in parallel. “When you’re in the main plot, you can’t do anything else.”confirms Fabienne Carat.
“We get up at 6 am, we come back at 7:30 pm, we have many messages for the next day.”says the actress. “It’s complicated.”
Actress Sara Mortensen had to give up the role of Coralie Blain, which she played for 7 years, the day she got the lead role in the detective series. Astrid and Raphael. Impossible to reconcile the two, the actress thanks herself in 2019. “Production could no longer handle my schedule”explained on Instagram.
Changing the vision of directors
For a Sara Mortensen or a Laetitia Milot, who now makes TV movies, how many actors will remain locked up in their image as a television actor? life is more beautiful?
“we cannot generalize”believes Fabienne Carat, who left the series in 2021. “There are some who will do many other things and others for whom the label will be too strong. It is inexplicable. It depends on what we launch, what we do on the sidelines, the people we meet, the projects that will polish us in another way. Imagination also of directors or producers, who will see us elsewhere.”
After leaving the life is more beautifulthe actress herself faced this image that sticks to her skin.
“I said to myself ‘it’s a kind of label that will come off with the sweat of my work’, Fabienne Carat still evokes. I understood over the years that it was not a sticker, that it was a tattoo, and that the only way to continue was to add other designs around this tattoo.”
the actress of research section tried other experiments, far from life is more beautiful. More than her one woman show, her participation in dance with the starsin 2020, it was decisive for her.
“I felt something different in people’s eyes. There was a bit of admiration.”.
To turn the page on the Mistral years, Laurent Kerusoré, who had already tried singing a few years ago on stage, is trying his hand at music again: he is currently shooting his first clip. “We are never safe from success.”he joked, questioned by France 3.
“find a way to virginity”
“Actors will have to find a way to virginity”analyzes Pierre Langlais. “Find a director who trusts them to ask them something else. Few are successful.”
At the end of October, Laurent Orry (Jérôme Belesta) opened up about his difficulties entertainment television. Not without some bitterness. “In France, I fight. This environment is very closed. I remember a director who seemed very interested in my work but when I told her that she had acted in life is more beautifulit was over!”
“the actors of life is more beautiful sometimes they are ostracized”assures Richard Guedj, who has long served as director of actors in the series.
“It has happened that during the casting, this or that actor refuses to give the answer to another, because he has just life is more beautiful“he says.
More optimistic, Léa François sees in her notoriety life is more beautiful a trampoline more than a ball and chain. “Now we know, watching a little bit of TV, that the channels, the producers and the directors are also a little fans of the series. And on many shows we see faces we’ve already seen elsewhere!”.
“They are very talented. we will see you soon”, Richard Guedj is convinced. he is done “no more worries for techies, little hands” – life is more beautiful it employed more than 600 people each year. For them, France Télévisions has promised multiple series filming in the Marseille region in 2023 to “offset the impact of the closure” from the soap opera
Source: BFM TV
