TF1 is launching the broadcast of the first season of “Master Crimes” this evening. In this new detective series, Muriel Robin plays the role of Louise Arbus, a criminology professor who is as brilliant as she is whimsical…
This Thursday, November 9, TF1 invites its viewers to discover its new detective series Master Crimes with Muriel Robin, from 9:10 p.m. In this pleasant fiction to follow, the famous comedian plays the role of Louise Arbus, a criminology professor who is sometimes eccentric but (almost) always accurate in resolving the investigations she leads with the police and four of her students…
With AlloCiné, the actress (who also explained to us how Master Crimes differs from Murder) looks back on this new experience in her career…
AlloCiné: Do you have a hidden passion for news stories over all these years?
Muriel Robin: The news items interested me a lot. About twenty years ago, I went to stores to look for books on current events and, secretly, I said to myself: “There would be something to do with that.”.
I had even made a list of those that could be treated, but I didn’t have the mentality formatted enough to see what to do with them. Other than that, I’m not good at criminal stuff. Not good at all ! Sometimes I don’t even understand everything. (laughs)
Can you introduce us to Louise Arbus, your brilliant character in “Master Crimes”?
She is a professor of criminology and it’s interesting because we haven’t seen that yet in France! I really liked this aspect. She transmits and what she learns in class to her students, she also teaches to the spectators.
I like her a lot because she has wit. She has a certain distance from what she experiences, from her investigations. His brain is not made like others. We always wonder what’s going on up there!
We also have some fun with Louise but not the kind that people can get to know through my shows. Every time she leaves a sequence, we wonder if she’s going to say her nice little phrase! This character influences his relationship with Captain Delandre [Anne Le Nen, ndlr] who is on the ground, it allows him to titillate her!
She always has a sparkling eye, she is mischievous and eccentric. She’s a bit rock because she does things she’s not allowed to do, always wearing pumps and if possible the same color as her handbag. (laughs)
But although she is perched a little higher than the others, she is not at all haughty. She is nice ! And all this around a well-crafted thriller which is not a pretext for comedy.
You share the poster for “Master Crimes” with your wife Anne Le Nen. How did this filming together go?
Anne is my best friend and vice versa. At home, there is the practical side: we can rehearse our texts and then we can talk to each other about the characters, ask each other for advice. But as soon as there is “Action !“, there are no more Anne and Muriel. It happens by itself. And the second there is “Cut !“, obviously, we come back this very second to the very strong complicity that we can have and which is linked to our relationship.
Did you participate in the writing of this project or sometimes improvise?
I didn’t participate in the writing at all but when we finish a sequence, if something comes to me, I have permission to add something because afterwards they will choose to keep or cut it during editing.
If at the end of filming the scene they say to themselves: “Hey, it wouldn’t be bad to have a laugh here!“but it wasn’t written, I added a little improvisation. For example, my character says: “You clean the corners well” and I say “You clean the corners, corner-corner, corner-corner…“(laughs)
Your character always appears dressed to the nines, in a suit and heels. Did it help you in your game or, on the contrary, was it a discomfort?
It helps me and it was almost a request on my part! After playing Marie Besnard [Marie Besnard, l’empoisonneuse…, ndlr] or Jacqueline Sauvage [Jacqueline Sauvage : c’était lui ou moi, ndlr]where I was rather old and ugly, I said to myself: “Next time, I would like to wear Louboutins… That wouldn’t be bad! It would change me a little.” (laughs) It’s crazy because the producers obviously heard it and remembered it! It’s probably not by chance that I’m found like this in the series.
I think it’s very important, clothes, shoes… but especially shoes. We don’t speak the same in heels and we don’t speak the same in three-centimeter heels and ten-centimeter heels. We’re not quite the same woman. Try it, I’ll pass it on to you! I don’t know what size you are, I can send you some models! (laughs)
What did you think of the four young actors who play Louise’s students in “Master Crimes”: Thaïs Vauquières (Valentine), Astrid Roos (Mia), Nordine Ganso (Boris) and Victor Meutelet (Samuel)?
Listen, I love them! Firstly because when they arrive, they know their lines. They each have a really very different and interesting personality for the series. They are sometimes funny, as is more the case for Thaïs and Nordine. Their characters carry a little more comedy than the other two but they are all very cool.
We have a lot of fun working together. That’s it, we’re already a little family and we like each other a lot. And then I always think about the public and I tell myself that if we don’t like the oldest one, we’ll have the captain a little younger… And if she doesn’t like it either, we’ll have one when even four more to eat!