• From

    Lupine

    to

    HPI

    via

    In therapy

    , the French series were a hit in 2020-2021.

  • "The last decade has seen the evolution of the 'new French wave' on television," said the BBC.

  • 20 Minutes looks

    back every day of the week on the great French successes that marked the year 2020-2021.

After the resounding flop of Franco-German co-production

Deutsch-Les-Landes

, French critics appreciated

Mixte

, Prime Video's first 100% French series. In this series by Marie Roussin, which follows the introduction of coeducation in a French high school in the early 1960s, Lula Cotton Frapier plays Annick, a brilliant student whom men too often reduce to her look of a sex symbol à la Brigitte. Bardot. A character who looks more like her than Daphne, one of the key characters she plays in the successful France TV series Slash,

Skam

 since 2018.

The Belgian actress and singer graduated at the age of 16.

At 22, Lula Cotton Frapier already has fifteen years of career and, like Annick, too many sexist remarks about her physique.

An early awareness of gender inequalities that can be recognized in its deep feminist commitment, affirmed in particular with the association En avant tout (s) which fights against domestic violence.

The one who is on the way to becoming one of the future big stars of the French small screen returned for

20 Minutes

on the occasion of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival on her participation in

Mixte

and on the rise of French series in the world.

What are the first feedbacks on “Mixte”?

Excellent!

It was even quite funny to see the negative feedback from some media which found the series a little wise after seeing the first four episodes.

And I really want to tell them to look at the sequel which is not wise.

And I think it's going to be very interesting for them to find out and I hope we will prove them wrong, at least on that.

What made you want to play in “Mixed”?

The name of Marie Roussin when I was sent the project.

I was very happy.

And then in fact, quite simply, from the start of the casting through the script to the first reading where we all met together, since we started working and until the release, we were happy .

We love this project.

What I love is that it's very current despite the fact that it takes place in the 1960s. What happens in the microcosm of a high school, it still happens today.

I like that my character is so valiant and also disturbing in its complexity.

“Mixte” is a unique proposition, deeply rooted in French history and at the same time, it addresses issues that any teenager can face in the world ...

Yes.

I hope it will have an international resonance because I think we all agree that it has this potential, because it's already pretty, it's visually beautiful, it's visually accessible .

Mixte

is not a series about the 1960s. It was made to tell a certain story, perhaps a certain time, but above all human relationships and relationships of desire, and that is universal.

What brings you closer to Annick?

Almost all. I'm very, very, very close to my character, which was very disturbing. I had my mom and dad read it and they were very touched. My agent called me, bordering on tears of joy, when she knew I was taken. She said to me: “This is so done for you. It's so you ”. I have been with her since I was 8 years old so she obviously knows me well. Let's say that what brings us together is that I could have become her through my experience. I was lucky to have an openness to the world which meant that I did not become so cold. But, I made some of the same choices as her, like the one to armor. In high school, I was 2 years early. I made the choice to be irreproachable in terms of knowledge so as not to take it all in the face and it did not always work ...

Did you suffer from being both blonde and shiny?

I don't think it's the fact of being blonde or being particularly pretty in the eyes of some people, because that is still very subjective… You are always someone's beautiful or someone else's ugly.

To give you an example, I was the “tuna” of my school, I was the ironing board.

And at one point, it happened.

I was not considered the pretty girl.

It was more the fact of being a woman that hurt me, and what we send back.

Everyone has an opinion on what we are all the time, and especially on what we should be and what we should no longer be.

This is what has been very complicated for me and I think for many, many, many people.

The series describes all this sexism undergone by women, but also that undergone by men who are subjected to the weight of the alpha model ...

Yes of course.

For example, Pichon, played by Nathan Parent, is really the very example of the man who will suffer this image of the strong, virile and sexist man, the misogynist one has to be to shine.

He undergoes this because he does not have the physical codes of an Apollo.

The same for Paul Bellanger, played by Pierre Deladonchamps, who is not in the codes of sex.

And it is not accepted.

It's great that this series features characters never seen before.

As an actress, do you feel this boom in French series?

Downright ! I'm 22 so it's hard for me to judge what was going on 10 or 15 years ago. But I've been working since I was little so I try to take a step back on it but I don't have too much. Obviously, what I can say is not going to be really complete. But, in my opinion, it has to do with the platforms and the fact that people consume series differently. Consuming on television, waiting for each episode and having to be in front of your computer every day, that is no longer possible. Today, we no longer have that patience. Since we consume a lot of series because there is binge watching, there is a real demand for characters that we will follow in the long term. Young people want to find themselves in characters, in stories and to be understood. I think it comes straight from that.

Is there a French series that has particularly marked you this year?

No, but rather from last year actually.

I really like the France TV Slash platform, I really like what they offer in French series.

I loved

Parliament

on France TV.

I am often asked my choices when it comes to

teen drama,

because

Mixed

is

considered

a

teen drama,

but I don't completely agree.

In fact, I'm not really a client of this genre.

I took part in a French

teen drama

, so I saw some of them out of curiosity,

Les Grands

were really great too.

I'm not very good in French playoffs, in everything French, it's a bit of a shame.

I am sure that in five minutes, I will say to myself: but, I should have spoken about this series, there, I am caught off guard!

If “Mixed” isn't a teen drama, how would you define it?

There is a false generational gap between the 1960s and now.

In fact, young people are affected by exactly the same problems as in the 1960s, which caused May 1968. So those who did May 68 can see it, those who are going to do May 68 again for climate issues and feminism, because we have to go and there are still too many things to resolve, are also concerned.

So everyone is concerned.

Amazon Prime Video has yet to announce the renewal of "Mixed", but you, as an individual, are you up for a season 2?

It's my biggest dream !

Nothing has been formalized, so we pray.

We, if we could call them every day and harass them to make a difference, we would, each one, I think!

We are really very happy.

We loved this shoot, we had the best moments of our life in the work and in the friendship, so we want to leave for as much time as possible.

But that is in the hands of the people who will see the series.

Your future projects?

I hope to go back to music, but it was very complicated after the Covic period.

I just hope to be part of other projects as cool and catchy as

Mixte

.

Series

"Mixed": A teenager series on the beginnings of the sexual revolution in France by De Gaulle

Series

Amazon Prime Video will launch two new French series

  • 20 minutes video

  • Limited series

  • Series

  • Amazon Prime Video

  • Monte Carlo TV Festival