It seems that you studied marketing before becoming an actress!
Sarah Fitri: Yes, I did a bachelor’s degree in business school after my baccalaureate. I think I studied to please my parents. Commerce seemed nice to me, I would be able to interact with people. After my studies, I managed a store in Saint-Tropez for a year, but I got tired of it. I had a job in a great environment but I was unhappy. I asked myself what I wanted to do with my life. I always wanted to be an actress but I never dared to admit it to myself. I didn’t feel like I was legitimate for this job because I didn’t come from a family of artists. I was a little afraid, especially of my parents’ reaction. But my desire was becoming visceral. I packed my things and returned to Lyon to enroll in a theater school. At first, I didn’t even tell my parents and I went to class in secret! And one day at the table, I told them that I had something to tell them. They looked at me and asked me what was going through my head to do theater when I had paid for business school!
The comedy world is still particularly difficult…
Yes because there is nothing certain. At times you work a lot, and sometimes not at all and you don’t know until when. This is what is really complicated mentally and financially.
Have you prepared yourself for this rather special aspect of the job?
Yes, after Here it all begins…t even during the series. When I found out I was leaving, I told myself I was going to return to real life. Here it all beginsit’s a bubble in fact. We are really in another world and I knew that what happened next was going to be different. I had to prepare for it even if we are never completely prepared. Frankly, the backlash was terrible! From one day to the next, you no longer perform like before. With Here it all beginswe know each month when we are filming. There, we had to readjust, wait again, in the castings. It really wasn’t easy and I’m not the only one in the series to have experienced this. The first few weeks were really complicated, but it ended up getting better. Thank God I had other projects behind.
Having had the chance to visit the Château de Calvières which hosts the filming in Saint-Laurent d’Aigouze, we actually feel a bit like being in a cocoon!
Yes ! And when we are there, we even live in the village. Everything is happening there! But it was really a great experience.
Sarah Fitri cash on the “daily series” label because ofHere it all begins
In an interview with Télé 7 Jours last September, Mikaël Mittelstadt said that by “leaving the fold, he was afraid of being labeled a daily series actor”. He also said he had comments on this subject during certain castings. Have you experienced the same thing?
Yes. During certain castings, there are thoughts like: “Ah, you play in that?“. Some are very condescending. But a daily series is real work! I even think that it is easier to shoot for the cinema than for such a series. I even know it, because I did the two. In the cinema, you have one scene, sometimes two, to shoot during the day while it can go up to seven in a day and you never stop learning texts!
How do you feel when you leave a series like this? Exhausted?
After I left, I had a problem with my eye. I think my body really gave up on me. When you’re in the series, you don’t realize how tired you are. The first weeks after the end ofITCI only slept! I love sleeping, but this was terrible! I had a coma and it did me good (laughs)! It’s only afterwards that you realize that everything was too much and that it was very busy. But I’m not complaining, we still had a good life in the series!
You played a patient in a psychiatric institute in the series Mental (France.TV Slash), an anti-racist activist in La Fièvre (Canal+), a heroine in a daily series in ITC… You didn’t take the easy route to your start to your career!
Pour Feverthe character wasn’t difficult, but the subject was. In my texts to learn, there were terms that I didn’t know at all and that I had never used in my life! It took me a while to learn it. Mental, it was my very first experience as an actress. It was my theater school teacher who advised me to take the casting organized in Lyon. I had 11 days of filming and I was so happy because I had no experience at all! On the other hand, there are scenes today that I cannot watch again because I find myself terrible in them. This is normal at first. I played a slightly depressed girl with her gothic look. I didn’t even think about his dark side because I just told myself that I was going through something crazy! I like to play what is ultimately the opposite of me. In life, I am very sunny and I like to laugh. Playing the villain, the pest or the bitch, it makes me feel so good! I can let go (laughs)!
So you must have been served with Marta in Here it all begins!
Especially at the end, when it rocks! But I loved it!
If I could offer you the role of your dreams, what would it be? A completely crazy serial killer?
I never thought of such a character, but why not (laughs)! What I would really like is to work in a very psychological project, a bit like the film Gone Girl (by David Fincher) with a very manipulative character and a truth that is only really revealed at the end.
Sarah Fitri’s comedy projects
And currently, what are your projects?
I go to castings and I write. I started writing little sketches, jokes that make me laugh and that come to me like that. I love it even if I don’t know if I would have the courage to go all the way and go on stage. Maybe I would just write for other people. But I want to laugh and make people laugh.
Would you like to direct?
No way ! I thought about it but it’s too much stress, too much to manage! I am very lazy by nature so I could never achieve it! Write a script and leave it to a director, yes. But realize, no, no, no and no. There you go, I think the answer is clear (laughs).
You also like to sing. If we contact you to join Tout pour la Lumière, the new daily series from TF1 and Netflix, will you sign?
If it’s a daily one, no. Impossible ! I can’t now that I know what it is and how long it will take me. I want to grow professionally and personally. If I star in such a series, I won’t have time to find love, build my life or have children. So no. But I’m not against singing in another project.
For example in entertainment like Star Academy or The Voice?
I’m too stressed in life to do such shows. Waiting for the results every Saturday to find out if we vote for you or not… No, I can’t! And I don’t like the concept of being judged either. But bravo to those who have the courage to do it. I would love to sing for a role. Maybe one day I’ll play Rihanna, I don’t know. I hope that by then, my voice will have returned (Sarah had the flu during our interview, editor’s note)!
