A daring bet, but won for TF1. While the series This is US failed to find its audience on M6, the first season of its French adaptation I promise you achieved very good audiences with an average of 4.04 million viewers for its six evenings consisting of two episodes, according to figures from Médiamétrie relayed by
Puremedia. Guillaume Labbé, the interpreter of Mickaël in the Gallo family, returned to this success for 20 minutes at the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.
Did you expect such success with “I promise you”?
I’m not so sneaky, it’s a crazy thing. Sometimes, I look at something and I say to myself: “This is going to be a hit”, and it flops and there are things where I say to myself: “It can’t work” and it is a worldwide hit! (laughs) I don’t even think about it anymore. When I read the script for I promise you, I asked myself so many questions… Is it a good idea to adapt? When I discovered the scenarios, I had not seen This is us and I cried in my stake. And I remember calling my agent and saying, “What the fuck am I reading! »And she said to me:« It is very well adapted ». Yes, I thought it was going to work. But after that, there are so many factors that we cannot control, on the audience, the way in which the communication, the production, the editing are done… It’s impossible to predict, there are too many variables.
How do you analyze the success of the series?
I promise you provides super strong and positive emotions. Everything is guided by brotherly, filial, friendly or loving love. They are feelings of mutual aid and love, and maybe there is a desire not to be cynical now… There are a lot of cynical things or very harsh series. There, it’s really only positive. This emotion is beautiful, it touches people.
Have you seen “This is Us” since reading the scripts?
No never ! Really, that doesn’t tease me at all. I don’t want to because I think I have everything to lose looking at the character and what they did. People talk to me about it as a monument, so it might cripple me completely. I’m going to compare him and me, the show to what we’re doing and therefore, I don’t want to see it at all. And then, suddenly, I am quite curious when I receive the scenarios of the other seasons, I am excited.
How would you like to see your character evolve in season 2?
We’re starting to shoot next week. I received the scenarios for season 2. I really like the way it evolves. In season 1, he was on fairly light issues, it was funny, because there were very heavy issues next to him, and he took his own with a first degree and crazy selfishness. So, it was very funny. He’s getting really tough in season 2. There’s a different kind of anchor and depth to the character that I’m very happy to live with. Already there, while working on the character, it makes me happy to feel and play these things.
Did you feel like you were forming a family on the set, is it special to play a family on the screen?
It creates links. But strangely, the three of us didn’t have a lot of scenes with Narcisse Mame and Marilou Berry. We have our three trajectories and obviously, we mix at times, but we are not all three on the set. We created a link, but not as much as if our problems were common. I created links with the actresses who play my girlfriends, my exes. In season 2, we have moments together. Afterwards, these moments together are strong moments. With Marylou, we both have something more carnal together, with Narcissus, we look at each other, we look at each other… But if, in fact, it created a little fraternal links when we thought about it!
How do you see the success of the French series?
I’m bad at analyzing this stuff, but I have the impression that while remaining general public, we allow ourselves more freedom in the treatment of the image, also of the texts. We are less didactic whether in the way of filming, in the light or in the dialogues, to trust the viewer more. I think we gain in quality. The actors are much less afraid of going to the series. Everything gains in quality. But it’s great, it’s an amazing time for creation. When I was studying in the United States at the start of Netflix, I said to myself: “This thing, when it will happen in France, it will destroy the culture of each country”. In fact, thanks to the platforms, the culture of each country is accessible to all. People watch Israeli, Spanish or Danish series in their original version. I say to myself “It’s crazy like once again, I did not have the nose! “
What marked you as a French series?
I watch more documentaries than series. I watched in a rush Gears, that I have been told 1,000 times to watch. I loved. I also watched part of HPI that I liked too. I looked because there is Bruno Sanchez in it!
What would you like to improve in the French series?
Deadly, French series for Netflix, Trauma, French series, which I hope will be bought by French television or by platforms to be seen more, are so different from HPI Where I promise you. I find it hard to talk about “French” series … If we talk about TV fiction in the big chains, the issues vary according to their target. Canal + does not have the same as TF1… Improving is hard. Who am I to say what to improve? They are so different from each other. I want it to continue like this to open up to creation, it’s great. We can go to more genre stuff on platforms and do awesome mainstream stuff like I promise you Where HPI, which will touch a lot of people on the big chains… To think that one can make a horrific series like Marianne, an action movie like Lost bullet a hit or a romantic comedy like Plan coeur, it’s brilliant!
A role you dream of?
I miss so many things! I have a very small career, fortunate enough to have had very different characters. Thanks to the directors for seeing things in me that I hadn’t seen right away! In Trauma, Fred Grivois puts me in the shoes of a somewhat aged cop when I was rather seen in roles of somewhat immature guys. In See how we dance, Michel Blanc puts me in the shoes of the ideal son-in-law. I was lucky to be able to live these lives. There is something that I would like. I have the fight, the MMA which is finally starting to open in France, I find this magnificent sport, not only as an actor but also as an author. I met a fighter called Norman Paraisy and sometimes he lets me do a little ground with him. He has an idea for a series that I would like very much.
As an author, actor, producer?
I do not know. I find it crazy to go and fight. In rugby, we are in a group. I remember that fear in the locker room, but it’s not a fight. Go and fight against someone… These are martial arts, there is something very beautiful, philosophical. And at the same time, they break their mouths in an octagon face to face, there is a gladiatorial thing with a philosophy behind it. There is something that interests me, that challenges me. I always have that I will fight once in an octagon facing someone. I never dared to do it, I’m scared, and at the same time, I would like it. There is something that I do not understand and that I find beautiful and that touches me. This mixture of sensitivity and violence touches me.