Few shows exude such sincerity. Such power. After season 11 of Naked and cheeky completed last summer with a record audience (1.19 million viewers on average), the two adventurers leave Lyon for the forests of Morvan. With a poetic and philosophical dream in mind: “meet the big bad wolf and change the ending of the story”. This journey gives free rein to moving and striking testimonies of humanity, of people at a pivotal moment in their existence or damaged by life. A beautiful, useful and meaningful show, carried by the benevolence of its tandem.
Télé-Loisirs: How do you choose the themes for each show?
Dwarfs : When you start, you just have a dream, no theme. Here, people have responded by sharing with us the Little Red Riding Hoods they have been in their lives, both in their relationships and in events. It’s a bit of the magic of Naked and cheekywe meet people and the common thread appears at the end.
Mouts: We arrive with a certain vulnerability, without clothes or money. We need a shower, a toothbrush. In this exposure, there is a sort of mirror effect where people relax, drop their masks, and dare to talk a little more about themselves. Their difficulties, their trials stand out. There aren’t many people who aren’t beaten down by life, and that’s what makes us beautiful. In everyday life, at work or at home, you have to be dressed to the nines and succeed. The show is for them a space that seems to be new, to be human, to be themselves, with their cracks.
“We are neither therapists nor saviors”
Naked and cheekyit’s also a dive into France that we don’t talk about…
Dwarfs : It is a current photograph of France, the one which opens its door. The relationship necessarily begins with an act of trust: picking us up on a hitchhike, opening the door to their house… These people dare to trust the unknown. We discover a very ordinary but extraordinary world in terms of generosity. An invisible France, which makes no noise but is there, and even a humanity, different from that which we see every day. I love the human biodiversity found in Naked and cheeky. We also keep a table with all our meetings, there are about 2,000 of them.
You come across some upsetting testimonies, including Cédric who confides in you that he plans to end his life. How do you react at these times?
Dwarfs : It puts us in an extremely complicated position, as if we were seeing someone being attacked. In this case, he had changed his point of view when we left him. We take on people’s emotional burden. We have to be solid and in our place. We are neither therapists nor saviors. We come to glean stories.
Mouts: There is a form of synchronicity. People need to meet us, as Charlène Gravel, with whom we have been working since the beginning, says. The “we” is not Nans and Mouts. They are ready for a meeting that will make a big impact in their lives, a breath of fresh air. It is as if there was a great architect or a tour operator who organized all this. We need to meet these people and they too.
Since last season, you have moved to a 90-minute format. Why this change?
Dwarfs : After a while, we didn’t get home in 52 minutes. Over time, our trips remained the same length, around two weeks, but we learned to film better, to better capture these moments. The density became such that it became like zapping during editing with this initial format. We wanted to settle in a lot more in these meetings.
Mouts: We became aware of this in season 10, when we met Stéphane, in Objectif Hautes-Alpes: concerto for a glacier. He was an alcoholic and drunk the night we met him. he told us about his suffering, the rape he suffered at eight years old, his divorce… If we had only provided this material, it would have been a blessing for clichés and judgment. Whereas if we encounter it in its nuances, its subtleties, we understand it much better. We aim for public compassion.
“Nans likes to say that we have moved from civil engineering to human engineering”
When asked “what do you consider the big bad wolf?”, the first young woman who testified answered “a man”. Did that surprise you?
Mouts: It’s funny to hear, but it’s her reality and it’s great that she’s named. This is the testimony of this young woman. It wasn’t premeditated at all. This testimony helped raise awareness about the condition of women in the 21st century. As men, this is not the experiment we’re conducting. I like this episode because it shows a glimmer of hope. If a woman says that to two men dressed only in a few branches, it’s because there is a dialogue.
The idea of a Naked and cheeky is it still in the pipeline?
Dwarfs : Yes, it is still a dream that we carry, I hope that it will come true one day. To date, more than 20 pairs of women have tried leaving naked and without money, and have returned safe and sound to France. To my knowledge, there are therefore more women than men who have tried the experience. Naked and cheeky.
Do you ever see all these people you meet again?
Dwarfs : Fairly little. We must have seen five or six of them again. In these trips, we make a commitment to give everything to these people during the time we spend with them.
Mouts: It is a moment of truth, and afterwards everyone goes back to their lives, enriched by these moments. Nans likes to say that we have moved from civil engineering [ils sont ingénieurs de formation, ndlr] to human genius.
How long do you take to prepare a show?
Mouts: Not long. The theme can be found in a few hours, the material comes together in just as little time. On the other hand, our job is to clear the air inside, make ourselves available as much as possible, and open our hearts to welcome people as they are. Getting naked physically takes a few seconds, while getting naked in the heart is another job. The one of a lifetime.
“In 12 years, we have never been fined”
Are people recognizing you more and more?
Mouts: We do slalom. When people recognize us, we happily spend five minutes with them, and we turn off the cameras. We only go to people who don’t recognize us.
Dwarfs : Pour Mystery Objectivemany people recognized us and the others did not accept to host us. We slept outside, in a children’s park, then on top of a building. So it is more difficult for us now. It is paradoxical: we sleep outside because we are more known.
In 12 seasons, you have also evolved technically…
Dwarfs : We started the show with two cameras on the backpack, and one handheld. Then came the GoPro, used in cars, underwater…. Then came a drone, and finally an iPhone with a special lens for macro. [autrement dit pour filmer de près, ndlr]We go from the little ant to drone images.
Have you ever had problems with law enforcement?
Mouts: In this trip starting in Lyon, we were on the forecourt of Fourvière and we were getting ready to get naked. We are extremely vulnerable at that moment, even if it is the 42nd or 43rd time we do it. We then met a brigade of the municipal police. We talked with them. They recognized us. They told us: “Don’t worry, we know, if there is a phone call, we will reassure people”. In 12 years, we have never been fined, only stopped a few times. But since each time we were in plant loincloths or tarpaulins, we were within the law. Very often, we quickly become familiar with them. There is a uniform but a human behind it. That is who we are talking to. Our job is to meet the intimate, so we cannot stop at caps.
Dwarfs : Two or three brigades in a row asked us if we could take photos with them!
“It took my brain a while to figure out how to get back to a sedentary lifestyle with bills to pay.”
Did you expect such longevity?
Dwarfs : Every season we think it’s the last. Naked and cheeky, it is a fixed-term contract renewed each year. Every time we take a trip, we take it as the last of our lives. We do not have a careerist vision of our profession. It’s a passion that we nourish as long as it’s alive.
How does the return to normal life go afterward?
Dwarfs : It’s gymnastics. It took my brain a while to understand how to get back into a sedentary lifestyle, with bills to pay and a different relationship with time. On the road, we don’t plan ahead. When I go home, it usually takes three days for me to emerge.
How do you position yourself in relation to I will sleep at your house ?
Dwarfs : He’s an uncle, he opened the way. He travels with a backpack and money. He will sleep with locals or otherwise at a hotel. We are more wandering.
Mouts: We don’t even have a toothbrush! We don’t realize to what extent this object is part of our lives, it’s almost an extension of the body.
