No one has forgotten Annette. His pigtails, his round and colorful glasses and his high-pitched voice brought this cult character into the Pantheon of the 1990s. first kisses, one of the most significant sitcoms of the AB Productions era, Annette was the good friend, a little naive, downright crazy, to whom the worst misadventures happened. She had an unfailing admiration for Roch Voisine (and for Monsieur Girard), and was always ready to help Justine, her best friend.
This role, it is Magalie Madison who carried it, for more than five years, in the first half of the 1990s, on TF1, in the series for teenagers first kisses and its sequel, The college years. The actress will be at the festival Japan Matsurithis weekend, in Montpellier (Hérault), to meet those who loved her so much, on the small screen.
“It was a voice I was doing for fun! »
The crazy story of Annette begins in 1991, during a casting, organized for the creation of a sitcom, telling the love troubles of a band of high school students. “I first had a first test, as I was, without duvets and without glasses, says Magalie Madison, at 20 minutes. Then I was asked to come back. This time, with the complete panoply of the clumsy future high school student of First Kisses, who made the great hours of AB Productions. And above all, by taking this little voice, which has remained famous. “It was a voice that I did for fun, smiles the actress. Initially, they wanted a girl who lisps. But I couldn’t! I felt like I had to reinvent the words, so it wouldn’t sound wrong. I proposed this voice. It made them laugh. And they said to me “You keep that!” I tried something! And it worked.
From the first broadcasts of first kisses, Annette stands out as one of the most popular characters in the series. We laughed when she tried to come between Monsieur and Madame Girard at breakfast time. Or one was moved, when she knew of her thwarted first loves. “I had a lot of fun! “says Magalie Madison, who” took this role to heart. “At the start, my character didn’t have the importance that it had afterwards. I was the good friend. Then, I had more and more text. And my character has grown on the show. As I was having fun, the authors wanted to write, and my role took on more space. »
“It was not planned to become an actress! »
At 18, Magalie Madison, who had already been doing commercials or photography for years, discovered the profession. “Initially, it was not planned for me to become an actress, she laughs. I wanted to do an artistic job. I studied graphic arts. The series, initially, we signed for 52 episodes. “There were… 318. Not counting spin-off series. “We had no idea what it would be like. We didn’t even know, at the time, what that meant, a series for teenagers! »
In the studios of the “Club Dorothée”, in Plaine Saint-Denis, Magalie Madison and her comrades follow the sequences, with a particularly “sustained” rhythm. “It was a lot of work,” she recalls. We filmed a lot, it was quite dense. But, technically, everything was in place for it to be fast. There was very, very little outside footage. We went from one set to another in the same place. »
“There were times when I was a little fed up”
Like most programs produced by AB, first kisses will be a huge success on TF1. In the street, these young actors then experiment, with more or less success, notoriety. “Sometimes, when you’re with friends, with your family, you don’t necessarily want someone to come and say to you, ‘Ah, but I know you!’ smiles Magalie Madison. When on a Sunday morning, it’s the only day you can sleep, and someone comes to your door at 8 o’clock… It happened to me. But in general, people were still friendly. »
Of first kisses, Magalie Madison, however, keeps “very good memories”. “Even if there were times when I was a little fed up,” she says. But it’s like everything. If the texts were different every day, when you always do a little bit the same thing, with the same characters, in the same place, we want to get some fresh air, ”she smiles. If Magalie Madison claims to have “a lot of respect for this character”, and everything that Annette brought her, sometimes always bringing her back to this role annoys her. “I am not that! she smiles. Not at all, even.
Workshops to reconnect with oneself
In the 2000s, after leaving the AB empire, she notably distinguished herself in One stays, the other leaves and Together, that’s all by Claude Berri or A new friend by Francois Ozon. She released an album, 11:23 p.m., which she wrote and composed. And she worked as a graphic artist. “If we are no longer on television regularly, it is as if we no longer existed, and that we were in agony, she confides. For me, not at all! »
For several years, Magalie Madison has worked, in particular, in well-being. She created an association, One foot in front of the other, which offers workshops, for individuals and companies, to take care of yourself. And, more broadly, of nature. “I organize immersions in the forest, where I take people to reconnect with themselves, to reconnect with the forest,” she says. We can say that I am perched, but this is not the case! It’s a way of taking time for yourself, in a society where we are in a constant race for shallots. It is obvious to me. “With her association, the actress also participates in reforestation operations, in Peru, in the Brazilian Amazon or in France, in Essonne.
Regularly, moreover, the actress retires in kind, on a small plot, about thirty kilometers from Montpellier, her “region of heart”, where she applies these precepts. “When I was young, I had no idea what job I wanted to do. But I dreamed of a house, with nature all around, sheep, goats, a forest. A dream that she was able to realize, somewhere in nature, in the heart of Languedoc.
Japan Matsuri, Saturday to Sunday, at the Parc Expo in Montpellier. Information, here.