Flashmag October 2020 www.flashmag.net
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He will play in American sitcoms such as Family Time, or Hot line Ads, produced by Kevin Hart. In 2019 After an appearance in the music video of Martin Garrix and Macklemore and a role in the Haitian-American film “The destiny of a Child”; Fabien who this year 2020 returned to France for the dubbing of the American Crime Series NCIS, and Blue Bloods, took a moment to give an interview to the Flashmag team. In a cordial and open talk, he tells us more about his career and his new challenges, while giving his opinion on topical issues.
Hello Fabien, it's a real pleasure to have you as the featured guest of Flashmag this month.
So, did you dream of a career in acting in your childhood?
Fabien Gravillon: Yes, I have always dreamed of a career on the big screen, even if I did not come from a family connected to the movie industry. French and American films rocked my childhood and I quickly decided to make it my job.
Coming from a small provincial village in France, I first started by going to Paris to take theater lessons, and then I found artistic agents who allowed me to start evolving in the field of the motion pictures industry.
When you made the choice to pursue your acting career, did you think that you had the shoulders strong enough to survive in the arts world, which is sometimes very complex, or you never thought, about the difficulties that could arise?
Fabien Gravillon: When you start in this environment, you don't worry about the difficulties. It is over time that you realize that the competition is tough and that there is not always room for everyone.
In France you still had a classic career start, commercials then comedy on Canal + in the Grand Journal, or Groland, before really being entitled to a few roles in TV series, then on the big screen. During this period of your great beginnings, what was your state of mind; to learn, or to take whatever you could take?
Fabien Gravillon: I would say both. First, it was to learn. Because even if theater lessons are very important, to become a professional actor, for me the best school is learning on the job.
And secondly, indeed I could not allow myself to make a choice on what was offered to me, because there were fewer roles for black actors in France.
Back then, did you think there was a type of role that would give you more opportunity in the future or that there were roles to be avoided for the same reasons?
Fabien Gravillon: When I started out, I never thought that there could be roles to be avoided.
For me all roles could be interesting.
In 2006, we saw you in the role of Jules in "Plus belle La Vie" one of the must successful French soap opera, in 2011 I think we received the heroine of the series detective Sara Douala, Nadège Beausson-Diagne on our platform . So, when you join the cast of this great series what is your feeling?
Fabien Gravillon: I was extremely happy. It is not given to everyone to play a recurring role in the daily soap opera number 1 in France. I remember the producer, Michelle Podroznick, congratulated me on my excellent casting. She told me that I was a very good actor and that she was delighted that I was part of the soap opera.
After a few episodes, you leave the series can we find out why?
Fabien Gravillon: The plot I came for ended, and the production decided to develop other stories.
A few years later we saw you on the detective series on M6 “les bleus Premiers pas dans la police” (The blues: First steps in the Police) You will have a lot of police roles throughout your career, including when you decide to settle in the United States. Why this trend of cop character?
Fabien Gravillon: In the M6 detective series I was not playing a cop but a young man from the suburbs who was a friend of a cop (laughs) ... all that to say that I like to play all the roles but it is true that lately, I have been often given roles of police officers. Maybe the uniform fits me well !!! (Laughs).
You have played in several feature films including Amour sur place ou à porter by Amelle Chahbi, in 2014, and in the Haitian-American film The Child of Destiny, shot in French in Boston in 2019. For laymen that we are, is there a difference in the way you act in a TV series and in a movie? is the pressure, if any, the same?
Fabien Gravillon: The difference between movies and TV series is that in general we have more time when shooting a film, and a lot less time when shooting a TV series.
Otherwise everything is the same.
Have you ever turned down a role, if so why?
Fabien Gravillon: Until now, I have never refused a role.