Her name may not be on everyone’s lips, but her face is well known to viewers. In The side effect, she lent her features to Iris, passionate about fashion. In All the life, she played Riliana, a drug addict wishing to regain custody of her daughter. On Club Illico, we find it in Audrey came back where she plays the role of Sarah, half-sister of the central character.
From Thursday, we will also be able to see Zeneb Blanchet alongside Jade Charbonneau in Lou and Sophie, third “young adults” series launched by Radio-Canada this year. Written by Yannick Éthier, directed by Sandra Coppola and Félix Tétreault, this six-episode comedy-drama features two great friends, Lou (Charbonneau) and Sophie (Blanchet), freedom-loving and somewhat rebellious. A bit like the actress, who left home at 15?
“For me, there is a small difference between rebel and free,” explains Zeneb Blanchet during a meeting by interposed screens. For a very long time, I have had a great desire for freedom, for independence. I really have a hard time being told what to do. Let’s say I don’t follow all the rules to the letter. Very early on, I knew I was going to learn to live on my own when I was young. I’ve been living alone for three years and I’m still learning. What has helped me the most in my life and in my family relationship is that now I am so close to my mother. “
This is not the case with Sophie, who barely knows her mother, or Lou, who would like his (Sophie Cadieux) to let her breathe a little. Wishing to flee the suburbs, both bought a Cadillac for the sum of $ 1000 from Fafard (Lévi Doré), their seller of pot. Despite references to Thelma and Louise, the team of Lou and Sophie promised, during a virtual press briefing last Monday, that there would be no tragic final.
With a bluffing naturalness and a palpable bond, Jade Charbonneau and Zeneb Blanchet firmly carry on their shoulders this bittersweet series which perfectly illustrates the teenager’s pleen in a full-bodied language at will.
“We had a lot of rehearsals. It was amazing! We went over all the texts, there is not a scene that has been put aside. Sometimes there were words, expressions that we had never heard before, but we accepted their language because we found that cool and edgy. “
A rebel who loves rehearsals is pretty rare, right? “Before being a rebel, I was an artist. I love to write, sing, play music, but playing is a passion for me. I have a great desire for performance. I love going through emotions. I love the theater, working with directors, directors. Sometimes, in the TV industry, I have a hard time doing my art because we don’t have time. “
Among the distribution of Lou and Sophie stands out Martin-David Peters in the role of Sophie’s father. The very one who, in Audrey came back, plays Sarah’s father, role played by… Zeneb Blanchet. Always the same…
“I definitely believe that there should be more black or mixed-race actors,” she replies after a long silence, “but in these circumstances, I don’t see it as a problem, because they are different characters. Martin has a lot of presence and talent; his two roles as a father are totally different. He absolutely managed! “
Before being a rebel, I was an artist. I love to write, sing, play music, but playing is a passion for me. I have a great desire for performance. I love to cross
emotions.
Early vocation
It was at the age of four that Zeneb Blanchet was introduced to dance, theater, circus and plastic arts thanks to his mother who enrolled him in a day camp. Two years later, her grandfather, actor Jean-Jacques Blanchet, who detects her talent for acting, invites her to advertise. In 2012, she got a role in Exile, feature film by Charles-Olivier Michaud.
“After that, I didn’t have any chances and myself, as a young racialized child, I just didn’t believe it. It’s at 13, with the coin The goddess of fire flies [mise en scène par Alix Dufresne et Patrice Dubois au Théâtre PàP] that everything started to tumble for me for real. “
Geneviève Pettersen’s novel brings her luck since it is found later in the adaptation of Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette: “For me, The goddess of fire flies, both the play and the movie, is something I never expected. I told myself that there was no way that a mixed-race girl with dreads is found in 1996 in Chicoutimi. In the end, it was some incredibly great encounters, things that changed my life. I will never relive a set and experience similar to those of The goddess of fire flies. I have the impression that Anaïs has something mystical about it. She so bright, she is the goddess! “
Update capsule host and multi-talented artist – she strums the ukulele and pushes the song in Lou and Sophie -, Zeneb Blanchet has been writing since the age of 14. If she says that reading her texts at Open mic Mondays with Philémon Cimon has done her the greatest good, she does not think of publishing. Nor does she intend to launch her own clothing line even though she has a knack for sewing like her mother. And although she is passionate about the theater, she reveals that she doesn’t want to limit herself to acting.
“The more I have the chance to work, the more I listen to myself. Often, the roles that can be offered to me – I would even say offered ourselves – in Quebec television are not always roles that make me grow or that bring me something. I am very drawn to achievement. I have a dream of making a documentary in Trinidad, where my father comes from, in order to find my roots ”, concludes the one who will be Céline Bonnier’s daughter in North of Albany, first feature film by Marianne Farley.