Michaël Cohen (Sam): “one wonders if they will act or not” – Gala

series

Michael Cohen joined the show Sam for the second season. New French teacher, arrived directly from the lycée Henri IV, the teacher tries to make a place in the establishment. He is confronted very quickly with the charm and the temperament of the Sam. The actor tells us about his attraction to his character.

The second season of the series Sam has debuted on the TF1. In 2016, the series has been a hit with Mathilde Seigner as a headliner. Unfortunately, the actress did not want to sign up for the new season too grieved the death of the producer of the series, and girlfriend, Valérie Guignabodet. This is the actress, Natacha Lindinger, who has taken over the role of the character of Sam, a single mom, teacher of French, who has not his tongue in his pocket and loves above all politically incorrect. In this new season, a character made his entrance. One of Raphael Manzarech, a new French teacher came straight from the lycée Henri IV. Michaël Cohen interprets this character charmer and serious that it decrypts dansî interview.

Gala: Can you tell me about Raphael Manzarech, your character in the series Sam on TF1 ?

Michael Cohen: Raphael Manzarech is a teacher freshly landed at the Lycée Henri IV, so for him, it is a real change. It is not rock’n’roll but it has a kind of coolness. It is more open, it has more humor than all teachers. He takes his job seriously, but he doesn’t take himself seriously. It is for this reason that it connects very quickly with Sam. They look like it. They both have ways to work a little unorthodox. They speak frankly to the students. They have this thing of not to take the students to the idiots and have a direct connection with them. Good, they do not have the same methods so this is why they do not agree very well, but their methods are different réunient anyway.

Why have you accepted this role ?

The script was already written very well. And then I love movies that are happening at the school. Me, my films of childhood, it was Diabolo menthe, The Boom. I’ve always enjoyed these films on the college years and the years of high school. I have a very bad experience in the middle school and high school, therefore, these films have always been a kind of fantasy that I would have liked to live. And when I was proposed to play a French professor, it was my other hand absolute on national education (laughter). I wanted to make a small tribute to a French teacher that I had who was the only prof interesting of my 18 years of schooling. He also had a love for the cinema. Me, I was already a passionate lover of the 7th art and therefore I had a small connection with him. Hey it’s me has not prevented to miss my bachelor’s degree. I liked the idea of being able to play a character like that, a bit like Bernard Giraudeau in The Boom. A French teacher that we would have all wanted to have. You always need to have a prof like that who allows us to hang on. Sometimes, they forget to make the whole thing playful, pleasant, attractive.

What are the traits of a major character in Raphael?

This is someone who has a vision of the business, which is rather serious. He wants to gain the respect of his students and at the same time, he wants his students to respect themselves, that they release the word. He is trying to get to elsewhere. In the series, it takes, during a school trip, in the home of Paul Eluard. To engage its students who are a thousand places of this writer, it will successfully connect through personal things. This is a teacher who loves her job, loves the students and that is a little on the fringe of the national education and teachers who take their craft at the foot of the letter by simply putting A, B, C, etc …

What is it that you have in common with this character ?

Me if I was a professor in a college, I attarderais on each student on a case-by-case basis, if I had the time. As I can do when I realize the theater or in the movies. For me, every actor is different and each actor has its problems, its neuroses, its difficulties, its facilities. If I was a teacher in general, even if I see myself more as a French teacher and a professor of math. But in any case, I’d do a little as my character Raphael, I would make a case-by-case basis. This requires in my opinion a lot of time, a lot of energy, a lot of empathy and I imagine also to take upon oneself. Because sometimes, there are students harder than others. I think I would have that in common with him. I would have the humor also because it has a lot of humour and heard a class laugh, it is always rousing. When we were shooting, before you start a scene, I was trying to make them laugh. And this laughter class, it wins, and it’s gathered us all. It allowed a good start to a scene. And perhaps, like him, I would have written a book about my experiences as a teacher.

Your character starts a drag, very honest with Sam, the main character, is the tempting side of your character you like ?

It is true that the incident starts at the beginning: Sam he rolls a big shovel, so at the beginning it poses a little bit the thing. It is a bit of a kiss magic that is going to do that they will both be very disturbed because at the same time, they are both taken. But this is not really a activity of dredge is more a means of defence. Because it is not at all like this with the other professors. It is seen that it is rather a charmer, that appeals clearly to both teachers and students. It is a natural charm but he doesn’t play. With Sam, it is more in a form of resistance to not succumb to it. This is what will make all the interest of the season. I find it very good that in the first episode, two characters kiss and without knowing it are required to work together. And so, during the six episodes we wonder if they will end up together, and then is he going to pass to the act or not.

You liked to shoot with Natacha Lindinger ?

I knew it before Natasha because I’ve already worked with it, and then we were at the theater together. And when I was told that it was she who took over the role of Sam (editor’s Note: epitomized by Mathilde Seigner in the first season), I said yes immediately. This is an actress who is great and I find that she has taken up the role of Sam in both the continuity and the time it is appropriate for the character, I find it great.

How to evolve your character throughout the season ?

With Sam, it is a game of cat and mouse which will be put in place. Over the episodes, they will be more in a form of humour and complicity. They will, in spite of their resistance, much closer. Up until the moment where you will wonder if it will succumb to the other, but that, I let you discover.

How would you react if your child have a teacher like your character is Raphael ?

Me, I find that it is a super teacher. It is not unfair. I do not support injustice. This is what I have trouble lived at the school, the injustice. And in this case, it is not at all unfair, it does not break the students to break them, he did not have his favourites of the vor. It is really an approach of wanting to help on a case-by-case basis. But this is not so unfair. On the other hand, if my son has a master or a mistress, because for the moment it is only in CE2, which has turned on him unfairly, I would stop them not to go/see and tell him. And then I don’t like that it falls on a professor who dégoute of the school. This is my main fear because I have lived it, so I hope that he doesn’t know it. I’d like it to love it. I would like it to go to school being happy to find a teacher, materials, I would like to be interested in fact. But hey it goes well, for now it’s going ! After that, it is always from the college that it gets a little complicated. I don’t have good memories of this period of time there (laughter).

Other projects of movies or series ?

Then in 2018, I play in the movie teeth, pee, and the bed of Emmanuel Gillibert, with Louise Bourgoin and Arnaud Ducret. This is a comedy that will be very funny I think, and that will be presented at the festival of the Alpe d’huez. I also turned in Alad’2, the sequel to the movie Aladdin, with Kev Adams and Jamel Debbouze, it’s going to be a movie pretty amazing. And me, I am trying to develop a series for tv, in which I’ll play and I’ll carry on the parisian night. It tells a patron of a nightclub in Paris, and how it manages the day when we live the night. I am going to achieve the first two episodes and I will encircle thee in other directors to make the sequel. This will be very drugs and rock-and-roll but also glamorous. At once I will tell Paris, the night, the feast, and then the slope to the contrary, the alarm clock and the morning how it goes.

Credits photos : Bestimage

Michaël Cohen

Latest News on :