Tonight, France 2 is broadcasting the first two episodes of “Vortex”, a series mixing romance, thriller and SF. Tomer Sisley, who lends his features to police captain Ludovic Beguin, tells us more about this series rich in twists and turns.
Tonight, France 2 is broadcasting the first two episodes of its new event series Vortex. Co-written by Camille Couasse (Lupin) and Sarah Farkas (Nina), based on a concept by novelist Franck Thilliez, Vortex is halfway between romance, thriller and science fiction. Directed by Slimane-Baptiste Berhoun (Mental), Vortex tells the story of Ludovic (Tomer Sisley), a judicial police captain in Brest who lost Mélanie (Camille Claris), the love of his life, twenty-seven years older early in what appeared to be an accident.
But when a time rift opens inside a reconstructed crime scene in virtual reality, they can communicate between 1998 and 2025! Ludovic has eleven days to change the course of history. But to save Mélanie from certain death, Ludovic risks losing the life he took so long to rebuild with Parvana (Zineb Triki), his new wife.
On the occasion of the launch of the series, Tomer Sisley tells us more about this highly anticipated project which promises to bring a real breath of fresh air to French fiction.
Allociné: What did you like about the Vortex project?
Tomer Sisley: The story above all, the way this love story was written and the fact of playing a character in two different eras. That’s pretty rare in an acting career.
What seduced you in the role of Ludovic?
He is a character who sends us back to many questions about life. Basically, it was sold to me as a trio. That is to say Ludovic 2025, Mélanie 1998 and Parvana. Except that that’s forgetting the story of Ludo 1998 which saw him a huge injustice. It’s horrible what he’s going through. He is fine with his wife, he is in love and suddenly she pulls away from him and starts lying to him. It is also this point of view that I found brilliant.
I talked a lot about the problem of the character with my scriptwriter and my director. I asked a lot of questions to find out what Ludo’s priority was. How much does he still love his first wife? How much is he in love with Parvana? He loves them both equally. I found it interesting to have a character torn between the two women in his life.
How did the filming go with Camille Claris and Zineb Triki, the interpreters of Mélanie and Parvana?
It went extraordinarily well. To tell you the truth, I did not know Camille. The first time I shot with her was an emotionally charged sequence. I remember at the end of the first take, I was like “oh shit, she sends wood! I’ll have to be up to it“It’s always great when you shoot with actors that you like, that you think are good and who take you into this imaginary scene.
As an actor, when you are with a partner who manages to make a sequence very real, it takes you into your own reality. If I’m touring with someone who’s not into it at all, I’m going to have to redouble my efforts to be into it. When I shoot with Camille, for example, it’s so much less work to do. She is really there. She drinks my words, she really looks at me, she reacts to what I send her. It’s awesome !
And Zineb, it’s the same. They obviously have totally different energies, which is all the more interesting for our story. So it went particularly well. It was just honey every day with them. All I had to do was ping pong with one or the other. As they do not play the same, the exchanges were not the same.
Wasn’t it too complicated for you to embody a character in two different eras, especially since you have completely different gestures each time?
For the little anecdote, I had back pain that I couldn’t get rid of during the shoot. Very quickly, I said to myself that it was brilliant and that I was going to use that for the Ludovic of 2025. When I was doing the Ludo of 2025, I always had consideration for this pain and therefore that made me walk differently and a little slower. I was in pain. When I played the 1998 Ludo, the idea was to completely ignore this pain and therefore it simply allowed me to move differently.
Vortex uses the same immersive technology as The Mandalorian series, allowing both eras of the series to coexist in one space. Wasn’t the shooting too complicated?
Generally, the more you are asked to imagine things that don’t exist, the more complicated it gets. Now, if you tell me about those two weeks on set with an LED wall, that was awesome. We go from shooting with a green screen where we have to look at a little cross that we are stuck on the wall to get the right look, to looking at a real landscape because we really see the sea, the clouds and the page on the ‘screen. So that’s so much less work to do. It immerses us in this reality, it’s great.
What can you tell us about Wide Winch 3 ?
I resumed training. We put a little boost on the physical since there are still two or three stunts that will have to be done. I have my director who came back from Thailand where he did some location scouting and right now he’s in Bulgaria. It is imminent. I start February 1.
What are your projects after Vortex?
I co-produced a film called Comme mon fils which I sold to TF1 and of which I am very proud. It’s a true story about a low-level thug who had to go on the run with a six-year-old child who wasn’t his. And this boy, who is now in his forties, considers this guy his father. It’s a true story that I loved telling and filming.