Marie Colomb in “Culte”: “It was a lot of pressure to play Loana”

The resemblance is uncanny. This Friday, October 18, Amazon Prime is broadcasting Worshipthe highly anticipated series on the birth of “Loft Story”, the first reality TV in France. In the role of Loana, the big winner of the program, we find Marie Colomb, who delivers a stunning performance. With her platinum blonde hair, her crochet crop tops and her skin-deep sensitivity, the brunette and petite actress in real life portrays a larger-than-life Loana. And even if the actress revealed by the series Laetitia on France 2 was only 6 years old at the time of “Loft Story”, she admits to having been marked by the story of this young unknown who became in just a few weeks a star that everyone was chasing.

In six episodes, Matthieu Rumani and Nicolas Slomka, the creators and screenwriters of Worshiptakes us behind the eventful and exciting behind the scenes of the creation of the first French-style confinement reality TV show, where 11 single people cut off from the world are filmed 24 hours a day. Or how three producers – including Alexia Laroche-Joubert who n It was then that a young project manager – managed in less than four months to put this show on the air when everyone was against them…

Slipping into Loana’s shoes is quite a challenge. Did you hesitate before saying yes?

It was a lot of pressure to play Loana, it’s true. But I really wanted to do it because the script was very well written. Above all, I found that Loana was very well represented. It was an essential condition for me. I was also reassured because I had already worked with director Louis Farge and his team. I had complete confidence in their professional and human qualities.

I had fake nails and fake breasts.

Marie Colomb

How did you slip into Loana’s shoes?

There have been some physical changes (Laughs). I had bleached my hair blonde for the casting. Then they shaved part of my eyebrows, put in contacts and tanned my whole body. I had fake nails and fake breasts. When I was a little naked, I wore a prosthesis which required three hours of break daily. Otherwise, we stuffed the bra.

Does it allow you to enter the character?

Totally. Plus, it’s physically the opposite of who I am.

Even in the diction, the resemblance to Loana is uncanny…

I worked with a coach who helped me a lot. At first, I was lost, because I had never played an existing character and whom I had to imitate, in a way. She told me I didn’t have her voice, but I could see where she was putting it. It helped me a lot because I had the impression that Loana placed her voice in her throat a lot. I practiced a lot on diction and how to move.

She dreams of meeting Loana

Have you met Loana?

I really wanted to meet her, but we couldn’t find the right time. Afterwards, she participated in the series, spoke with the authors and the director, and sold the rights to her book. In reality, I didn’t need to meet her for my work, I just really wanted to. I hope it will happen one day.

Loana is a touching personality, with a real need for love. Is that what makes it fascinating?

Yes. Like many young people, she had a complicated childhood. She really came for a dating show. She was in total innocence, just like the other candidates, because they did not know what awaited them. Loana was really in love with Jean-Edouard. And that was impossible to predict, both for her and for the producers.

Reality TV has too trivialized a certain form of sexist violence.

Marie Colomb

Just like the famous swimming pool scene, which was not avoided either…

If we tell the story of The Loft, it’s inevitable to talk about this scene, because there really was a before and an after. Today, we are used to seeing trashy images, I am thinking in particular of Frenchie Shore . But at the time, it was crazy to enter people’s privacy like that. This had never happened.

How do you view reality TV? Are you a consumer of this type of program?

When I was young, I watched a lot of reality TV, but not anymore. Already because I no longer have television, but above all because there are things that bother me. Not the candidates, even if they have lost authenticity, because they know that they have to respond to a certain request, create clashes, make mistakes. What bothers me the most is the fact that reality TV has too trivialized a certain form of sexist violence. And then we didn’t give enough keys to young people to see it with the right eyes. Especially the media. As it was frowned upon, we didn’t talk about it.

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The role that Alexia Laroche-Joubert played in the creation of “Loft Story” is also very important in the series. What do you think of her?

She is incredible. She is a very strong woman who takes responsibility and has a lot of ambition. At the time, she really fought for the Loft to exist. Alexia Laroche-Joubert recently said in an interview that she was born to eat the world. I think that sums it up pretty well!

And you ?

No, I wasn’t born to eat up the world, but I was born with a lot of ambition (Laughs).