On France 2, Monday evening, Samuel Le Bihan occupies the first role of a telefilm about a father who tries to raise his son suffering from a heavy form of autism.

A fiction partly inspired by his own story, which he told in a book published in 2018. On Europe 1, Monday, he evokes this parallel and the distance taken with this story.

INTERVIEW

Was this a role cut out for him?

In

T'en faire pas, j'suis là

(of which Europe 1 is a partner), Samuel Le Bihan plays the father of Gabriel, 12 years old, suffering from a severe form of autism, who suddenly has to assume burden of this child unwittingly.

The actor, himself the father of a small Angia with autism, tells on Europe 1 the ambition of this TV movie broadcast on France 2, Monday, at 9:05 p.m.

Differences with his personal history

"I was attracted to playing a father who becomes a man by assuming his responsibility as a father", testifies Samuel Le Bihan at the microphone of Philippe Vandel in

Culture Médias

.

Beyond taking care of a child who is more vulnerable than the others, he will discover a world.

It is someone who flees love, who flees tenderness and who values ​​only the external elements of success.

We realize that he is completely sealed off from love.

He is emotionally handicapped and it is this child who will lead him to gently open his heart, despite himself.

And it is this adventure that I wanted to tell. "

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This story is inspired "from afar" by the personal story of the actor, tells the one who described his experience in

A happiness that I do not wish to anyone

(Flammarion editions, 2018).

In the fiction, the child in the film is not a little girl, but a little boy.

The dad is not an actor, but a lawyer.

"Two, three opinions" for the role of the child

The common point in the two situations lies in the fact that Samuel Le Bihan must take charge of the child alone: ​​"I left the judge's office and he decided to give me custody of my daughter", rewinds the actor.

"So we had to assume. I was shooting, I had to travel. I went against everything that was for an autistic child, that is to say stability. His benchmark, it became me. I organized all the daily life around "her.

"The father says it in the film and I obviously wanted to transpose it: 'I raised him my way and his landmark will be me'."

In this fiction, Samuel Le Bihan's film is played by the young Roman Villedieu, who is a professional actor: “He did his research, he worked. At one point, I gave two, three opinions, but no more ", says the actor of the series

Alex Hugo

, also diffused on France 2." I had to take a little distance. It was not my film and I think they had also done the job for understand the autism community. But this kid is mind blowing. "

After the TV movie, a debate to "raise awareness"

The TV movie will be followed by a debate moderated by Julian Bugier, with the theme "Living with an autistic child".

With a specific ambition, according to Samuel Le Bihan, present on the set: "It will not be an upheaval, but above all an awareness. It is to understand and allow viewers to know what it is to live with an autistic child and that it represents, in order to raise awareness a little. "

The actor promises "oxygen", without "pathos".

"These are difficult times, but also times of intense joy."