Balthazar on TF1: “A traumatic event will reshuffle the cards for all the characters” reveals Constance Labbé

Broadcast every Thursday evening on TF1, the fifth and final season of Balthazar continues this evening at 9:10 p.m. with a new unpublished investigation entitled “The human bomb”, which begins in an extremely distressing way for the heroes of the detective series.

Back at the IML with his daughter, Alice, whom he has on his hands for 48 hours, Balthazar (Tomer Sisley) decides to get his hands dirty by performing an autopsy on the body of an old lady. But when he opens it with Eddy, Fatim and Olivia, he discovers inside… a bomb. Which threatens to explode in barely ten minutes. Helped remotely by Camille, the pathologist will try to defuse it. Unaware that this is only the beginning of trouble.

Present in the cast of the series since season 4, Constance Labbé, the interpreter of Camille Costes, returned to our microphone on her reaction when she learned that the Balthazar adventure was going to stop, according to the wishes of Tomer Sisley . And told us a little more about what awaits her investigator character in the last episodes of the series.

AlloCiné: How did you react when you learned that season 5 of Balthazar would be the last? Did you know when you arrived in season 4 that the series was doomed to end?

Constance Labbé: No, it wasn’t really planned. But since Tomer and I get on well, he let me know pretty quickly that his decision was made and that he wanted to stop Balthazar. But what is certain is that it was really decided at the time of writing this last season. At the time of season 4, no decision had yet been made, I did not know how long I was going to play Camille Costes.

And then how did I react? What I can say is that I would have been extremely frustrated not to do season 5, to participate in only one season. I would have been really sad. But here I am happy. I really prefer to do two good seasons and stop on something great, rather than stretch the series to infinity and get tired of it.

Finishing in style is really better. And then in our jobs we are used to projects that stop. And we are actors to multiply roles and opportunities. So I didn’t even have time to get bored. I liked playing Camille. But now there are new things happening for me, new opportunities, so I’m happy.

Do you have the feeling that there might still be things to tell with this character by Camille Costes?

Of course. We could have imagined many things. His life with his son, what could happen to him emotionally afterwards. But the series is called Balthazar and season 5 in any case succeeds very well in ending the story of Tomer’s character. And I’m still entitled to a nice conclusion too, even if I can’t say more.

Precisely, what can we expect from the last episodes of the series?

It’s a very personal season. We are really going to learn things about Balthazar’s life, about his relationship with his family. And also on Camille’s life, because my character and Balthazar get very close, they end up living together. They are almost in a brother-sister relationship that I really like.

And through what Raphaël experiences, Camille is brought back to her own story. Until a traumatic event occurs and comes to reshuffle the cards for all the characters. It will force them to look at their life trajectories and say to themselves “Maybe, all the same, it is worth living”. Because, obviously, Balthazar’s brother will come back, and we will have to face him.

Will Camille succeed in forging a real relationship with her son?

What happens to Balthazar, who becomes a dad and has to take care of his daughter, forces Camille to ask herself questions about her own motherhood, the life of her son, and the fact that she wants to be present for him, even if she doesn’t know how.

All the dramas that will punctuate the season will make her realize that she cannot miss her son. Even if the lie she built in season 4, pretending to be someone else with him, will obviously come back to him in the face (laughs).

There was a small ambiguity in season 4 between Camille and Balthazar. But it didn’t last and it’s completely swept away in season 5, which gives way to the Balthazar-Olivia relationship. Are you glad the authors didn’t go in that direction?

Yes, I’m very happy, especially since it was never the will of the production to take this loving direction. We wanted there to be no possible comparison with the previous duo, where there was clearly a sexual chemistry and a game of dog and cat.

Between Raphaël and Camille, we wanted it to be a relationship of friends, even something fraternal. It was our will from the start and I think we really manage to establish that in season 5. It’s more original, and it’s refreshing to see a man and a woman who have no attraction one for the other.

Thibault Grabherr / TF1

What will you miss the most in this series?

Tomer. The game with Tomer, I really loved playing with him. And with Yannig Samot too, who plays Jérôme. Undeniably, it is the people and this whole team that I will miss the most.

And in the character of Camille?

My weapon (laughs). There are a lot of things that I will miss about Camille, but there are a lot of things from her that I have too. She doesn’t look bad to me. So it remains there, in me, somewhere.

A word about your upcoming projects?

I also shot a series for France 2, Piste noire, in which I play Emilie Karras, a former ski champion who has become a policeman (the series is currently broadcast every Monday evening, editor’s note). Emilie is a soldier, a rather tough young woman, very distant from Camille, who must return to her native village to investigate a murder case involving seasonal workers. She is confronted with her past, with her parents who rejected her. I share the bill with Thibault de Montalembert and I really loved shooting with him.

And otherwise, I just finished shooting a film by Pascal Thomas, Still a few moments of happiness, with Pierre Arditi. It is a poetic comedy, a little outdated, romantic. And then, normally, I’ll shoot in an English series, but I can’t say more, it’s secret defense (laughs). And I’m also continuing to write two projects in parallel.

There is still no plan on fire in common with your brother, Guillaume Labbe ?

Not yet. But I’m currently writing a brother-sister unit, so why not shoot it with Guillaume if it materializes. We’ll see. Everything is possible.