Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, the Ivorian-French actress and comedian, Claudia Tagbo. This Wednesday, July 5, she is showing the film: “Yo Mama” by Leïla Sy and Amadou Mariko.
Claudia Tagbo is an Ivorian-French actress and humorist. She was born in Abidjan and grew up in Chanac, in Lozère, where she arrived at the age of 13, then in Alès in Gard. These years were a cultural and climatic shock for her! Her career as an actress and a determined woman began in college, in her first role, that of class representative. This earned her the encouragement of François Bayrou, whom she met during one of her trips: “Stop school, you’ll be a great actress”.
This Wednesday, July 5, Claudia Tagbo is showing in the film: yo mama by Leïla Sy and Amadou Mariko, with guest-star Jean-Pascal Zadi, Zaho and Sophie-Marie Larrouy. There is an original film soundtrack to extend the film.
franceinfo: yo mama is a close-up on the role of mothers, on the place they occupy. We feel you are very invested in this role which is a beautiful tribute to the most difficult job in the world.
Claudia Tagbo: It’s pretty ! The most difficult role in the world, yes, that of being a mother. So, often, when we say that, I have the impression that we somewhat exclude women who have no children, but you are also mothers because an auntie is a mother, a grandmother. mother is a mom. In short, all women… A difficult role: woman!
You grew up in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire and precisely, you were surrounded by these women who really carried you from your earliest childhood. There were the spices in your mother’s dishes, there were the hairdressing sessions. Your mother used to do your aunties’ hair. We find that inside this film. Is your mother your pillar?
Yes, it is the pillar of every child, the father and the mother. My mother, she is there. So yes, my mother is important in my life.
“My mum is very calm. She’s very, very high in light because she doesn’t talk much. So, with my brothers and sisters, we see her, we actually feel her! We say to ourselves: ‘Mum is coming ‘.”
Claudia Tagboat franceinfo
Your parents were totally different.
Yes. completely.
But at the same time, they agreed on one thing: you encourage you to do your passion and encouraged you to take lessons in a theater workshop. We just feel that, as the eldest sister of this sibling of seven children, you have managed to find your balance through this job…
Yes, it is, through my job in any case, to tell me: listen, no one is waiting for you there, what are you risking? Say yes, and then you’ll see what happens. But yes, the eldest of seven… There’s something that I took away from them all, it’s the fact that they want to be part-timers in the show, ‘No way’! Even my nephews and nieces, I still see them coming into my little studio looking and saying, “But aunty, you’re mom’s big sister”, well yes, “There is no TV at your house and where are we going to sleep, on a sofa?“They are very happy for me, but maybe in the new generation of babies that is coming, maybe they will want to be actors, but the others won’t.
From the moment you got on stage with the Jamel Comedy Club and learned your trade, the first thing you cared about was getting on stage and doing a one-woman show. We felt that you needed to take your life back in hand and sweep away the complexes that you had been dragging behind you for years…
Exactly. To say to the little girl:Listen, we always told you: you have big eyes, you have big buttocks. Well look you’re on stage and people are laughing because you’re laughing at it. It means that you have accepted the thing”. And now I see all these young women and I say to myself: ah ah guys, we are making progress, but it has been long! I’m not here to enter boxes, I’m here, in any case to be on my way.
What we also discover inside the film is that a mother is a team leader. At times, we can be overwhelmed, but mothers in general remain determined.
“Mothers are determined. And that’s what happens in ‘Yo Mama’. They come to say, ‘We’re going to communicate with our children. Oh yes, we can only communicate with rap? We’re going to rap’.”
Claudia Tagboat franceinfo
Even if the intentions of the beginning are good, they are overtaken by the hyper communication that we currently have. A simple video doubles its number of views compared to their children. And suddenly, they realize that their initial objective was not that. So we have to get back to basics, where our children are. Here are the moms, they are the ones who hold on. There, we are in full promotion and I hear: yes, the districts… No, it is beyond the district. Moms hold. They hold the hearth. She’s the one who will gain you, even if it’s not your biological mother! I’m talking about all the mothers-in-law, even if the children are ungrateful saying to them: “Yes, but anyway, you’re not my mother!“Don’t give up, they will thank you one day like me, I thank all my mothers-in-law. So yes, mothers, we are the base.
This film, we feel that it is special, that it brought you something extra, another dimension.
Another dimension, another color. And then it is above all to be led by a woman. So, thank you very much to Leïla Sy for her trust and for coming to pick me up!
Leïla Sy has also experienced similar things in your career.
Yes. When I arrived the first day on her set, I was very happy. I said to him: thank you very much for your trust. And then I hope that this film will touch many people. And I really insist on the side: it’s all the moms, the sorority, the generations, the communication and whether we’re in the 7th arrondissement of Paris or in Chanac, we talk to everyone, so we really have to go to see him.