VIDEO INTERVIEW. Julie de Bona (Les Combattantes): “I accepted even before reading the episodes”

This is TF1’s back-to-school event series. Three years after the success of Charity Bazaarthe One draws The Fighters. This time, the plot takes place at the beginning of the First World War. We are in September 1914. For several weeks, the fighting has been raging. But it is not so much the military who are at the center of this story as the women, and in particular four of them whose destiny will be turned upside down. Viewers thus find the trio of actresses from Charity Bazaarnamely Camille Lou – aka Suzanne, a young feminist nurse wanted for murder -, Julie de Bona – who lends her features to Agnès, mother superior of a convent requisitioned and transformed into a military hospital, which will soon question their life choices – as well as Audrey Fleurot – aka Marguerite, a Parisian prostitute as mysterious as she is flamboyant whose secret will intrigue.

Added to this is Sofia Essaïdi who plays Caroline who sees herself propelled to the head of the car factory of her husband who has gone to the front and whose in-laws will obviously put a spoke in his wheels. And the least we can say is that Julie de Bona did not hesitate for a second before accepting this role. “I accepted even before reading the episodes and the series for the director Alexandre Laurent and the producer Iris Bucher“, she confirms to us. It must be said that it was not the first time that they collaborated together. “We did Le Secret d’Elise together and Le Bazar de la Charité“, she recalls. Julie de Bona therefore had full confidence in them.

Why was Julie de Bona doubtful about the role of Agnès?

Except that she almost became disillusioned when she discovered her character. “I didn’t know what role they were going to give me, what I was going to do. When the director tells me he thought of me for a role they wrote for me : the role of a mother superior of a convent, I said ‘Ok…’“, she admits to us not hiding that he was dubious. However, his fears quickly evaporated. When she discovered Agnès, Julie de Bona was won over. “He really wrote me a wonderful role of a woman who rocks, who is shaken by a drama that makes her question her faith and all her foundations“, she explains to us. And throwing stars in her eyes: “He is a great dramatic, Cornelian character. I had a blast so I’m happy he gave me this character.“

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