“Cat's Eyes”, from anime to TV series

After forty years of success throughout the world in manga and cartoon (“anime” in Japanese), “Cat's Eyes” by Japanese Tsukasa Hôjô has been adapted into a series. She arrives on TF1 this Monday, November 11. These eight episodes were directed by Alexandre Laurent, to whom we owe “Les Combattantes” and “Le Bazar de la charité”, huge successes for the channel in recent years. We also find in the main roles Camille Lou, star of these two series, as well as two other actresses regulars of the channel, Constance Labbé, playing Captain Camille Costes in “Balthazar” alongside Tomer Sisley, and Claire Romain , playing Ambre Martin in “Here it all begins”. The trio of Chamade sisters from “Cat's Eyes” is thus constituted.

The series therefore traces the adventures of these three sisters: Alexia (Claire Romain), Tam (Camille Lou) and Sylia (Constance Labbé), who reunite after years of separation. At the same time, a work that belonged to their father, who had disappeared ten years earlier in the mysterious fire of his art gallery, resurfaced during a prestigious exhibition at the Eiffel Tower. They then decide to take all the risks to steal it in the hope of finally understanding what happened to it.

We met the actress Constance Labbé who told us about her experience on this shoot.

Did you know the animated series “Cat’s Eyes”?

No not at all. It was surely the generation before mine who was able to see the cartoon. For me it was more “Nicky Larson”.

When you were offered this role, did you accept right away?

So, no, because I am very thoughtful, I always ask myself a lot of questions. This series required a lot of availability and a very significant commitment. It's also a daring project that mixes real action scenes, great entertainment, and which deeply develops the bonds between three sisters.

Who is Sylia, the eldest of the three Chamade sisters?

Already, it's a situation that I know well because I myself have three brothers, except that I am the last. I had to be credible as a big sister, with the responsibility that that implies, which is reminiscent of that of a mother. Sylia must have grown up much faster than other girls her age because, from the age of 19, she took care of her sisters. She was unable to flourish in her work or in her private life. She showed great self-sacrifice, which made her a little too rigid and sad. She has a hard time getting out of this role. More thoughtful than her little sisters, she is in a way the one who puts the brakes on their decisions made a little too quickly. But Sylia has one important quality: knowing how to question herself. She will evolve as the story progresses, even if it means making important decisions that she would never have made before.

The general public is often unaware of the prior preparation for an actor before a shoot. There are a lot of physical performances here, so how did you prepare for this role?

I'm lucky because I'm already athletic, I just adapted my usual practice, with muscle strengthening for example. I took aikido lessons because my character must know how to fight well. Even though there were professional stunt doubles and stuntmen, I had to have a good knowledge of the movements. And all three of us had climbing training in order to better understand vertigo and working with ropes. I had never done one.

And it was very nice because it allowed us to meet each other before filming. We stuck together in difficult situations. We shot 40 meters high above the Monnaie de Paris in the middle of the night in the rain, and I had to fall several meters. And then we had the privilege of running into the deserted Louvre museum at 3 a.m.

This series is an international production, with Amazon in particular. The exposure, particularly in the media, that she will have will be enormous. Does this scare you?

Yes, it's scary and I'm not very comfortable with it. But this may ultimately allow us to be able to work with people to whom we would not otherwise have access. I hope that audiences will like this series, here and elsewhere, but I prefer not to anticipate.

But, when you are an actor, you still seek notoriety…

There are people who like it but, for me, I find that it's just the price to pay, even if people are generally very nice.