The man of our lives (M6): “A horror!” Héléna Noguerra returns to this particularly difficult scene to shoot in the series

When four women are cheated by the same man, female solidarity can become a weapon of mass destruction! Alongside Odile Vuillemin, Élodie Frégé (who made tender confidences about her lover) and Flora Bonaventura, Helena Noguerraalias Mathilde, will learn it the hard way in The man of our livesthe new series of M6 to discover from this Thursday, November 24 as a bonus (our opinion) and available on Salto in full. Free, elegant and sexy, she assumes her age and her desire to rebuild her life, while carefully taking on her role as a mother struggling with the outbursts of her teenage daughter. Until the day when, on Tinder, she meets a certain Roman, played by Jonathan Zaccaï (The office of legends) – came to replace Ary Abittan accused of rape and assault during filming. A mini series inspired by several news items.

“It was very happy to be together“

Télé-Loisirs: Did you already know your female partners?

Helena Noguerra : I knew Elodie Frégé whom I like very much, as well as Odile (Vuillemin) for having filmed a long time ago in Profiling. There was a lot of solidarity between us. Already because we are four quality girls (she laughs), but also because actors often adopt relationships similar to those of their characters. It must help us for the game. It was very happy to be together.

And Jonathan Zaccai?

As we are both Belgian, we had already met a few times at parties. He is an excellent actor, who plays trickery with great finesse!

How did you experience the eviction in the middle of filmingAry Abittaninitially planned in place of Jonathan Zaccaï?

It was. I don’t know what more I can say.

The series starts with the idea that there is no love without taking risks. Do you validate?

No doubt… What do I think of love? In fact, I’m still very embarrassed to express myself in the style press: “Helena Noguerra and her great ideas about life!”. The more time passes, the more I find that we actors are a bit ridiculous in having ideas about everything, especially on such deep subjects. Over time, I am more and more won over by humility.

“I was the oldest, but also the quietest… apparently“

Your character seems to resonate with the smile and the sweetness that you let appear. Is this the word of Prévert: “let’s try to be happy if only to set an example” ?

Each of us entered her character with her baggage, I must have arrived with that one, indeed. In the gang of four, I was the oldest, but also the quietest… apparently. It’s a form of politeness for others, but also for me. In life, I try to see pretty things and often they are. If I were a woman in Iran, I would have reason to be enraged and desperate. Without being blissfully smiling, in the face of your little misfortunes, you sometimes have to look at those of others. I would add that it is thanks to the psychological and material comfort from which I benefit that I can achieve this.

Mathilde lives alone with her daughter. Again, have you let up the mother that you are in life?

It’s a mother that I can be, it’s true. Even if it’s written very nicely that way, apart from the conflicting clichés of adolescence. Mathilde is a free woman, who flirts on Tinder and assumes her sexuality. Her daughter doesn’t blame her, except when she brings a guy home: there, it’s the child who becomes the parent.

What memory do you keep of your midnight swim with Johathan Zaccaï?

A horror ! We shot this scene in November, in the suburbs of Paris, it was very cold, it was terrible!

Did your beginnings in modeling help you better experience nudity scenes by considering your body as a work tool?

Not really. There are girls who refuse to pose naked or topless. I didn’t have that modesty. But it is the use of the female body that is painful. My father refused that I do beauty contests, for example, he did not want me to be judged on my physique. I would kindly do without these scenes, but it is also a question of survival in this environment where I perhaps did not have the courage according to some, or the opportunity according to others, to refuse at the risk of work less. I try to be factual and to understand the society in which I live. All of this makes up my career, which sometimes plays on the plastic. I don’t feel brainless though, and it would still be very inappropriate for me to file a complaint! (she laughs)

“I don’t want to be ashamed of my age“

How do you experience the MeToo movement?

I find it moving and wonderful. My generation had fallen asleep a little over the battles won by our mothers: the pill, abortion, the bank account… Everything we believed to be freedom, while going through certain events suffering without understanding why. The young women who are rising up today are saying stop and, by taking our hands, they are giving us back momentum. And I’m very happy that the men have joined us, because they realize that the world allowed them to be oppressors and that we let it happen. We live in an anxiety-provoking era, but great in terms of awareness.

Is it true that when someone says to you: “I don’t give you your 53 years” you answer: “But why are you taking them away from me!” ?

Yes, because they are mine, I earned them. Giving a compliment in the form of disguised ageism irritates me deeply. Even if it can penalize me, I say my age by provocation, I don’t want to be ashamed. I feel beautiful and I want people to think I’m pretty like when you say to George Clooney that aging suits him well. Better to rejoice over what you gain than to cry over what you lose.

Actress, author, singer… Are these different modes of expression a way of not submitting to labels?

I was raised by great intellectuals who, when I was little, were for me in a chapel. There was judgment. It was better to read Thomas Bernhard thanAngelique Marquise of the Angels so I very quickly wanted to break down borders and travel from caste to caste. In my own way, I participated in the idea that a girl could trade in her beauty, but also write books, plays and work for subsidized theater while making TV movies on TF1. It was difficult, it still is and, at the same time, there is great joy in daring. My talent is to have nerve. When I was a model, I was told one day: “find yourself a rich man because you won’t do anything afterwards”. Well no! (she laughs). I tell men, women, children: be rebellious!

Have you transmitted this philosophy to your son and, one day, to your grandson?

I hope it passes! Insubordination is the family spirit!