Guest of Anne Roumanoff's show "It feels good", actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne explains her origins and how she was built with the absence of a father.
The actress went in search of the one she never knew, which will be the subject of a documentary being written.
INTERVIEW
"My dad doesn't know I exist. It's a bit complicated."
Guest of Anne Roumanoff's program
It
feels
good
, actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne confides in her origins and her father whom she never knew.
She explains that she has started a documentary on this quest for a parent, a research still in progress.
"To sum up my story, my mother is Métis, Ivorian and Breton, Ivory Coast-Côtes d'Armor. And my father is Senegalese," she explains.
"My father is a photographer. My parents met at a demonstration in support of Angela Davis, who was in prison at the time."
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"When I shot in African cinema, something calmed down in me"
"My mother was modern. We are three children and we each have a father. She did as best she could, with three different fathers," says Nadège Beausson-Diagne.
"Mine doesn't know I exist. My mother was pregnant when they broke up, and she didn't tell him. On the other hand, the fathers of my two brothers are two big assholes who quit and have said they weren't the fathers. "
This family context has long been difficult for Nadège Beausson-Diagne, who explains having experienced "a magnificent resilience" by finally taking the name of her two parents.
Before going in search of her father, the actress wanted to reconnect with her African origins, first through dance, then through cinema.
“When I shot in African cinema, there was something that calmed down in me, in my quest for a paternal gaze and that of my origins,” she recalls.
The actress also found "magnificent surrogate fathers" there, notably in the person of Gabonese director Charles Mensah.
"But what do you look like your father!"
"In fact, I started a documentary precisely on my father's research," adds Nadège Beausson-Diagne.
"I started, it's complicated. Really, it's complicated."
The actress has not yet found her father, whom she does not know if he is still alive.
But she managed to track down several people who knew her, including a man who was her intern.
"But what do you look like to your father!" Exclaimed the latter when he met the actress.
"That moment rooted me in the earth and I said to myself 'But I'm real!' I'm writing about it," says Nadège Beausson-Diagne with emotion.
"But it's true that for a very long time it was difficult to explain, even to my relatives. It's difficult for people to understand what that represents."
The actress does not say when she plans to finalize this documentary, nor if it will be released in theaters, streaming or television.