Since January 18, viewers of the France 2 series have been able to discover a new actress in the role of Lucille Salama. A change of interpreter which was made at short notice following his departure, which took the production by surprise.
In the latest episodes of Un Si Grand Soleil, journalist Lucille Salama, currently embroiled in a burglary case after a night of drinking with David (Quentin Gratias) and Mo (Frédérique Kamatari), changed interpreters, much to the surprised viewers.
Played by the Belgian actress Naïma Rodric since the launch of the series on France 2, the young journalist in a relationship with Akim Alami (Aïssam Medhem) is now interpreted by another actress, Alicia Dadoun, seen in Clem and Alice Nevers. The reason ? The surprise departure of Naïma Rodric last November, which she recently commented on in the columns of Télé Star.
“Contrary to what has been said, I did not slam the door. I left the series by artistic choice. We had been talking about it for two months with the production and the authors.“, she explains, specifying that she was on good terms with the production and had just signed to participate in season 4.
But when she was approached to shoot in Overdose, the next feature film by Olivier Marchal, the actress tried to find a solution with the production to free up time for filming. “In vain. And it’s a shame because I should have been released for just seven days. But I think it was complicated to rewrite everything in the time imposed by a daily newspaper.“
Especially since, according to the words of the actress, the ark in which Lucille is currently located had already been rewritten for the first time, since it was originally to stage the character of Alice Bastide (Maëlle Mietton) in his place. “The plot had already been rewritten, and the writers could not release a third version with another character from the series. We found ourselves in an impasse, so I made the decision to leave.”
A painful decision for the actress, very attached to her play partners.I’m super grateful that I was given my chance. But, at some point, you have to know how to take risks and not lock yourself into a single character.“
A departure which turned out to be all the more complicated for the production to manage as the plot could no longer be rewritten, and therefore required a change of actress for the first time since the creation of the series. A decision “inevitable” according to Olivier Szulzynger, creator and writing director of Un Si Grand Soleil.
“It’s a disaster indeed.”, he says. “But everyone does what they want; it’s a question of respect for the word given, of professionalism. I salute the courage of the actress who agreed to take over the role, but inevitably we are beaten.” This change of interpreter having somewhat destabilized the fans of the series, it will take a little time for Alicia Dadoun to manage to make them forget Naïma Rodric, as one Twitter user commented.
“I won’t go into specific considerations because there are legal reasons, but when an actor decides on a whim to leave when everything is written and the work plan is done, apart from stopping the broadcast and rewriting three months of texts, which would be catastrophic for us and the public, the only thing we can do is a replacement”, he concludes.
The intrigue around Lucille, Mo and David continues this week on France 2, every evening at 8:45 p.m. and in preview on SALTO. In tonight’s episode, Lucille and David help themselves to some of the loot the trio discovered after their wild night…