Claire Keim in Aims for the heart: “There are few characters like that on television”

Two years after the end of Infidèle, Claire Keim returns this evening to TF1 with a new series, Aim for the heart, in which she lends her features to Julia Scola, a courageous and respected police captain who sees Novak Lisica reappear in her life. (Lannick Gautry), the great love of her life to whom she has not spoken for twenty years. And who, after a brilliant career as a lawyer, left everything behind to become a police commissioner. At the head of the brigade in which Julia officiates.

Claire Keim, unaccustomed to cop roles, talks to us about this new adventure, imagined by the creators of Profiling, about the character of Julia Scola, whom she feels is important in her acting career, about the complex relationship that unites Julia and Novak, and his cravings for comedy. And song.

AlloCiné: What motivated your desire to play this cop character, Julia Scola, in Aim for the heart?

Claire Keim : I was contacted by Stéphane Marsil, the producer, who told me “I have a series of cops for you”. I wasn’t tempted at all, but he insisted and I agreed to meet Fanny Robert, the designer, with whom I had a great time. She immediately convinced me that this role was made for me. It’s powerful when someone has so much desire for you in a role. So already, even before reading, she tells me that she writes thinking of me, and that counts. It’s precious, and quite rare in this profession.

So I started reading the script and fell in love with Julia. Because she is strong, mysterious, contained, disciplined. There is something that is so far from me that I told myself that this demented character was going to bring me a lot of strength. I had had a bit the same kind of reaction to the character of Emma in Unfaithful. I said to myself “She is much stronger than me, she will carry me”. So I’m very happy to have met this rather rare character. There are few characters like her on television.

You’re talking about the content side of Julia. This is precisely what makes it so that there are these moments, during the series, where it explodes. And which make the sequences in question even stronger…

It was jubilant to let everything go like that. But it wasn’t easy at all to shoot. I had huge stage fright. There was a scene that I was particularly dreading and they put it on at the very end of the shoot (laughs). It was an exciting but exhausting shoot. Who asked a lot of me.

Me who loves to joke on the set, and to be a bit of the elf who makes everyone laugh, I couldn’t, I didn’t have time for that. I had to stay very focused. And I had to keep a distance with Lannick, because we know each other well, we have a closeness, it’s easy between us. But then I had to be away from him. Let there be a form of tension, let it be palpable. Let the viewer wonder “What’s the matter? What happened between those two?”.

It was all very tiring. And then there are not funny decorations, hospitals, police stations, cellars with dead children. It wasn’t funny at all (laughs).

Aim for the heart also tells a lot about the police, and the place of women in the police. Is it also an element of the story that you liked?

I’ll be totally honest: that’s not what struck me in the script. I was lucky enough to be raised by people who could be called feminists. But it wasn’t verbalized that they were, it was just the way they lived. As a result, the evolution of society as shown in the series is normal. It was before that it was not normal.

We mention the MeToo at the beginning. Then we talk a bit about family violence, violence against children. But for me there is not a fight, a claim in the series. It’s just a fiction that fits in our time. And today there is a lot of fighting going on from all sides, because a lot of things have been silenced for too long. But I confess that I haven’t really made it a banner or a particular cause.

Through its very dark universe, and the different traumas it explores, the series is very similar to Profiling, which we owe to the same creators: Fanny Robert and Sophie Lebarbier. Were you familiar with Profiling before joining the Aim for the Heart adventure?

Of course, I had seen bits of Profiling. I thought it was super daring and I thought it was great that a character as unsympathetic as Chloé (Odile Vuillemin) fascinates people so much. It gives a lot of hope.

I find that the creation of Profilage has done a lot for the evolution of the French series. She came at a time when viewers were tired of perfect heroines. We had to put a big kick in all this. It’s great what they did. In addition, they both have a real universe, they are very strong.

I am extremely grateful to them for creating the character of Julia for me. I feel like he’s an important character for me, I don’t know why. I’m proud to have performed it.

Gilles Gustine/TF1

Aim for the heart is obviously based on its duo of investigators, Julia and Novak, who loved each other, lost sight of each other for some reason that we do not know, and meet again twenty years later. How would you describe this duo and the dynamic that animates these two characters?

The second Novak arrives in the DPJ and becomes Julia’s commissioner, it’s war. We instantly feel that there is a big problem, that it will be very complicated, and especially that something has happened that she will never forgive him. I liked that very much.

And I also liked this tension between them, which means that you never know if they’re going to make love or if they’re going to fuck each other. It was very sexy to act, and I hope it is in the image too. It never relaxes between them, there is no respite, not too much sweetness.

Are you up for a season 2 if successful?

If it’s as well written as the first season, yes, of course. Even better written, because I think we can still do better on the dialogues. But it is certain that it is impossible not to want to continue when a character is so powerful. I have the impression that Julia brings me a lot, even if she takes my time from filming. I think I’m making progress. It makes me play things I’ve never played. It takes me to places I’m not used to being.

Lately, apart from the TV movie Le Furet, you have had a string of dramatic roles on television. Do you want more comedy?

I just want that (laughs)! I dream of comedy. Even very small roles. I would like to be trusted in fact, to be allowed to do a scene in a film. As in the film by Diane Kurys, Stop your cinema. I was playing a bit of a dodgy actress, I loved it, it was so much fun to do. Let me do comedy (laughs)!

I think I really have something to exploit in comedy, I know I can. In the theater I had nice roles, in The Garconniere notably. But on television or in the cinema, I dream of something funny and tender. Or trash (laughs). I would love to work with Eric Judor. I’ve seen all his films, I’m a huge fan. My dream would be for Eric Judor to write me a part.

Gilles Gustine/TF1

At the start of the year, you had enormous success on France 2 with the TV movie Menace sur Kermadec. Do you know if a sequel is coming?

I do not know. Everyone wants it. We still have a What’s App group with the whole team, we can’t get off the hook, it’s crazy. We are still addicted to each other. It must be said that it was a magical experience. The easiest shoot of my life. Besides, basically, I didn’t even have to do it, I was exhausted. And finally something made me go. You have to say yes to life. Especially after what we experienced with the Covid.

So I said yes and in a split second it was easy. This movie was all about love. And there was a bit of a comic strip tone, it wasn’t super realistic, and that’s what I liked. I had so much fun. But I don’t know if France 2 wants to continue the adventure. Basically, it’s a finished TV movie.

And the music ? Where are you in your song desires? Are you planning to release a new album?

What is certain is that I want to. It’s totally abnormal that I haven’t released a second album, I’m aware of that. Because I only dream of that! But I realize that I love my music, I love my songs, but I’m not very happy with my lyrics anymore. I took too long and there are texts that I wrote fifteen years ago that are no longer relevant. I don’t want to sing nonsense, I want to have beautiful texts.

I would dream that the same thing would happen to me as to Julien Clerc who got angry in a café in Saint-Germain saying “Isn’t there a jerk who wants to write me lyrics here?”, and Étienne Roda-Gil said “If I”. And the guy ends up writing me “Useful”. It would be the dream. The more time passes, the more I take refuge in the songs and in the texts. It’s too important what we say. I want to say nice things. But we must remain open to the unknown, this beautiful meeting may end up happening.