In 2000, Sonia Rolland was elected Miss France, at the age of only 18. Twenty-three years later, the former beauty queen decided to pursue a career as an actress. The star of the series Criminal Tropics has also gone behind the camera several times, as a director. This Wednesday, January 3 in the evening, his TV movie An unexpected destiny will be broadcast on France 2. A feature film in which she tells her story and her journey, calling her main character Nadia (played by Esther Bernet-Rollande).
Interviewed by The Parisian, Sonia Rolland spoke about the scandal that marked the last election for the most beautiful French woman (won by Ève Gilles), but also about this proposal that she had received from Geneviève de Fontenay before its disappearance, which occurred on August 1st. In the columns of our colleagues, the 42-year-old filmmaker explained that the former president of the Miss France committee, to whom she was very close, told him she could borrow his famous two-tone hat to lend it to the actress who would play her role in An unexpected fate. The mother of Kahina and Tess indicated that she refused, responding in all modesty: “It’s difficult to play you, Geneviève. Who could play you?”
To avoid any risk of caricaturing the character of the former emblematic figure of the Miss France competition, Sonia Rolland therefore “found a trick”, remembering the competition she entered when she was just a young woman: “During all the preparation for the election, Geneviève just came to introduce herself at the beginning, but was not close to the candidates, for the sake of transparency. It was her assistant, Geneviève Leblanc, nicknamed Dame Clochette, who took care of us, and she is played by Clementine Célarié.”
>> PHOTOS – The hair evolution of Sonia Rolland, the former Miss France 2000
A great lady who unfortunately will not have seen her film
During the last ceremony of the beauty contest, unveiled on TF1 on December 16, A very symbolic tribute was paid to Geneviève de Fontenay. Sonia Rolland participated, with many other former Miss France, dressed in white and black to salute his memory. The actress and director was particularly moved, surrounded by her predecessors and successors in the context of a unique painting. It must be said that she knew well the one who worked before Sylvie Tellier, from 1981 to 2007, to support young women wishing to wear the national scarf. She also regrets that the lady in the hat did not have the opportunity to see her film, before taking his last breath at the age of 90. “We talked about it a lot together,” she told our colleagues.
Article written with the collaboration of 6Medias
Photo credits: DANIEL ANGELI / BESTIMAGE