Naked: “I had my limits” … Julie de Bona evokes nudity in the chilling TV movie of France 2

After Plan B, Stolen Service, or the romantic comedy I love it to lie last year, Julie de Bona takes on the role of Sophie Parlier tonight, a woman victim of revenge porn, in the punchy TV movie Mise à naked, broadcast at 9:10 p.m. on France 2.

Inspired by real events, this unit directed by Didier Bivel (Emma Bovary) tells the story of a mother who, after an affair with the local bookseller, sees her life turn into a nightmare. To make him pay for his rejection, the man in question has made a weapon of their nights of love by exposing videos of their intimate relationships on the Internet. A violation of her privacy against which Sophie will try to fight, at all costs.

Julie de Bona, who offers a high-flying performance in Mise à nu, told us about this necessary television film, the nudity scenes she shot for the purposes of the story, and her collaboration with Julien Boisselier, her play partner, with whom she won the interpretation prize in Luchon at the start of the year.

AlloCiné: Beyond the very strong character that you play, is it also the idea of ​​being able to tackle the subject of revenge porn and cyberbullying, still little covered in fiction in France, that you liked through this role in Mise à nu?

Julie de Bona : I was offered the TV movie two years ago, and at that time we didn’t talk about it at all. I discovered the subject’s violence by reading the script and speaking with the woman who inspired the character of Sophie Parlier. I realized the damage it can do to a life and its intimacy.

Complaints for cyberbullying are still too rarely successful. Isn’t the message of the TV movie to tell the victims not to isolate themselves and to speak up?

Sure. There are associations, but not that many. And above all, you have to be surrounded. It’s a real scourge, it’s really existed in France for ten years, and now it’s exploding. And the victims isolate themselves because they no longer know how to cope. There is even more isolation than for a physical rape. On the internet, it is “unwashable”. There are lifelong traces of this violence. Even for the grandchildren it will remain. There is a shame that arises vis-à-vis society. Victims feel like it’s written on their foreheads. There are no longer any real means of protecting themselves and they isolate themselves even more.

But the TV movie tells them “Get out, go fight, there are ways”. However, it is super hard. There are companies that clean up. We pay and for a year they clean everything on the internet. There are ways, and these costs should be reimbursed. But it can destroy. Even in the office, everyone saw his sexual antics. It’s very humiliating, it sticks to the skin.

It’s important to talk about it so that people don’t feel guilty. They are victims, they did nothing. They didn’t agree, there was no consent. And if ever they made an erotic video, or they showed part of their intimacy to a lover, whom they trusted, they are not the criminals, they are not guilty. It’s like when you put on a miniskirt, you don’t have to be raped. The real drama is the person who discloses your image without your consent.

There is a scene in the TV movie where a police officer says to Sophie “Assume”, and which represents well this kind of speech that we cannot accept to hear…

Yes, “Assume, you have made videos, you have to assume”. I get angry at that point by the way. I still added a few scenes, like when she agrees to show her breasts at the start in a moment of intimacy, beauty, and purity. So that we understand that in love games, when we are fragile and we have just met someone, there are things we can do without bad intentions.

That’s the beauty of the love story, but it’s dangerous. Even if Sophie is not responsible and guilty for that. And the same when he asks her to take a picture of her panties, these are erotic love games, there’s no crime in that.

There is indeed nudity in the TV movie. How did you approach these sequences with the director Didier Bivel?

I think he was extraordinary, I loved working with him. That was the whole point, so I had to go anyway. This is the first time for me, I have never been confronted with this kind of scene in my career, in twenty years. That’s not what I felt, I had never been offered that before. So there, I found it interesting. I had to show a little bit for the viewer to be shocked, like the character, for him to understand that it totally damages his image and that it’s super trashy and violent for Sophie.

But me, Julie, the actress, I’m still very modest about it, I don’t show much. So we had to find the middle ground. We discussed this a lot with Didier and I find that he was very delicate. Each time there is a distance. He shows me through the phone. At the trial, it is in the reflection of the glass that we see the screen. It’s still shocking, and there are obviously things that I didn’t agree to film. I had my own limits.

But anyway France 2 agreed on something quite sober. No one wanted us to go any further. But it took this right dosage for us to want to protect Sophie Parlier and to understand how devastating it is. And if I don’t, I don’t get wet. The exposure is not total.

Learning to love you, Service stolen, now laid bare. You have acted in several societal fictions recently. Is it important for you to raise awareness through fiction?

It’s much stronger, more impacting personally when you play a subject of society. I wanted it, I needed it, it was a time in my life when I had to do it to find meaning. But I also want comedy. Entertaining is good. Right now, it might even save lives.

Afterwards, if I can feel like a citizen and use my art and my emotions about a social issue, that’s great, that’s nice. And on set it’s very special. The whole team is there to defend a subject, we are united. The egos are put aside, there is a very good atmosphere, very benevolent, very enveloping. It’s very pleasant as an actress.

Gilles Gustine/FTV/Adrenaline

There is a great cast around you. Was it an additional motivation when accepting the role?

Yes, with Julien Boisselier, it was great. When I found out he was playing in the TV movie, I said to myself, “It’s great, it’s won”. Because everything depended on the partner I had in front. I really like his playing, I find it so subtle. We don’t see it happening. We really fall in love with the character. He’s an elegant, fine, subtle guy. The viewer can understand why she fell in love with him. And there is no serial killer shift, where he reveals himself as someone else. He’s subtle, he’s the same character as when he started. He does it with such subtlety that in the end it’s the same. I think it’s even more freaky. And it gives me material to play.

But, it’s true that overall it’s a very nice cast. Sophie Cattani is great, Samy Gharbi too. Julien De Saint-Jean, who plays my son, is incredible. It will explode. And physically there really is something, it looks like it’s my son.

You received the interpretation prize at Luchon with Julien Boisselier for Mise à nu. Is recognition of the profession important for an actor?

It’s nice. It’s the first. But I don’t do it for that. The public gives me a lot of love. When I am congratulated for a role I am very touched. In addition, I have already been a jury, the prices don’t mean much. We know, it’s so complicated to give a price. There are so many hazards, things that we don’t control at all.

When you don’t have the interpretation prize and you have done a good performance, you shouldn’t take it as a rejection of your work. And it’s the same when you have a price, you shouldn’t be flattered more than that. But I take it as a gift. For both of us, for Julien and me. I think we did our job well. As we were very close on set, we both worked well, there was a lot of respect, a lot of professionalism, I took it as a way of telling us “You guys worked well”.

What are your plans after Mise à nu? There is obviously Les Combattantes which will be arriving on TF1 in the coming months, by the same team as Le Bazar de la Charite…

Les Combattantes is a great love story with the director Alexandre Laurent, who had already made me shoot in Le Secret d’Elise and Le Bazar de la charité. I have a lot of respect and admiration for his work. He progresses from series to series, I am very happy to have found him. The producer, Iris Bucher, is also at the head of this new project. So it’s really a story of family and love with Alexandre Laurent, with the production, and with TF1.

Both The Secret of Elise and The Bazaar of Charity revealed me to an audience. So each time I’m flattered to be so well filmed by this director. I was very happy to go, no matter what. It’s a new Bazaar installment, but it’s not a sequel, it’s not a prequel, or a spin-off. It is a new opus of this collection. We just took the same actresses and put them in different characters. But the hallmark of the Bazaar is there.

We wonder here what was the place of women during the First World War. Because there is a war memorial for the horses who died during the First World War, but there is none for the women who lost their lives during this period. So Iris thought it was time to talk about the role of these women. I have an unexpected role. Because they wrote for me and finally I am the mother superior of the convent (laughs). I think it’s brilliant because, after playing a major burn victim in Le Bazar, it’s again a very unexpected role. I sometimes wonder how Alexandre sees me (laughs). But it’s always a big challenge, because you have to be credible.

It’s even bigger than Le Bazaar. The first episode of Bazaar was very strong in staging, and after that it was a little less spectacular. There we are a little more spectacular in all the episodes. It really is a great show. We are four women from the First World War, because Sofia Essaïdi came to join us Camille Lou, Audrey Fleurot, and me, and it’s really a beautiful range of roles of women during the war.

Before or after that, I don’t know yet, there will also be the series La Maison d’en face on M6. It’s a very choral Desperate Housewives thriller. There is also theater looming. And I crave comedy, so I send signals.