.............30..............
Flashmag August 2018 www.flashmag.net
Africa ... So, some medias like MCM Africa have disappeared, when others have reduced their scope. There has even been the restructuring of the audiovisual sector that has further complicated things, which necessarily does not help the emergence of talents.
Sure, this obey the desire of the decision-makers in France to impose more control, to break the freedom and everything becomes sclerotic. It is true we evoke security reasons since, with the wave of terror attacks, but the phenomenon is older. From the 2000s we began to see this situation. I think it goes beyond the economic crisis, it's more of an identity crisis. Some may have been afraid of being colonized by art. Look, for example, we won the World Cup and people start to tell where people come from ...
What do you think of those who say that if you were not already in the Reggae you would have become a Rapper?
No, I do not think so. I am more in line with Tracy Chapman who only with a guitar can perform, I do not think that with only a Beat I could have developed my text, I'm more melodic. I need this harmonic accompaniment to produce my art.
Talented actress, we saw you in several series in France and since you left “Camping Paradis” there is a controversy on the internet. You have left this series because you were paid less than the other actors or because your role became less attractive?
When I left Camping Paradis I said it before, it was by mutual agreement, because we could not agree to continue in the same base. I had been screaming a few months ago that the dialogues did not suit me anymore, that I was tired of these scenarios where I had nothing to play. They did not appreciate it and they fired me, it is true I remained in cold with the production thus the executive producer Jean Luc Azoulay, with this separation which was not made in the best conditions, but since our relationship has improved. Financially talking, even if I was not well paid, it also happens that I had an agent who did not negotiate my contract to my best advantage, and it was not obvious to review it.
At one point during interviews I talked about this book . Noir n’est pas mon métier (black is not my job) wrote between 16 women including Firmine Richard and Aissa Maiga. It is true that in roles there are stereotypes it is always the same roles that come back to a certain category of individuals and it is normal to ask certain questions. Radio Voltage, wanted to make a buzz around this story by misinterpreting my words, shouting on all the roofs that Princess Erika said that the production team of Camping Paradis was racist this is not what that I said.
But I confirm that I was the least paid, playing in a series with people who were not very well known, I found that it was not fair. And what's more, when you're in a company, the amount of your salary is equivalent to the credit you are given, and that was annoying. I wish it ended differently because I still spent a lot of time with this team, 6 years is not nothing in a lifetime.
In an interview with our colleagues you mentioned the book black is not my job, is there hope that things will change for good in France in racial relations?
I think yes, we try at least. In the book they explain how in movies they are asked to play black and often it is very difficult to say no. They explain their own experience at a specific moment in their career. You realize that when you are casted for a movie, you must specify that you are black, you specify a certain number of things that whites do not specify. Which implies that there are specific roles for blacks. Whereas if you are simply seen as part of a larger group this increases your chances of having roles of all kinds. Reducing your career to race and especially to the impact of clichés, reduces your field of action. So, if there's no role for a little crook, chances are you'll never play the role of lawyer when you're black.
Does removing the term race in the French constitution, like it has been done recently, contribute more to the denial of racism than to the solution of the racial question in France?