Anonymous no more

French actor Marilyn Lima opens up about starring in true crime drama Brigade Anonyme (Vigilantes), making her mark in YA sensation Skam France and why she wants to keep the audience guessing when it comes to the roles she plays.

When it comes to acting, French star Marilyn Lima wants to appear where no one expects her. It’s this active determination to avoid typecasting that has led her to star in young-adult phenomenon Skam France, sci-fi drama Bugarach, fantasy Avenir and thriller Le Meilleur d’entre nous (The Best of Us).

And most recently, her role in Brigade Anonyme (Vigilates) has taken her into the realm of true crime.

“This is exactly what I’m trying to do, and I’ve been trying to do this for years with my agent,” she tells DQ at the Monte Carlo TV Festival about her varied project choices. “It’s a problem for me to have people typecast me, and I like to surprise my audience and myself. I love doing action or to be a surfer, and this is the beauty of our job – to be able to embody many different characters and not stay playing only one kind of person. It might be disruptive for some people because France loves typecasting, but I will fight against it because I want to be where people do not expect me.”

Brigade Anonyme follows loving and headstrong father Castaneda – played by former Manchester United football star Éric Cantona – whose 17-year-old daughter Alia goes missing. Prepared to do whatever it takes to get her back, and unsatisfied by the police response, Castaneda takes matters into his own hands. During the first few critical hours following Alia’s disappearance, he decides to investigate himself with the help of his friend Nass (Arie Elmaleh), Alia’s school supervisor Charlie (Lima) and countless anonymous assistants on social media, leading them to scour the countryside and track down the kidnapper.

The story is based on that of a man called Béor, who in 2019 successfully traced his 14-year-old daughter in just two-and-a-half days, without police support, after she was kidnapped. He then set up an organisation, Les Disparus Anonymes, to help recover other kidnapped children.

“It is inspired by a true story, so I met Béor, who really went through the story,” Lima says. “I was also very moved by meeting the producer; I really love her. It was a very strong topic and I wanted to fight for that. I wanted to be strong and light and humorous, because it’s not very easy to talk about such a subject, so we have to use twists – and one of them is humour at the right time.”

Lima says she can see herself in Charlie, who knows her way around social media and helps to appeal for information on Alia’s whereabouts. “The three of them are very different but they are complementary, which is good,” she says of the show’s central trio. “I was delighted to be able to be the girl with two men who are very strong and tall, and I could bring my strength, even though I’m small and thin. It was something else other than physical force. I could bring my smartness, my intuition, and also the fact that she uses the social networks. This is a parallel to me and my generation.”

Less familiar to Lima was the style of filmmaking behind the four-part M6 series, which she describes as action-packed and fast-paced. “Our director Julien [Seri] is used to doing many action movies so he knows exactly what sort of results he wants when he directs. It is what you call ‘shoot and edit,’ because he knows exactly what he wants.”

The closest experience she can compare it to is working on Skam France, the French adaptation of the Norwegian hit YA series that follows the daily lives of a group of teenagers, with clips and updates posted in real time on the broadcaster website and social media pages. “On this specific show, the rhythm was very fast every day and it was very exacting, so I learned my trade there. Now I think the new generation of French actors are trained to be quick and efficient.”

Lima plays Manon Demissy in the series, which follows a group of teenagers living in Paris and studying at the Lycée Dorian. Season one follows new student Emma and her group of friends, while Manon came to the fore in season two, with a storyline centring on her relationship with popular student Charles.

With Skam achieving huge success in Norway, where the series originated from creator Julie Andem, the actor admits expectations were high when the French version launched on France Télévisions in 2018. “In France, it was crazy. Because we were the second series after Norway, everyone was watching us, so we were quite scared,” she remembers. “However, we managed to do better than all the remakes in the world, because there were 12 seasons, so that was huge. There was a real craze for the show. Three-quarters of my fan community comes from Skam.”

Unsurprisingly, Skam marked a breakout moment for Lima, who entered the industry without any formal acting training. She’s since been learning on the job and continues her training on every set she works on.

“When you’re on set, it’s an emotional elevator and you can grow. And to me, being an actor, that’s the core of it, to transmit emotions,” she says. “I have very strong emotions on set, and I’m really astonished each time I can play a character. I’m delighted and I’m grateful because I like the path I took and I hope it’s going to last for a long time. But I’m trying to be instinctive.

“I have a lot of friends who are taking lessons, using coaches, and we all have our own way to be an actor. There’s not only one way, but to me, it’s to try to live experiments through life, to feel great joy or great pain, and this is how I can fuel and feed my characters, because I put a lot of my emotions in them. This is how I work.”

Early on in her career, Lima has also worked with directors who have supported her instinctive approach to acting, whether it’s Seri, Fabien Montagner (Bugarach), Frank Belloocq (Avenir) or Floriane Crépin (Le Meilleur d’entre nous).

“I’m very lucky because directors tend to trust me fully and leave me,” she says. “I read the script, I talk to the director and, once we know we agree and that we understand one another and what we expect from each other, they really trust me and let my instinct take control.

“It is very pleasant to shoot in such conditions each time. I know that one day I will need to have more precise coaching for a character – for example, playing in Bridgerton one day,” she jokes. “I know that for some characters, sometimes I will need to have a coach. I know it will be a very interesting experience because life, as well as my job, is just about experiments.”

Relying on her instincts can mean Lima opens herself up to her character’s emotions – and she has spent her 10-year career learning how to better protect herself from this part of her job.

“When I started, at the end of the day I was still in character. I was overwhelmed by everything,” she admits. “But today, fortunately, I can make the difference between myself and my character, what I give it, and I can switch off. It stays on set and I become fully myself so I don’t leave set with such an emotional burden. But this is something you need to learn.”

Unsurprisingly for someone who never wants to stay in the same type of role, Lima is now planning her next move – while promising to keep viewers on their toes. “There are many things in my head, and I feel like doing many different things. But I’m convinced there’s time for everything, and they come at the right time. Once again, I will be where you might not expect me.”

tagged in: Brigade Anonyme, M6, Marilyn Lima, Skam, Vigilantes