Tonight, France 2 is broadcasting two new episodes of its fantastic series Vortex. Meeting with Camille Claris, the interpreter of Mélanie.
Tonight, France 2 is broadcasting two new episodes of its Vortex event series. Meeting with Camille Claris, the interpreter of Mélanie and true revelation of the series!
Allociné: What did you like about the Vortex script?
Camille Claris: The screenplay and this metaphor of impossible mourning really touched me. The death of someone you loved is impossible to handle. And I think the series speaks well of that. In the end, that’s what affects me more than the love dilemma, which is not my character’s problem at all.
Then science fiction. That’s how the project was presented to me. I’m a big science fiction fan, I love it. What’s great about this genre is that it allows you to push really strong situational issues or emotional knots because you’re confronting them with situations that are impossible to resolve. As an actress, I find it fascinating.
What attracted you to the role of Mélanie?
Mélanie mourns herself in a way. She has the opportunity to mourn her life before she dies. It is something very special. Work on that, on what it feels like to be suddenly disconnected from your reality because you realize that it’s on a thread and you don’t know what’s going to happen. The moment in the series when she begins to understand that she can act and decides to take the reins, she takes risks that are enormous. I really liked that twist. Besides, she confronts versions of herself that she may not like at all.
How was filming with Tomer Sisley ?
What’s special is that we started shooting with the 1998 scenes in the house. They are scenes of love and of a very beautiful realistic love. It was the very start of filming and so we didn’t know each other very well with Tomer. We tamed each other. We talked a lot and thought about what our relationship was like. What was the story of Mélanie and Ludo, how things were built, what were their dreams. We had a discussion like that which really founded the relationship. And afterwards, it was very quickly a lot of confidence in the other and in his emotion. To dare to go into the emotion, it is necessary that in front we feel understood. I think we had something mutual and a rather beautiful complicity.
We feel that Mélanie is jealous when she learns that Ludo has rebuilt his life. And at the same time, she does not seek to destroy her future with Parvana (Zineb Triki). It is nice that there is no rivalry between these two women.
It was important to me that there was no rivalry. It’s not a rivalry. Melanie’s rival is death. And in a way, she understands that if she doesn’t want to die, she will have to give up anyway. This is also what Parvana does out of love. In 2025, she accepts her husband’s past. And Mélanie in 1998 finds herself accepting the future. In the end it’s the same act of love, she just takes longer to accept it.
Do you have other projects?
I have been writing for the theater for several years. I wrote a play with Sarah Horoksla called “Celle qui sais”. And there we write a second piece with another sidekick. Besides that, I’m editing the second short film I’ve made.