casting directors don’t want to see me anymore”

A role in a phenomenon series is a blessing and a curse. It propels as much as it marks with a seal. However, it only takes one day with Camille Razat, and a little curiosity, to understand the extent of her universe: if she loves fashion, the young thirty-year-old is also addicted to video games, practices boxing and is passionate about for the films of Yórgos Lánthimos, Ruben Östlund or Andrea Arnold. Emily in Paris is not his life.

“The Emily label doesn't bother me at all and has opened an insane number of doors for me. But the series is part of an augmented, fantasized reality, and involves an almost grandiloquent game. It's the very opposite of French auteur cinema, and it sometimes works against me: casting directors no longer want to see me. But I stay my course, and I am lucky that some people think beyond prejudices.

Directors Valentin and Frédéric Potier were right in perceiving her as a tragedian and a hard worker more than a fashion influencer. In Prodigious, Camille Razat and Mélanie Robert play two musicians inspired by the Pleynet twins, piano prodigies whose rise was halted by an orphan illness affecting them one after the other. Refusing a future without music, they invented a technique allowing them to play with four hands, sharing the scores.

“The classical world is not mine, I rather listen to rap, and I am not a musician. I was starting from zero. I had an understudy, but I followed eight months of training with coach Claire Viain to learn the hand choreographies.” The preparation is all the more pleasant as she and her partner have been friends for ten years. A happy coincidence of casting.

Shining a light on women

“What struck me about this film was the play of mirrors, between the sisters, between Mélanie and me, between the directors who are father and son. It is also a luminous story about resilience and hope, which asks these essential questions: what happens when health robs you of your reason for living? How to transcend pain? Sisterhood is one of the answers here, and, in such an individualistic world, I find it important to value mutual aid and emulation.” The notion of collective is dear to him. Two years ago, Camille Razat founded Tazar, a company with which she produces short films, commercials and clips.

“The acting profession is quite solitary, you are always waiting for the phone to ring, you are available. I wanted to be a driving force, involved with people whose talent and outlook I admire.” Which is naturally inclusive. “Highlighting women in the stories we tell or in our teams is essential: I am surrounded by brilliant female directors and cinematographers. But parity is balance. I also want to carry the voices of men who interest me, and the voices of everyone in between. »

She has, for example, produced a short on abortion, supported films in Wolof, Russian, English or French to represent all the faces of the world, and, via her own music label called Soupire Records, accompanies Gennre, a group with a meaningful name set up by relatives. She also wrote her first short film before moving on to a feature film. A way, perhaps, to open eyes to one's creativity and desires? “This is by no means what Tazar is all about, but being proactive in your career can't hurt. In France, we are used to putting people in boxes, and I refuse to let myself be locked up. I want to play characters that help me evolve as an actress and as a human being.”

In The Missing from the station, Disney+ miniseries directed by Virginie Sauveur, she will be the investigator in charge of the Jacques Rançon affair, the killer at the Perpignan station who raped and murdered young girls before removing their breasts and genitals. Also to follow, Nero, a medieval anticipation series for Netflix in which she will play a witch alongside Pio Marmaï. “I only make my choices when I fall in love, not because there is a check or so-and-so in the casting. Fear is also my driving force. I favor challenge over comfort, which presents a risk of repetition and weariness.”

This barometer has always been hers: Camille Razat welcomes with open arms whatever life places in her path. A model since the age of 2, she dreamed of being a war reporter as a teenager. But at 18, she came across a Facebook ad for Cours Florent and decided to try it on a whim, to discover, get out of her natural modesty.

“As a child, I loved dressing up, putting on shows with my friends, but acting was not a vocation. I don't come from a family of artists either (his father works in aeronautics, his mother is a sophrologist, Editor's note). It was by doing, by working, that I fell in love with this profession, that I found my calling. My voice too.”

An agent spotted her thanks to Shérazade Benaddi, casting director at the school. Very quickly, Camille landed roles on TV and in the cinema (Rock’n’roll, by Guillaume Canet, Love is a party, with Canet and Gilles Lellouche, 3:17 p.m. for Paris, by Clint Eastwood). With The Old Blonde Jew, she dares to go solo, a dizzying and demanding exercise which, at only 24 years old, already illustrates her courage and depth. “I was obsessed with this text by Amanda Sthers since Cours Florent. This experience was educational and exciting. And painful, because lonely.”

During our Parisian stroll, she naturally cites the Théâtre des Mathurins as a cornerstone of her journey, before guiding us to the other places in the capital that she cherishes. “In Montberon, near Toulouse, I dreamed of Paris. It was Disneyland for me. Today, it's my home. I love the cultural richness of this city, but also its harshness in human relationships. I prefer that to superficiality, to pretense. But I grew up in the countryside and only one thing is missing: a nearby anchor to breathe better from time to time, and disconnect from this energy-consuming daily life.”

Prodigiousby Frédéric and Valentin Potier, with Camille Razat, Mélanie Robert, Isabelle Carré…
Emily in Parisseason 4, on Netflix.