With Marguerite, a prostitute during the First World War in Les Combattantes on Monday September 26 at 9:10 p.m. on TF1, Audrey Fleurot assumes without sulking her pleasure in playing a troubled and powerful new character.
Did you have any idea of what the First World War could have been like on a daily basis?
AUDREY FLEUROT: No because, curiously, we don’t spend that much time in school on the subject. We focus much more on the Second. As for the cinema, the period was very exploited, but always on the side of men, with the eternal trenches. With The Fighters, we place ourselves from the point of view of women, which is quite innovative, while having the desire to create a real historical romantic fresco.
How did you react when you learned that the producers had immediately imagined you in the role of the prostitute?
When you’re redhead, you’re either a whore or a witch. It is very strong in the collective imagination, and it suits me very well, because they are often the most interesting characters, at least for me.
Your character involves playing rather cash and daring scenes, it’s not necessarily common on a large generalist channel, is it?
Since the arrival of Netflix, we cannot deny that the codes have changed. The brothel, it has to look like a brothel, you can’t make fun of people. Without being trashy or vulgar, it has to be concrete. We are not in a romantic image of the prostitute, it was important to anchor this character in the daily life of these women at the time. This is progress because, a few years ago, it would have been impossible on a channel like TF1.
Was it complicated to shoot?
It all depends on how it’s filmed. We always try to choreograph the sequence as little as possible and talk about it with our partner. It should be simple and light. As the scenes are not immodest and they are all justified, I do not have a difficult memory of them. And then, it’s not me that we’re filming, it’s the character.
Do certain aspects of the feminine condition of 1914 still persist today?
That’s the whole point of the series. I am aware that I belong to a very privileged environment where women have been autonomous for a very long time. I have never been dependent, even financially, on a man. But we still experience situations where women are not treated like men, especially in terms of salary. In the cinema or on television, things have been able to progress because we are more and more numerous.
And that the audience records multiply, as for you with HPI…
If we put end to end the audiences that Camille (Lou, editor’s note), Julie (de Bona, editor’s note), Sofia (Essaïdi, editor’s note) – his partners in the series, editor’s note – and I achieved, it’s still not bad as performance! For us, it is obviously power, freedom and strength of proposal. As a performer, I was very happy to be one for years, but now I want to be more of a decision maker and more solely at the end of the chain. I tasted this with HPI and now I would find it hard to go back. Moreover, I am in the process of setting up a structure to associate myself with other producers and launch new projects. I love that !
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