The actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne is the guest of the show "It feels good", where she returns to the microphone of Anne Roumanoff on her debut in cinema and television, from Jean-Luc Godard to "Plus belle life".

The actress explains the racism she suffered in this profession, specifying that an educational role falls to her as a black actress.

INTERVIEW

For actress Nadège Beausson-Diagne, racism in cinema began when she was studying at the Conservatory.

But she also underwent it on the castings and the shootings, as she explains it in the show

It feels good

, while still managing to keep a smile.

For four years, from 2010 to 2014, Nadège Beausson-Diagne played

Commissioner Douala

in 

Plus belle la vie

.

The actress sometimes had scenes rewritten.

Like when his character had to cook a chicken colombo, a West Indian dish, when his origins were unknown. 

>> Find all of Anne Roumanoff's shows from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on Europe 1 in replay and podcast here

"It is as if the televiewer who fell asleep woke up to discover that there is a black woman. So we must remind him that this black woman eats black dishes", laughs the actress.

"I thought it was a little stereotype. But there were others."

Like when she left the France 3 series and it was necessary to film the departure of her character.

"We are still struggling today to break stereotypes"

"I had to take what was on my desk," recalls Nadège Beausson-Diagne.

"And there, and I assure you, there were only exotic things, which weren't in my office at all before."

A situation which the actress enjoys, because she considers them much less serious than what she experienced in her early days.

"It was horrible. We really felt like aliens every time we walked into a place," she explains.

Nadège Beausson-Diagne also remembers the casting of the film 

Asterix and Obelix: mission Cleopatra

, which she passed without knowing it on the same day as Aïssa Maïga.

"I say I'm coming for the part of Cleopatra and the guy opposite looks at me and tells me that not at all, I have to fan with a Cleopatra banana leaf, which will be played by Monica Bellucci."

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Nadège Beausson-Diagne: "We said to an actor who played with me: 'you go well together with the bamboula'"

The actress reminds the casting director that Cleopatra was black.

"But you are friends with Aïssa Maïga!? She told me the same thing!", His interlocutor was then annoyed.

"No, we are cultivated, quite simply," laughs today the actress, who has since become friends with her colleague.

"Often, we had to fight, and we still fight today to break these stereotypes," recalls Nadège Beausson-Diagne.

According to her, this work of awareness and education of French cinema is a "responsibility" for the black actors and actresses put forward.

"This is why we wrote the book

Noir is not my job

, and why I am also in the magnificent documentary of Aïssa Maïga and Isabelle Simeoni

Regard noir

", she specifies.

"We can work and deconstruct and educate, while smiling. We are heard, so we have a political responsibility to change things."