On stage, Suzanne de Baecque in the shoes of the misses

In her teenage bedroom, in the Halles district of Paris, her posters already demonstrated a certain eclecticism: the series Charmed, the players of the 2006 World Cup (“I was very in love with Thierry Henry”), the film OSS 117, a campaign poster by Ségolène Royal (“total fan!” »). While her lifelong friend, the actress Rebecca Marder, with whom she made short films, was already casting for castings, Suzanne de Baecque waited until she was 18 before trying her hand at it. “It took me a while to take the plunge, but I never thought of another profession, she assures. After a while, I felt that I wasn’t going to be spotted in the canteen like Vincent Lacoste… So I signed up for the free class at Cours Florent: I was in the right place. »

The courses and a diploma from the Théâtre du Nord school in Lille behind her, here she is an actress. At 28, she appeared, a tall silhouette with swirling candour, in the theater with Alain Françon or Guillaume Vincent. Cinema – the field of research of his father, Antoine de Baecque, historian, critic and contributor to “World of Books”, while his mother, an academic, explored literature – has so far only offered him fleeting appearances with François Ozon (My crime), Maïwenn (Jeanne du Barry) or Katell Quillévéré (Time to love). A spicy supporting role as a dental assistant at the end of her rope in Iris and the men, comedy with Laure Calamy released in January, changed the situation a little.

Conflicting injunctions

This is yet another “Suzy de Baecque”, as she calls herself, who is exhibited in Stand up, its creation at the Théâtre de Gennevilliers, from February 29 to March 4. In 2020, pushed to imagine an end-of-studies creation, she applied for Miss Poitou-Charentes – region, she explains with a laugh, chosen not out of passion for “Ségolène”, who chaired it from 2004 to 2014, but for his family ties. She complies with everything. “The application form where you are asked both the color of your eyes and your ambition in life”, the photo shoot in local beauty style, smile lessons, taking measurements, swimsuit parades in front of local notables, “almost just guys, one of whom openly whistled at me”…

Eliminated before the coronation, she retains some “the banality of violence” and the contradictory injunctions: “be attractive but not vulgar, neither too seductive nor too prudish”. A handful of other candidates contacted by Instagram confided in her. From these outpourings, she drew the text of the piece. “I realized to what extent Miss was the typical young girl onto whom all popular fantasies are projected,” explains Suzanne de Baecque, who plays Stand up alongside Raphaëlle Rousseau, actress and director who dedicated a solo play to the actress Delphine Seyrig, Discussion with DSin 2022.

This failed competition helped her to “ [se] get rid of [ses] complex”. “This competition was also, in a way, a lesson in play, she says. Whereas, when I was younger, I thought I had to constantly emphasize my weirdness, my singularity, I learned through all that to simply trust myself, to take responsibility for myself more. » After another trip to the cinema in the coming months, under the direction of the Larrieu brothers whose fantasy she worships, she would like to try her hand at “a more cerebral girl role”, territory that she has little explored until now.