"I have a Zorro inside me" : Muriel Robin talks about her role in Eyes Wide Closed, broadcast this evening

Five years later Jacqueline Sauvage: it was him or me and the subject of violence against women, which had upset viewers, Muriel Robin explore with Eyes wide closed, broadcast this Monday, October 2 on TF1 from 9:10 p.m., a sensitive and disturbing societal subject: incest. She plays a grandmother noticing signs of discomfort in her grandson. From then on, a terrible doubt sets in: what if his son Stéphane (played by Guillaume Labbépreviously seen in the series I promise you And The school of life), committed the irreparable? An important role for the actress today as serene as she is emotionally on edge…

Muriel Robin: “I had a miscarriage at 19 and that’s okay.”

Télé-Loisirs: What was your first reaction when you read this script?
Muriel Robin : I found it strong. The script was very well written, without pathos. I said yes straight away. Anyway, if I have a few seconds of hesitation, it’s no. It must be instinctive, obvious, animal. If I was affected, perhaps the spectators would be too.

Where do you look for the accuracy, the truth of your character?
We are either right or we are not. We feel it or not. We open the drawers that are there, we let ourselves be overcome by the emotion that we create. This is both the basis and the madness of this profession. At the moment when we are filming, the thing happens to us and when the “Cut”It’s finish.

At the heart of this TV movie is filial love, which is as much explored as it is tested. You always said you wish you knew him. Is it a regret today?
I am very maternal but I don’t have children. I had a miscarriage at 19 and that’s fine. I was too young. Then I didn’t meet the right person… I put my love elsewhere and differently, in my commitments in particular. We tried with my wife, Anne, but it didn’t work. Is this a regret? No, you don’t have to have one.

“To deny the aggression is to anaesthetize the suffering” it is said in the TV film. Have you ever numbed your suffering?
Yes, while drinking. A lot. I was a socialite alcoholic. Many people on this planet are and don’t recognize it. They lie to themselves.

When did you recognize him?
When I understood that it was abnormal to drink a bottle of champagne almost every evening. My father had the bad idea of ​​making me drink a bottle of Sancerre when I was only twelve years old. It went straight into my hard drive. So yes, I masked it with alcohol for a long time. When I met Anne, and even though I had already started working on myself, she told me “If you want to destroy yourself, go ahead but I can’t watch someone I love destroy themselves.” It’s lucky to meet someone who tells you that. If I’m very honest, I only broke away from the emotion and alcohol reflex a year ago. I met Anne when I was 51, I am now 68. I don’t know if I would have succeeded on my own because I might still have had hard knocks or suffering that would have surfaced. Maybe I would have destroyed myself, maybe not, we’ll never know.

“I have a Zorro inside me”

Through your choice of roles, you want to express your social, societal, human conscience…
I have a Zorro inside me. Anne often has to temporize me because I’ve already burned out. You have to find the right balance between “self” and “others”. Everything is in place for me now, I feel balanced, calm, good in my life. But I still have a place for others and causes that are close to my heart.

After Jacqueline Sauvage, who dealt head-on with violence against women, you met the Prime Minister. Where are we in this fight?
I work with Anne-Cécile Mailfert, who does a wonderful job at the head of the Women’s Foundation. But we lack everything. It would take 1 billion euros like in Spain to reduce this violence at least by half. We could save lives. We don’t do it. I am between anger and sadness. What is being done is not enough. We all know it. We see deaths every day that could have been avoided. It is shameful. If it was his cousin, his daughter or his sister who died, because it happens in all walks of life, would that motivate him more, the President?

What can we wish for you now?
(After a slight silence) To move things forward for women and now for children. Things need to improve. I’m alright. I never wanted anything for myself anyway. Ever since I was a child, I have always wished for the first cherry of the year for others. I’m made like that. I am doing very well, I have sorted out many, many things.