Hafsia Herzi does not take her job or that of others lightly. The actress began the midwifery profession to The Rapture by Iris Kaltenbäck, poignant drama awarded the SACD prize at the Critics’ Week of the Cannes Film Festival last May. “It was essential for me to understand the heroine’s profession in order to be credible in playing her,” says the actress to 20 minutes.
This desire for authenticity is evident when this young woman loses control to the point of appropriating the baby of her best friend played by Nina Meurisse. She hopes to keep the man she fell in love with played by Alexis Manenti, revealed by Wretched by Ladj Ly, and slowly lets himself be sucked in by the lie. “I would not have been able to construct my role so accurately if I had not understood the environment in which the heroine operates. Learning his professional attitudes was also very important,” insists Hafsia Herzi.
Immerse yourself in a profession
The actress therefore spent several weeks discovering the work of midwives, attending births and helping mothers who had just given birth. “I discovered what an intense job it is with difficult hours and powerful emotions. It’s not nothing to share these moments,” she remembers. The harshness of a subject revolving around lies and the need to be loved required this enormous upstream work. “This is not the first time that I have had to immerse myself in a profession to compose a character,” insists the actress, “but I have rarely been as touched as by this experience. »
The suffering of the woman she embodies is transmitted in a very modest way to the spectator who immediately believes in the ordeals she undergoes even if he cannot excuse her behavior. Hafsia Herzi’s performance brings great subtlety to her character as a lovesick loser whose actions question concepts as powerful as motherhood and friendship.
Actress and filmmaker accomplices
“I probably could have played this woman without learning her profession, but I think I would have understood her less well. Exposing myself to his daily life helped me bring out his humanity. » We leave delighted with the screening of this Rapture of astonishing power, a portrait of a woman which marks the complicit meeting of a filmmaker and an actress.