Patrick Nebout, at the heart of this new plot of “Plus belle la vie” – Screenshot / Salto
“I always dreamed of hitting a cop. These words are those of the aggressor of Patrick Nebout, one of the key characters of More beautiful life. The police commander will be the victim of a rape in one of the scenes of the 4.268th episode, broadcast this evening on France 3. Despite its seventeen years of existence, this is the first time that the series will address the issue. sexual violence against men.
At the microphone Europe 1, the producer Géraldine Gendre indicated that the idea of this intrigue was born from the reading of a portrait of the journalist Marine Turchi, who in particular investigated #MeToo. “Out of all the testimonies that she could receive, there were 20% of testimonies of male victims, which is a novelty, testifies the producer. When we realized that this liberation of speech with women also allowed a liberation of speech with men, we said to ourselves that it was time to talk about it, because a breach opened. “
“It shook me quite a bit”
The choice of the character of Patrick Nebout, a cop appreciated by everyone, heterosexual and father of a family is not trivial. The will of the authors of the series: to explain that it can happen to anyone. The actor Jérôme Bertin also spoke with five male victims of rape in order to best carry this intrigue. “It’s so difficult to play things like that, because you get naked. It shook me quite a bit, I was not in my normal state during the shooting, I was very involved and one of the consequences was that I had trouble sleeping, ”the actor confided to the microphone. by Philippe Vandel.
This plot is expected to span several weeks and the reconstruction of this character, who has just learned that he will be a grandfather for the first time, will be at the center of the episodes to come.