The iconoclastic duo is back for a fourth season and new investigations. France 2 is launching this Friday, at 9:10 p.m., the broadcast of a new burst of new episodes of the detective series Astrid and Raphaëlle. The opportunity, for 20 minutes, to interview their two interpreters, Sara Mortensen and Lola Dewaere. They each answered the questions separately and we gathered their answers…
Do you still enjoy playing your respective characters after four seasons?
Lola Dewaere (Raphaëlle): I always enjoy it, especially since the authors go out of their way to find incredible things for us. It’s always a pleasure when I read the scripts. I have more and more stuff to play and it’s wonderful.
Sara Mortensen (Astrid): I take even more. Pleasure isn’t the word that comes to mind when I talk about Astrid because playing her takes up so much energy… I love putting her shoes on again. Every morning, I redo my symmetrical laces and off I go. I find it extraordinary that we are still here, with an ever-widening audience. The more it works, the more people watch us and the less I relax, I tell myself that I have to do better than before.
Have you ever wanted to play your partner’s character?
LD: Many times. I dreamed of being given a composition role such as the character of Sara.
SM: We said to ourselves that it would be very funny – but we have so many crazy days, it’s horrible – that one day, for a sequence, I played Raphaëlle and Lola played Astrid. We really want to do that. I was also asked to play Raphaëlle during the casting. At first, I only thought of him as Astrid and, later, I was eventually considered as Raphaëlle. I wouldn’t have said no. He’s a great character. Astrid only exists through Raphaëlle’s eyes.
What would you change or do similar by reversing your roles?
LD: Nothing, obviously! I would copy and paste – lazy girl! (laugh). I wouldn’t have to change anything. Sara plays her wonderfully well and I would have liked to compose her the way Sara composes her.
SM: I’ve no idea. I didn’t ask myself the question. I find Lola truly perfect. When I discover the sequences that she plays and in which I don’t appear, I find everything so good. She does a crazy job.
Are we going to discover new facets of your characters this season?
LD: Yes ! We know Raphaëlle as confident and a fighter. We will discover her in situations that will place her in extreme fragility. This is going to be very complicated. She’s going to be very lost. She used to call Astrid “my compass”. This is really going to be the case, I’m going to need her to support me. This is going to be particularly notable in one episode, I won’t say more so as not to spoil it.
SM: It’s true that we had the feeling more that it was Raphaëlle who was protecting Astrid. There, we will discover that the opposite is true. It was before, but it will be even more obvious. Astrid will succeed in taking charge of Raphaëlle and being a driving force.
What do people say to you when they recognize you in the street?
LD: They grab me by the arm and say: “How incredible is your partner!” » (laughs) I always wait, with my puppy dog look, to see if they are going to say something about me (laughs). They say: “We would dream of having Astrid as a friend”, that comes up very often. On the networks, people write me the same thing. They use the terms used by the characters, they say to me for example, “you are my thimble” [le surnom donné par Astrid à Raphaëlle]. It’s still extraordinary! This proves the impact of the series on the public.
SM: I went from “Hello, are you playing something?” » to “Hello, are you Sara Morgensen?” ”, which is cute because I have a first and last name (smile). People also often say to me “Is it you “You’re late, you shouldn’t be late”? » (laughs). “Thank you for what you do, for what you bring to us,” also comes up often. It’s always very caring. Some people tell me “I’m the mother or father of little Astrid” [le personnage d’Astrid est en situation d’autisme] or “I am one myself”, it has become a common name… It allows you to decode lots of things.
An anecdote about this new season?
SM: In episode 2, there is a dancer who is a whirling dervish, played by Sofia Sena, a flamenco dancer. She’s like my sister, we’ve known each other for twenty-five years. It was very moving to find ourselves on a film set.
LD: We also filmed with Stomy Bugsy as a policeman – that alone is a great anecdote. We also filmed in a piece of an airplane cabin, in Seine-et-Marne, and we really had the impression of being in the clouds. It was quite crazy, this film set in an abandoned location.
SM: Another anecdote, the commissioner’s office is a laughter factory. It’s a setting that everyone loves and fears because we often waste time. My goal, I admit, is when the camera is right on Jean-Louis Garçon [interprète du commissaire Carl Bachert]to crack it before leaving the room.