Meeting, in Paris, with Lola Dewaere and Sara Mortensen, the lovely heroines of this out-of-the-ordinary detective series.
Lola, the 4th season was completed a few months ago. What’s new ?
LD: Astrid discovers a half-brother and Raphaëlle a new colleague in the brigade, Norah, played by Sophia Yamna. Moreover, the relationship “is reversed” between the two investigators: it is Astrid, this time, who will come to the aid of Raphaëlle, entangled in a very complicated situation. Finally, we will learn more about their respective romantic relationships.
Sara, you play an autistic Asperger’s. How did you prepare for your role?
SM: As I always study my texts in a café, I started by frequenting the Café Joyeux de Paris, one of these solidarity establishments which contribute to the professional inclusion of people with mental and cognitive disabilities. There work neuro-atypical, autistic, trisomic. The establishment has a library of books on all these disabilities that I read in its entirety, at the rate of two books a day. I also worked on my text there while observing these people, because I didn’t want to betray them!
During your meetings at the social skills workshop, who are the actors around you?
SM: At the beginning, it was about classic actors, but today, the group is mainly composed of autistic actors, except for Max (Clément Lagouarde). Many of them come from the Théâtre du Cristal workshop in Éragny sur Oise (Ile-de-France), a troupe of neuro-atypical actors.
Lola, we feel a great chemistry between Astrid and Raphaëlle. Did you know each other before?
LD: We got to know each other on set. I first wanted to discover Sara in her neuro-atypical role, not otherwise. I worked on my character while I was filming. I knew what autism was because I had already seen reports on the subject, nothing more. I wanted to arrive “virgin” in the matter, as was the character of Raphaëlle.
Can you improvise from time to time?
LD: We spent the first weeks playing without Astrid looking Raphaëlle in the eye. So we had to sharpen our other senses. This induced a demand for listening between the two of us which laid the foundations for trust and mutual goodwill. As a result, we jostle a little in improvisations. There are a lot of them in all the episodes. We both love to surprise each other!
This article appeared in the Telepro of 11/5/2023