“I lost 10 kilos on set”

Samuel Le Bihan plays the skipper of the Vendée Globe in a TV film which recounts the last crazy race of navigator Yves Parlier.

FTV

Published on 04/11/2024 at 10:00

By Lenny Verhelle

PourCiné-Télé-Revue

Back in November 2000. Yves Parlier, exceptional sailor, is back on the starting line to race his third Vendée Globe. To be the first to finish this solo sailing trip around the world, without stopovers or assistance, the modern-day Robinson Crusoe in a dream! But this time his quest is not going to go as planned at all…

Powered by a very strong wind on raging seas, the favorite of the race will be the victim of what is called a “dismasting”, in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In three pieces, the broken mast of his boat no longer allows him to move forward. But there is no question for Yves to give up! The rest, you will realize in “Seul”, the France2 biopic (also broadcast in preview on Sunday on RTBF), is an achievement.

“It’s not a film about sailing, it’s a film about courage,” proclaims Samuel Le Bihan, who plays the skipper. “The idea was to do a kind of study on the determination of a being alone in the face of the elements, and of everything he does to survive. »

For the star of the series “Alex Hugo”, “a man is defined through his courage, his sincerity, his commitment, his loyalty”, and Yves Parlier cultivates, precisely, all of these values that he likes to defend. “He is one of those inspiring people who speak to us, and who we inevitably want to be like. »

He lost 10 kilos

Physically, however, it was not an easy task. “I lost ten kilos on this shoot,” Samuel told us at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival last June. “With the hollowing of the cheeks and the growing beard, you can clearly see the fatigue on the face, and there was no makeup artist! (Laughs.) No hairdresser, either. What we were looking for was the truth. We wanted to tell the public something that was the most sincere, the most true, the most authentic. » Mission accomplished! Not without difficulty. “It’s, by far, the hardest shoot I’ve had so far,” admits Samuel.

“It was extremely difficult. We were a very small team, we brought back the images we could, piecemeal. The sea conditions are really special. Generally, in this job, you set up your camera, you create the environment. There, it’s the environment that creates you, because the boat is in the wind, it’s moving forward… so we had to constantly adapt. It required a lot of energy to be very present all the time. Sailing rinses you off! »

And he tells us, half amused, an anecdote that he could have done without: “I was seasick for a whole day. I was playing, I was going to throw up, I was playing, I was going to throw up… I was exhausted, I couldn’t take it anymore, it was hell. But hey, we had to hold on until the end! Today, I am quite proud of the result. The film is very lively, very moving, with scenes where I am alone, obviously, but what’s nice is that we don’t get bored, because it’s above all an adventure story.” , which is also validated by Yves Parlier in person, whom Samuel only met after filming. “He saw the final copy, he really liked it! He found it very fair, and considered that we had done a good job, that we were in the truth of what he had experienced. »

“Alone”, November 4, 9 p.m., France 2.