JoeyStarr takes on the first role of the new TF1 series, that of a French teacher with unorthodox methods.

A character that he himself imagined by mixing different sources of inspiration, as he explained Monday at the microphone of "Media Culture" on Europe 1.

INTERVIEW

Monday evening, he puts on an unexpected costume on TF1, that of a teacher.

JoeyStarr is the headliner of Channel 1's new miniseries,

The Substitute

, the first two episodes of which air from 9:05 pm.

The rapper, who has long cut his teeth on the big screen, plays Nicolas Valeyre, a French teacher with somewhat radical methods, recently appointed to a high school.

An idea that he himself proposed to the first channel, when TF1 contacted him with the intention of building a fiction. 

JoeyStarr was inspired by a news that had marked him three years earlier: a call for applications launched by the National Education, and which did not imply having a very high level of studies.

"It was enough to have the bac. These people, they had an internship, and behind they could transmit the knowledge. I found that quite astonishing and interesting", remembers the singer at the microphone of Philippe Vandel in

Culture media

on Europe 1. He mentions in particular the case of a substitute of English origin, "who did not really master French and who had to teach until the end of the year".

A starting point that he then nourished with personal references.

"There was

The Circle of Missing Poets

. There was also a rather dark drama on the American school system,

Detachment

with Adrien Brody, which did not have much press but was quite exceptional," says JoeyStarr.

>> Find Philippe Vandel and Culture-Médias every day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

"I grabbed the text"

He did not hesitate either to retouch the dialogues presented to him by the writers, so that they comply more with his inimitable banter.

"I grabbed the text. I sculpted it a bit so that I was as comfortable as possible," he says.

"My character is not very accommodating, neither with the students, nor with the system."

The shooting of a sequel to the two episodes which will be broadcast on Monday evening is already planned, from next July.

But TF1 could still order additional episodes if the success is at the rendezvous.

"We will already see the score we make tonight," smiles JoeyStarr.