Chantal Ladesou is a comedian and actress, revealed in the humorous show “La Classe” in 1980. She has performed solo shows, roles in the theater, in the cinema and on television. She was also a juror of “Mask Singer”. The actress will hit the road again with her show On the Road again from January 31. She will also be appearing in Kev Adams’ film: Retirement home 2 which comes out on February 14. In the meantime, in the new TF1 series The Ariadne’s thread, Chantal Ladesou plays an atypical investigator, Ariane Legrand, journalist and legal columnist, with a 50-year career under her belt and who refuses to retire. The two episodes are broadcast Monday January 29 at 9:10 p.m.
franceinfo: In The Ariadne’s thread you play a legal journalist who refuses to retire because she only knows how to do that and in her own way… What is Ariane Legrand’s way?
Chantal Ladesou: She’s a bit thrown away because she’s old enough to be thrown away. Her son, who is a police commander, is going to have her fired because she also overshadows him. She searches everywhere, she completes investigations, she does much more, she goes into forbidden things. The crime scenes she can’t go to, she goes there, so she goes further. She has no rules. She finds things wrong and as a result, people around her are not very happy, especially her son. We kindly ask him to leave.
Ariane is sharp, eccentric, sometimes unpleasant, young at heart and casual. This role was tailor-made, right?
It was custom-written and I’m very proud of it because it’s not just Chantal Ladesou. She’s very funny, but it’s not just funny. She is moving and at the time of the investigations, she is very serious. That is to say that she investigates very well, we follow her, especially since it is an investigation into the world of influencers with an influencer who was murdered, it is very modern. But it has its originality, its fantasy, which are always there. The authors came to see me at the theater, to see what I could do and so it excited them to write for me.
You have already played in series, I think of Maguy even if it was a long time ago. Is this your first time as the main character in a series?
I was Madame Boudin in Maguy. It was a second, even third role. Yes, it’s the first time and I’m very happy because it went very well. We filmed in Sète and the story is interesting, funny, touching.
You are one of the rare actresses over 70 who is called upon to be the main character in a series. Do you have the ambition, the desire to move the lines on this?
Yes, because when we are still very fit, we can on the contrary pass it on to younger people, it’s interesting. Of course, if you are tired and don’t feel like it anymore, you have to stop. As long as I want to do this job, I will be there because I think I still have things to give, things to pass on, people to make laugh. And there are plenty of people my age since they recognize themselves a little!
“As long as I’m effective and funny and don’t piss people off, I’ll be there.”
Chantal Ladesoufranceinfo
Do you relish this notoriety, especially since it came late?
Yes, she arrived late. But I think I’m a late bloomer and I take things a little slow. Everything I have done in my career has amused me, nourished me and René Simon told me: “You will succeed, you will do something very late“He had seen me act in scenes. I already had this voice, this efficiency and this kind of natural authority. And so, he said to me: “You can wander around a bit, do what you want, but it’s going to happen very late“, it’s funny though.
Were you funny from the start?
I was a little scared, but I had this desire to make people laugh for a very long time, it was deep in my heart. And the day I started writing, my husband pushed me and said: “Write your things, do your own things“. One day I received a piece, the sequel Amazons and he hid it, he didn’t want me to read it.
“My husband absolutely wanted me to go on stage alone, to reveal myself. And the day I really revealed myself, it encouraged me to tell the story of what I really am.”
Chantal Ladesoufranceinfo
You’re shy, so how do you go on stage alone when you’re shy?
It doesn’t show, but deep down, I’m very shy and sometimes I have bouts of shyness. I have always had the audacity of the shy. That is to say, shy people do incredible things. When I arrived in Paris, I called my father and he kept saying: “The day belongs to those who get up early“. I called Jean Poiret at 7:45 a.m. He asked me who I was and I replied: “I played at the theater last night“. I dared things like that. Afterwards I apologized and he told me that it wasn’t very serious. I had the audacity of the timid which fell flat because afterwards I never called anyone again, ever. It’s very strange for shy people.
You were on the jury of “Mask Singer” and then you were ousted quite suddenly. And there, you revealed, a few days ago, that TF1 is circling you to return there. So yes or no ?
They are very close to me, yes, but I will come back to talk about it.
Do you want to do it again? You’re terrible at investigating!
Yes, that’s good, it amuses me a lot not to recognize anything.