The Queens of Drama: “Bilal quickly understood his character, and felt the pleasure of playing”

Alexis Langlois presents the super-casting of his queer musical. Starting with the initial “misunderstanding” with Bilal Hassani, who for his first role in the cinema, plays the influencer Steevyshady.

The writing of First fell in love with Drama Queens, “punk and slamming jewelry”which has just arrived in cinemas. Queer filmmaker already noted for her short films and/or her daring clips (notably Marathonin 2022, for Bilal Hassanithe music star who plays his first film role here), Alexis Langlois signs a musical comedy retracing the love story between a young pop star, Mimi Madamour (Louiza Aura) and a punk artist, Billie Kohler (Gio Ventura). To follow their complicated relationship, we can count on Steevyshady, a YouTuber from the future who loved Mimi so much in the past… before loving to hate her.

In addition to introducing ourselves his many influences (from Buffy to Britney via John Waters and Rainer Fassbinder), and to evoke the political significance of his work which wants “invite spectators to be more gentle”Alexis Langlois told us in detail how she chose her actors.

The 8 inspirations of Drama Queens: Britney Spears, Buffy, A Star is Born…

First: Your film mixes genres, references, social issues… Do all these messages also come through the casting choices? You offer much more diversity than in reality.

Alexis Langlois: The film plays with codes a little bit, indeed, due to the fact that we are surrounded almost exclusively by queer actors. On TV, the presenters of La Nouvelle star were not trans… On the other hand, our Guy has a bit of that of Popstars, who was openly gay. And this same Guy, he really embodies everything that is worst in the system. He's almost a big Disney villain, with this smiling side, which is very present on TV, especially on propaganda channels. Behind the fact that we present shows well dressed, we allow ourselves to say terrible things.

Steevyshady also has a side “wicked”…

Yes, but it's more complicated, because it's also someone who experiences this in a certain way. Which doesn't stop him from doing terrible things, but to me it's more of a kind of madness. And then he is at the heart of our story, he must convey lots of things to the spectators.

How did the meeting with Bilal Hassani happen, anyway? Did he imagine this character with you or did you suggest it to him as is?

This character, Bilal did not create it, but we worked a lot, we rehearsed a lot. So Steevy evolved thanks to him, inevitably. It's like a designer dress. (laughs) What's funny is that we had a bit of a misunderstanding with him. The idea to cast him for this film came from seeing a video he had posted on YouTube where he spoke completely from the heart. It inspired the narrator side of my film, I hadn't thought of him from the start, and I didn't choose him for the side either. “zinzine” Or “stalker” of this character, which I wanted to develop gradually.

Were you first won over by his YouTuber hat?

Yes, when, about six years ago, he shared with his fans a video that recounted his coming outwhich went very badly in a Catholic high school. I came across this a bit by chance and this video touched me because… I don't know, the way he spoke to his community: he said very personal things, and at the same time he had really this side entertainer. Despite the fact that it was a terrible story, he kept smiling and gave a lot of energy. It was beautiful. We felt that he wanted to give strength and courage to his community. I found both the story and the way he told it very moving. This is where the idea was born that YouTubers are a bit like modern-day storytellers. There was already a YouTuber character, but he was not as central, it was Bilal who gave the first impetus at this level.

What was the misunderstanding, anyway?

Well, as I told my producer that I was inspired by this video to develop the role of Steevy, she advised me to propose it directly to her, but I didn't really dare. One day, I discovered that Bilal had liked one of my short films, so I went for it. He was presented with the broad outlines of Drama queenswith this pop singer and her punk lover… but he thought he was being offered one of the two main roles. He was super enthusiastic: 'Oh wow! Which one am I going to play?' (laughs)

Did he accept right away? Without being afraid that it will be too close to one's own public image?

Yes, after this little disappointment, I think he quickly understood his character, he participated in his composition, and I think he was sensitive to what it said about the world of images. And on pop culture, too. Having a leading role that took place over several eras, where he would have the possibility of transforming himself a lot physically, I think he liked that a lot. There is a funny, very childish side to this kind of change of appearance. He felt the pleasure of playing. And to think that I didn't dare propose to him at first, I thought he was fully committed to his musical career… My producer did well to insist!

So Bilal became your narrator, and…

Once we had this idea of ​​narrator-storyteller-youtuber, and we moved his presentation to him in the future, we were also able to take a step aside. We obviously made this film to talk a lot about ourselves, but the fact of setting it in the future, then returning to 2005, allowed us to say: 'Have we changed that much today?' Having this distance gave us more perspective. Like in the stories “Once upon a time…” which make us believe that they are talking about yesterday, but which take on their full meaning today.

For your two heroines also did you ask Louisa and Gio to take on their roles? To make them evolve? Throughout the film, Louisa made me think of Zendaya, and I wondered if it was done on purpose to evoke, in addition to Britney, Lorie, etc., a star of today.

Oh yes ? The resemblance is not at all intended, but it's funny that you say that because Louisa offered me something very interesting in relation to her character. Beyond the queer dimension, she brought her experience as a racialized person, and that played into her look at the end. Initially, she should have kept her shaved head, because for me, that marked the end of her quest for identity, she was going to reclaim her body after having had her blonde wig, her costumes… But she didn't like it. offered to bring an additional dimension to it: it was she who asked me to give her this afro cut at the end, to free her natural hair, in a certain way. It may seem anecdotal, but it really isn't, she really made Mimi's path evolve by changing that.

Gio's role changed quite a bit during the making of the film, and again thanks to the trust we had developed. There is a song that has been completely transformed, for example: “Go muscular”it wasn't called that. We recomposed these characters together with my actors.

And for their models?

In the way their experience would feed into those of Mimi Madamour and Billie Kohler, I especially had Nina Hagen and Mona Soyoc in mind. The latter plays in the film: it really comes from an 80s punk band, KaS Product, which is incredible. We rejuvenated her for the 80s scene and it's almost a quote from a clip that she made of Scopitone from France 3 at the time called “Come Back”. There is also a bit of Mylène Farmer in Magalie Charmer, obviously. There are nods to the singer of Mecano, we can recognize Blondie… These are stars who are in the collective imagination, I like the idea that it evokes common and different references at the same time. time. And what's also very funny is that abroad, spectators can recognize icons that I didn't have in mind at all. We screened it in Brazil, and they asked me questions about a singer I didn't know, it was funny!

Drama Queens: “This film says: 'Let's try to create a connection, some sweetness.'”