It was on October 11 that TF1 launched its brand new entertainment program. Baptized The Game Masterit is a major investigation carried out by twelve personalities invited to a castle, all under the mischievous eye of Laurent Ruquier. Their objective: to find the identity of the mysterious host of the place. To help them, they had to find clues gleaned from the castle or distilled during tests. But to make the game a little more difficult, the Master of the house had appointed an accomplice – Max Boublil – in order to divert suspicion towards false leads. Having reached the final, Valérie Damidot confided in Tele-Leisure on this extraordinary adventure.
“I always put affect before everything else“: Valérie Damidot discusses her strategy in The Game Master on TF1
Tele-Leisure : Why did you agree to participate in this major survey?
Valérie Damidot: I love police investigations, I spend my life reading thrillers and watching detective series. I have always loved playing Cluedo with my children. I think the idea of finding yourself in a big Cluedo is great. And then, there are friends in it. I immediately said yes. Frankly, I would have been very stupid not to accept!
You all quickly got into the game…
We were like crazy. You can't see it but we were cross-checking the clues on the board for hours! We were having trouble. Elsa (Bois, editor’s note) made lists non-stop. But sometimes, I told myself that I should have been the Game Master's accomplice, I would have worried less.
“It's not him I'm mad at but me“: Valérie Damidot reacts to the role of Max Boublil's accomplice in The Game Master
You know certain candidates very well, like Arnaud Ducret, his wife Claire and or even Max Boublil. Doesn’t that bias your judgment?
I was so into the investigation in first degree mode. When I knew there was an accomplice, I told myself that it would be biased because I always put affect before everything else. I'm almost 60 years old and I still get fooled. (She laughs.) It doesn't matter. But Max still pays for it…
Oh yes ?
You speak! We watched the final together tonight. Max, he's my friend. I don't blame him. It's me who I blame, for being so stupid and to have forgotten that he was an actor and that he was totally capable of playing a trickster! He admitted afterwards, it was complicated to lie to people he knows well. Afterwards, he abused my maternal side so much with everyone. But he also tricked Elsa!
Did you ever have any doubts about him?
Sometimes I thought it was weird. But he was not so bad and other candidates screwed up tests, like Frédéric Diefenthal or Francis Perrin, who are given the good Lord without confession.
Did any personalities surprise you in the game?
Elsa Bois was the youngest, but she is super lively, a good friend, friendly. I think that for her, it was hard at the beginning because she had to tell herself that she was in an EHPAD! She adapted in two minutes, it's a real proof of intelligence. And she was always first grade, like Claire Francisi-Ducret and me. I loved this kid! The girls, more than the boys in fact, were all in, we didn't stop, we were obsessed with the clues.
“There were clues common to several personalities“: Valérie Damidot explains the stratagems of the production of Game Master to confuse them in their investigation
Were you surprised when you discovered the identity of the Game Master?
Until the end, we have twists and turns because it's a very well-made game. There were clues common to several personalities. That's why it wasn't as simple as we thought. We went back every reel. Until the last moment, we weren't sure of anything. And the accomplice comes to disrupt everything. We no longer had certainty. We spent hours in front of this damn painting! (She laughs.)
And how did you react upon the revelation?
We were just waiting for that, to know who had been torturing us for eight days. We were very happy and at the same time a little sad that it had to stop because it was a big police colony. We could have made a series in twelve episodes like Arabesque.
