Available since Friday October 18 on Prime Video, this comedy in six episodes goes back to the origins of the cult M6 program against a backdrop of manipulation and low blows, not unlike Unreal, brilliant American series on the hellish side of a dating reality show. Less drama.
We are here at the turn of the 2000s, and Big Brother breaks records on the other side of the Channel. In Paris, we smell the gold mine. A handful of young producers hungry for audiences (and money) hope to import the format, a symbol of modernity in their eyes. The bosses of the large chains are more reluctant, even downright hostile.
Despite the rebellion, a broadcaster is taking up the challenge. First victory for the small team, certainly. But at what cost? Raphaël and Isabelle (diabolical Anaïde Rozam in this heroine inspired by Alexia Laroche-Joubert) have four months to launch the show, build the studios, raise mayo in public opinion and above all, develop a casting worthy of best sitcoms.
The good gay friend, the little bourgeois, the tease and of course, the tender-hearted bimbo, Loana. In Worshipshe is larger than life. Her actress’ mimicry extends to the way she speaks and moves. “ It was important to go for a certain resemblance”explains to HuffPost his interpreter, the actress Marie Colomb. Before adding: “ The trap we could fall into was to go only for imitation. »
The 29-year-old actress, seen notably in films The Beasts, The Royal Way et The Magneticscontinued interviews with Loana, delved into the archives of Loft and the star’s first autobiography, Crumbto prepare for the role. Published after her coronation in front of 7 million French people, the book brought to light the violence committed by her father when she was a child.
Marie Colomb: “ I was Loana »
« It was important to put all my heart into the scenes, and to be in the on and off all the time, that is to say to think about the resemblance while living the present moment », continues Marie Colomb. Loana saw her casting, she knows it. The two women, on the other hand, did not have the opportunity to meet. “ It’s going to happen », assures the actress.
Marie Colomb was 6 years old in 2001. Too young, therefore, to be allowed to watch Loft Storyat the time. But a friend recently reminded her that they had fun parodying the show in the playground. “ And I was Loana”confesses to us the one who, later, will gladly look at the Star Academy or Secret Story. « It’s part of my teenage construction “, she concedes.
Whether or not one has assiduously followed what she considers to be “ the beginnings of the exploitation of intimacy “, seen or even simply heard of “the scene in the swimming pool”, no one could escape Loana, nor the aftermath of her post-Loft Storymade up of, among other things, domestic violence, suicide attempts and addictions.
« It’s a bit like our French Marilyn Monroeestimates his interpreter. There are similarities in our narrow way of seeing it. » Marie Colomb deplores the binary vision we have of the character: “ Either she’s the brainless bimbo. What is wrong. Even if that means everything and nothing, she had an IQ of 150 when she entered the game. Either we talk about her as the bad mother who abandoned her child. »
Mission: rehabilitate Loana
Originally from a working class background, the former go-go nightclub dancer fought tooth and nail to regain custody of her daughter placed in the DDASS, contrary to what the tabloids said at the time. “ We never show this woman’s courage to get through it. We never see his strength », agrees Marie Colomb, according to whom the series could rehabilitate the heroine with a broken destiny.
Its creators, Nicolas Slomka and Matthieu Rumani, collaborated with Loana in the writing. They say in the production notes that they wanted to give her a voice again and show how the young woman, used by the production and her own family (her mother allegedly sold exclusive photos of her daughter and her baby to Paris Match), tried to regain control of his image.
To what extent are they not using her again? To what extent does the staging of the same tragic events that made the headlines twenty years earlier not put a coin back into the machine? “ I was afraid of that », Confesses Marie Colomb. Reading the script was enough to convince her. “ There is no voyeurismshe adds. Everything was put in for a good reason, without sensationalism. » Loft Storyis it over?
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