Immersed in the heart of an explosive intrigue in the last episodes of the soap opera, Alex finds himself forced to collaborate with Gaëlle, his now fugitive ex-girlfriend. His interpreter tells us more about these reunions under high tension.
You are in the main plot of Un Si Grand Soleil right now. Are you still filming this plot now?
Benjamin Bourgois: For now, I’ve had a lot of work in January and February precisely to shoot everything you’re seeing on screen, and then the adventures are filmed, and people are going to see ‘other stuff.
I then have very few shooting dates until July-August, and then we are still in the signatures of the following years, where the authors have to see what they want to do and where dialogues are made between us , production and artistry. It’s a period that is healthy because there is a lot of discussion.
After his conviction for the murder of André Faure, we did not expect to see Gaëlle (Hélène Degy) on the screen anytime soon. How did you react when you discovered that this character was going to return to the series?
She is indestructible! (laughs) I expected her to come back, not because the production told us about it, but because it’s the typical profile of the character we like to see come back. This kind of character, who comes back from the dead or from very far away… The famous “I’ll be back!“She’s a little bit part of it, and I expected her to slip away at some point.
It was funny because when we had shot the plot with an appearance of Gaëlle in prison, where she had to help in an investigation, it was the second time that she had returned to the series, and we was said jokingly with Hélène Degy that there was a chance that she would escape and come back once and for all to bother me. And it happened! We hadn’t definitely anticipated it, but we felt it coming.
And then it is possible that we will see her again much later after her sentence adjustment. The time between reality and fiction is very short! Pregnancies last five months, prison sentences are shortened… The space-time in this kind of fiction is either dilated, or very shortened. So there’s a chance that his sentence arrangement will end a little earlier than expected and allow him to come back into Alex’s life to fuck the shit up. (laughs)
Indeed, Alex’s feelings towards Gaëlle always seem complex, and the fact of having started a stable relationship with Julie (Sophie Staub) does not manage to make him forget this woman…
Yes, it is very powerful, very rooted in him. The character of Gaëlle Lestrac was very striking. There, he chooses – rightly – not to intoxicate himself again, because despite the redemptive side it presents, there is necessarily something harmful behind it.
Problems are going to come with her, whether she likes it or not; no matter how much she wants to redeem herself, there will inevitably be a complicated situation that would arise if they ever get back together. So Alex chooses to be reasonable, and chooses the relationship of the heart with Julie, but Gaëlle Lestrac branded him with a hot iron.
Especially since despite his desire not to see her anymore, this collaboration is imposed on him in spite of himself, since Gaëlle demands that he be his only correspondent during his infiltration…
Yes, she imposes it on her own. In the episodes broadcast recently, she explains why she wanted him to be her link in this operation: the fact that they could trust each other despite what they had been through. It’s the dark side of the force! (laughs) Two opposite entities that are related.
As a result, the couple that Alex forms with Julie risks being put to the test, because she begins to suspect that he is hiding things from her in his mission.
Gaëlle’s return shakes up a lot of certainties, but I think he’s very happy with her. She turns out to be very understanding. There is more clarity between them compared to their previous misadventure during the story with Jade, where he had to lie to her before and where trust issues had set in. Even if there, he cannot be one hundred percent honest with her by telling her about the trouble he feels towards Gaëlle, he has played cards on the table on the case he is dealing with.
But once again, the poor guy finds himself with his ass between two chairs: the fact that his hierarchy asks him not to say anything to his relatives, and then this transparency towards Julie that he tries to maintain despite everything. There are still small secrets, even if he admitted to her that his ex had called him back. He tells her what he can say, a kind of lie by omission. Will it backfire on him? We’ll see…
In terms of family life, we have been without news for some time from Davia, Alex’s sister played by Jennifer Dubourg-Bracconi. After a strong family intrigue with her some time ago, would you like to tour together again?
We sometimes have personal desires between colleagues, between actors, and interactions that we can imagine, but we are only puppets between the hands of the authors! (laughs) It’s unclear what the future holds for the series. We all want our share of the cake, but we are very numerous and there is enough for everyone.
Even for the spectators, it’s good that there are several storylines, whether among the cops, in family lives… although new characters emerge, like the one played by Nadia Fossier for example.
You have been one of the recurring figures in the series since its inception. What would you say today to Benjamin Bourgois who was about to embark on the adventure?
As an actor, I would tell him to go for it, he’s going to have fun! (laughs) Not to hesitate because it’s a great adventure where lots of things are going to happen, and where I learned a lot, especially about my adaptation to the speed of the job. I could have done things last year and the previous ones that couldn’t happen for scheduling reasons.
But I tell myself that it was written like that, and that other things could happen, if my schedule allows me. I try to be calm about it, to work as much as possible and to do things well. Obviously, we would like to have everything the butter and the money of the butter, but it is not possible so we have to make compromises.
You have a lot of scenes at the police station with Moïse Santamaria, who plays Manu. These are often very explanatory scenes for the investigations, which can sometimes seem redundant to shoot, but you always manage to infuse them with a dose of humor and complicity thanks to your duet.
Sometimes we do it too much, and we get slapped on the wrist. (laughs) Fortunately, there are people who slow us down a bit because obviously, for the merits of a plot, there are things that are quite informative, there are milestones to put in a police investigation.
These are necessary scenes that need to be clear, but it’s complicated to get something light out of them, and in writing it’s an incredible headache for authors and dialogue writers to find comic springs. .
So we always try to find something a bit natural and lively in there, to get out of the mechanical side of this structure. We manage to find things with Moïse, but we also have a lot of fun with Yvon, he is an absolutely crazy man. And with our other colleagues too, Constantin Balsan, Aïssam Medhem and Malya Roman, we are a whole team of crazy people now, and we manage to have fun. And that’s essential in a rhythm like this.
Finally, do you have any other upcoming projects alongside the series?
It’s been a little quieter this year from January; last year I made an appearance in Fabrice Eboué’s film Barbaque. It was very short, but I had a blast! It was a great experience of total freedom, with a lot of improvisation before shooting. It was a bit like a luxury laboratory to be able to work with Eboué and Marina Foïs, who is a war machine.
At the moment I am more with my family, and I take advantage of the time I have to take care of them. Then, September will be a new adventure, we will see what awaits me at that time… I remain calm, telling myself that as long as I do things well and that I behave well, there is no reason for it to go wrong! (laughs)