“I want to be surprised, disturbed by my guests”

She has collaborated with BFM (TV and radio), France 5 or Europe 1. Nathalie Levy is, since the relaunch of the program in daily format last September, the presenter of As an aside , after Pascale Clarke from 2001 to 2007. The concept? A guest in an apartment decorated with objects, images related to his life and a voice-over interviewer. The journalist draws up, for TV Magazine, an initial, enthusiastic assessment of the past months.

TV MAGAZINE. – What made you want to resume this show?

Nathalie LEVY. – All! I was a devotee of this program that I watched with greed and curiosity. When I knew it was about to put it back on the air, I jumped up. It’s a very qualitative program, it is rare to have time. I have always wanted to work in testimony, this relationship of confidence, the search for neuroses. I found that there was a golden territory.

What’s your touch?

Maybe my temper. I did not try to create a character, I am quite spontaneous, transparent, benevolent. And I don’t like comparisons: models tend to restrain me, to distress me. I have not seen the shows of Pascale Clarke. I stayed on a memory.

A daily is a big job. How do you prepare for the meetings?

There is a team of five journalists who do real investigative work, collect information, meet the relatives of the guests and give me a bible that I rework. I spend three or four hours on a guest but I happen to chain three recordings in the day … If we count the people who are looking for images, objects, setting up, production, are about twenty.

Do you meet the guests?

Only after the show, it is a bias. But I detected something that I had not realized at the start: I have a little frustration because I create a kind of bubble with the guest, a parenthesis, a cocoon and, when the lights come back on, with the team around, the noise, this link, this complicity evaporates. I would like to have a decompression chamber to meet the guest alone, eye to eye.

What does this voice-over presence bring, according to you?

The voice is very important, it conveys a lot of emotions, it is an expression of oneself. She manages to find her place, to settle down with her silences, her tempo.

What is a good interviewer?

Someone who has a lot of empathy. Who forgets the time of the exchange. I am not in the race for the buzz, I prefer a more delicate relationship. You can get anything from someone when you establish a bond of trust, that you are sincere.

And a good interview?

To have obtained all the registers, all the colors of emotions. But I’m not leaving with that idea. I don’t say to myself: “Wow, I managed to make him cry!”

How do you choose your guests?

It is linked to promotion, like all media, my desires, those of production, the personalities that we want to discover or make discover. I have a very wide range: sportsman, chef, actor, author, singer … But no politicians this season, they are already everywhere.

Do you need to admire them?

No, to be curious, not to control them. I want to be surprised, disturbed by the image I could have of it.

Who surprised you the most?

André Dussolier. He no longer wanted to leave and know everything behind the scenes, it was disconcerting! He is of rare elegance, courteous, generous. Carole Bouquet also because she really wanted to talk, she gave herself up a lot, more than I imagined.

And the most affected?

Amélie Nothomb and Muriel Robin. Franck Gastambide, too.

Do people come easily?

Yes but it’s funny, then, to hear their doubts just before entering the apartment. With make-up, for example, I hear their breathing through the microphone, I can feel the stress. Some are feverish, even impressed.

Who would you like to receive?

I dreamed of Benoît Poelvoorde and Fanny Ardant, and I will welcome them soon. I also dream of Roger Federer, Clint Eastwood or Michel Houellebecq.

Your book Courage at heart and backpack, where you tell about your relationship with your grandmother, is going to be adapted?

Yes, I am working on a TV fiction format with Christophe Dechavanne. I imagine a thematic evening with debate on old age and caregivers, that seems to me to be consistent with the subject.

Do you have another work in progress in which famous people confide in their grandparents?

Yes, I have collected the testimonies of Yannick Noah, Sylvie Vartan, Stéphane de Groodt, Amir, Julie Gayet …

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