A new tandem has just been appointed at the head of the Caesar to try to dust off the institution undermined by several crises: the disputed coronation of Roman Polanski, accused of rape by several women and already condemned, but also the lack of diversity within of the academy and in French cinema.

Interviewed by Eva Roque in the SERIELAND podcast, actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne deplores the slow pace of change for black actors and actresses.

She also tells how she had to fight from the conservatory to find a place in cinema and French series.

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The lack of diversity in French cinema and series is a fact.

During the last Cesar ceremony, in March 2020, actress Aïssa Maga denounced it, noting the few black personalities present in the room that evening.

The actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne, who became known to the general public for her roles in the series

Plus Belle la Vie

or the comedy

Podium

, also deplores it.

In 2018, she testified in the collective essay

Noire is not my job

, initiated by Aïssa Maïga.

Because from her beginnings in the world of theater and cinema, she had to fight to obtain roles that are not caricatured or secondary, she confides in SERIELAND, the podcast of Europe 1 Studio. 

"It starts at the Conservatory where they explain to me that I was supposed to have the first price of interpretation. But the director says to me in off: 'As you are black, we did not give you the first price since you will not be able to make a career '", she explains at the microphone of Eva Roque.

"I understand then that there is a thing where, when you are black, you are not supposed to be there".

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"There are some roles that we don't have access to at all"

When she starts her career, she does find that her skin color is an obstacle.

"There are certain roles to which we do not have access at all, that is to say, they are not offered to us."

As if certain professions were to be embodied on screen only by white people.

"For example, when you're black, you can't play lawyers," explains Nadège Beausson-Diagne.

"We made that clear to my agent."

"And then, during a casting, if the director likes you but there is a choice to be made for a main role between a white actress and a black actress, well, we will say: 'people are not not ready, the spectators are not ready "and we will take the white actress", she denounces. 

The first names of black characters?

"Joséphine or Fatoumata"

Racism is also unconscious.

It goes through the choice of first names given to the characters interpreted by black actors or actresses.

“In general, it's Joséphine, like Joséphine Baker or Fatoumata”, points out Nadège Beausson-Diagne. “It's very pretty. But it's as if we absolutely had to be given a black first name, if the spectator was never aware of himself ".

If in recent years, the actress recognizes that things are changing a bit.

She believes that things are not going fast enough: "Things are changing, but so slowly that if we do not campaign, if we do not speak, if we do not continue to deconstruct, to educate, my great-grandchildren will always be in it. same point ".