Why Marilou Berry accepted the role of Maud in "I promise you"

"I promise you", the French adaptation of the American series "This Is Us", arrives Monday February 1 as a bonus on TF1.

Among the performers, Hugo Becker or Marilou Berry.

The latter was the guest of Culture Médias on Europe 1 on Monday and explained why she said yes to this role which "is not the story of a chick who is fat", but "the story of a girl trying to find her life ".

INTERVIEW

Tonight at 9:05 p.m. on TF1, viewers will be able to discover 

I promise you

, the French adaptation of 

This is us

, an American series which has hit the shelves across the Atlantic.

Among the performers, Hugo Becker or Marilou Berry, who plays the role of Maud, the sister of the siblings.

Guest of Culture Médias on Europe 1 Monday, she unveiled the reasons which pushed her to accept this role.

The story first, but also the opportunity to play something different.

"Something other than what I'm often asked to play"

"It's quite rare on an episode, to say to yourself 'I love this family and I want to know what is going on behind'. At the same time it is breathless and yet, with a rhythm that is not that of an action film, it's quite captivating. That's what I liked ", explains Marilou Berry about the plot of the series.

She plays Maud, whose job is to be her brother's agent who is a professional footballer, in a family where four of the five members share the same birthday.

For Marilou Berry,

Je te promis

was also the opportunity to play outside the box, a possibility offered, according to her, by the "series" format.

"On TV, in series, we can make more risks (than in cinema Editor's note). It's often marketed too, but we take more risks with the actors. Me, I have more choices and richness on TV or in series that in the cinema where I will be asked to redo what I have already done because we know it works. (...)

I promise you

, for me it is a interesting course because it allows me to play something other than what I am often asked to play ".

>> Find Culture Médias in replay and podcast here

"It's not the story of a girl who is fat. It's the story of a girl who tries to find her life"

In the first episode, we can see Maud step on the scale, which weighs 114 kilos.

She talks to her brother on the phone: "I'm fat. I'm sick of being me, Michael. - What do you want me to say to that? - But I don't know. Tell me to get moving more and do something, lose that fucking weight.

While some draw the parallel between her character Maud, who is overweight, and her own situation, Marilou Berry dots the i's: “It's not the story of a chick who is fat. the story of a girl who tries to find her life, ”she insists.

"Me, for once, it is rather a very beautiful gift that one gives to me."

And to put forward his arguments: "He is a character who is very interesting because he has a huge margin of progress. And unlike his brothers precisely, who are installed, who are footballers, who are successful, who have a family, she has not yet started her life and she is 38. So it's a bit now or never, ”analyzes the actress.

The question of the weight of the character is ultimately incidental, she believes, compared to the question of the weight of society's gaze on her.

"It's not the role of a fat woman. She's a character. She doesn't come down to that. [...] She's a character who responds to the injunction of society, which is to fit into a mold and I think that's what interested me. "

Moreover, the series is not at all grossophobic, she assures.

"All her life, she tried to fit into this mold that society imposes on her. And indeed, the departure of the ark of my character, it is this chick who has only one desire, to be like everyone else. world and be forgotten, look like everyone else. And she will realize as time goes by and in part thanks to this boy she will meet, that happiness is not to be a size 38 . And then, above all, that happiness is not responding to an injunction. It is by learning to detach yourself from this gaze that prevents us from doing things that we manage to accomplish ourselves. That which interested me in my character ", concludes Marilou Berry.