While TF1 broadcasts this Thursday evening the first 3 episodes of “Sissi”, return on the course of Dominique Devenport and Jannik Schümann, who have the heavy task of making forget Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm in the roles of Sissi and Franz.
TF1 broadcasts this Thursday evening at 9:05 pm Sissi, the new series adapted from the story of the famous Empress of Austria, which promises to dust off films with Romy Schneider.
In this much more modern and sulphurous version, it is Dominique Devenport who slips into the sumptuous dresses of Elisabeth de Wittelsbach. The young actress gives for the occasion the reply to Jannik Schümann, who plays Franz Joseph I. A look back at the careers of the two young actors.
Dominique Devenport got the role by chance
To set the scene for the iconic Sissi, the production called on Dominique Devenport, a Swiss-American actress unknown to the general public, who obtained her first major role here.
The young woman, who learned to play at school, began her career in 2012 in the film Nebelgrind in which she played the daughter of a farmer. A year later, she made a remarkable appearance in Night Train to Lisbon, the opportunity for her to rub shoulders with Jeremy Irons, Mélanie Laurent or Charlotte Rampling.
It is completely by chance that Dominique Devenport got the role of Sissi. “I was having a beer with a friend in Munich, and I was explaining to him how I felt a connection with Sissi”, She explained in an interview with Variety. “What I didn’t know was that the next day this friend was meeting the show’s casting director. He told her about me and she called me. I passed the audition and was detained.”
Jannik Schümann, the rising star of German cinema
Unlike Dominique Devenport, Jannik Schümann, who plays Emperor François-Joseph I, is a regular on film sets. The actor began his career in 2003, at the age of 11, in an episode of the German series Mission Sauvetage.
He then played small roles before being noticed by the cinema in 2019, the year he played with Milla Jovovich in the blockbuster Monster Hunter, signed Paul WS Anderson. He is also staring in Tribes of Europa, a German series available on Netflix.
Find Sissi every Thursday evening from 9:05 p.m. on TF1. The series is already available in full on Salto.