INTERVIEW
Revealed to the public in 2005 with her role in The Russian Dolls by Cédric Klapisch, Aïssa Maïga continues from the roles. She is also one of those women highlighted by Quentin Delcourt, in his documentary Pygmalionnes , released on January 22. From February 12, she will also be on the poster for the France 2 series Il a already tes toi , adapted from the film by Lucien Jean-Baptiste. In 2018, with sixteen black or mixed-race actresses from the collective she created, she published the book Noire n'est pas mon profession , to denounce in particular the stereotypical roles still too much offered to black actresses. Committed to diversity in cinema, she believes on Europe 1 Wednesday that "things are moving far too slowly".
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"French channels are starting to envision un caricatured black characters"
The roles offered to black people are too often "stereotyped, clichés and sometimes racist", regrets the 44-year-old actress. "Obviously, there are advances, otherwise I would not even be there to talk about it," added the actress. She believes things are starting to change "because people are ready to hear, already in the middle". "Which is an incredible difference from what I experienced when I started ... in the last century," notes the actress.
Aïssa Maïga considers that young racialized people entering the profession are not in the same situation as the older generations. "Young people are fluid when it comes to the issue of diversity. For them, it's completely normal to watch films, series with people very different from each other. It's part of normalcy," explains -t it. A change which obliges the classic French channels, which must "put themselves up to par" and who "begin to turn to digital and to consider normal black characters, who are not caricatured roles", welcomes the actress.