In May 2001, the CEO of TF1 described M6 and its new show as “trash TV” in The World . It must be said that Loft Story shakes up the audiences of the first channel. Liar poker at the time between TF1 and M6, behind the scenes of the making of Loft Storythe negotiations with the CSA, this is the fascinating story of Worship, this series in six episodes which is released on Prime Video, with actors who play doubles of Loana, Benjamin Castaldi, Alexia Laroche-Joubert. Also the rise of an ambitious young producer, and genius ideas that emerge, like during casting.
“There was this idea at one point to draw inspiration from the codes of the sitcom of Hélène and the boys_,_ explain the screenwriters Matthieu Rumani and Nicolas Slomka. The loft owners had to be sitcom archetypes: the hunky bourgeois, the party-loving country girl. But where they got smart is that these aren’t single-layered archetypes. She’s not the bimbo, she’s the bimbo with the big heart.” And this is how Loana and Jean-Guillaume are cast.
A series also with keys, where we have fun recognizing the former bosses of the major chains. Matthieu Rumani and Nicolas Slomka, the screenwriters say: “We created a boss of TF1 who is a bit of a fusion of Patrick Le Lay, Etienne Mougeotte. At the head of M6, our Stanislas Beaupré, it is a mixture of Alexis Gemini, and Thomas Valentin.”
It is Anaïde Rozam who plays the character inspired by producer Alexia Laroche-Joubert. The young actress knew nothing about Loft Story : “I was four years old at the time, in 2001, and besides, I didn’t know who Alexia Laroche-Joubert was when I discovered the script. I watched a lot of archives, interviews with her. For example, he’s a character who ends his sentences with a particular way of saying the A’s.”
The series focuses less on the fate of the loft makers than on the behind-the-scenes production, when some in the team are disturbed by what they watch 24 hours a day, like the editors of daily broadcasts. “They spent 12 hours a day watching the lofters and actually, underlines co-writer Nicolas Slomka_, they no longer left the offices, because they didn’t want to. They wanted to continue to see what was happening in the lives of these lofters. And so, we created the character of Karim to embody that.”_
Worshipa fascinating series behind the scenes of French television, six episodes on Prime VIdeo.
