Théo Curin, Paralympic swimmer, shines in the film Handigang (TF1) alongside Alessandra Sublet. The sportsman and now actor told us why this project fascinated him.
For those who follow sports news, Theo Curin is a well-known name. The Paralympic swimmer has set himself a new challenge: comedy. Théo Curin is one of the headliners of the TV movie Handigangbroadcast in prime time on TF1 on May 2, 2022. He stars alongside Alessandra Sublet in this adaptation of the novel Handi-Gang by Cara Zina.
Théo Curin plays Sam, a 17-year-old high school student who lives alone with his restaurateur mother, Nina. As he prepares to pass his baccalaureate, the arrival of a new student pushes him to reconsider the discrimination he is the victim of because of his disability. Between teenage crisis and societal demands, Sam is head-on opposed to the one who has been raising her alone since birth. the film by Stephanie Pillonca is a clever mix of tasty family comedy about adolescence and committed film about disability. Théo Curin, who until this film had never made a comedy, explained to us how he changed his life.
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Théo Curin: beginner actor and star of the film handigang
You said yes without hesitation to this project?
It’s an incredible opportunity when you’re not an actor to land a leading role in a film broadcast as a bonus on TF1. Professionally, it’s crazy. Then obviously, this film transmits common values with mine. So not only is it a personal favorite, but it’s also a film that I think will make noise for a good cause. It’s a film about disability, but not only that, it’s above all a film about adolescence.
What parallel can you draw with your own adolescence?
On some aspects, I can do it but not on others. My character is having a teenage crisis, like many teenagers, whether they have a disability or not. But in fact, I never had a teenage crisis, because I left my parents’ house at the age of 13 to do sports-studies 500km from their home. So for me it was super funny to play this claim that I never experienced. Me, I grew up in boarding school with athletes. But these are things that could have happened to me in a traditional course. And besides, I have plenty of friends to whom these things have happened, who have landed in establishments that are not adapted to wheelchairs, for example. And that’s also why I wanted to make the film, to highlight these little everyday things that are in fact huge when you have a disability.
Is the choice to select actors who are truly disabled like you essential?
Of course, this is unprecedented. I hope this will get people thinking already. Inevitably, it will trigger conversations, on the fact that the actors are really disabled. But I think that many people will also have personal questions, review their assumptions about people with disabilities. Watching this movie, we take a ball of energy in the mouth actually. We tell ourselves ‘ok, even if something goes wrong in fact, we can be committed, we can make things happen‘, and that’s what’s really cool too. You can have friends, play sports, cook for yourself, put on your prostheses in a certain way, live normally. I want people at the end of this movie to be like ‘ok, in fact, everything is fine‘. It will answer a lot of questions that people didn’t even know they were asking, this film.
Was the chemistry with Alessandra Sublet immediate?
It’s crazy, I don’t know how to explain it. But when we saw each other the first time for the reading, it was a direct match. We immediately laughed and learned to trust each other. Because a project like this is not nothing, especially when you’ve never done comedy like us. But hey, there was no pressure, and we were in the same boat, Alessandra and I, we had the same apprehensions, and that’s what led us to benevolence immediately.
Théo Curin, soon to be 100% actor?
I clearly had a click, on the fact that it was an environment in which I wanted to advance, a career that I wanted to pursue. Now I will wait to see the repercussions this film will have for me. And I hope there will be.
Loïse is addicted to current affairs, to TV series which she consumes whenever she has the time, to comics, to running which she practices whether it rains or snows, and…