This Saturday, September 16, Muriel Robin threw a wrench in the pond of French cinema. Invited by Léa Salamé and Christophe Dechavanne in the show Quelle époque! to discuss the play Le Lapin (by Samuel Benchetrit), in which she shares the bill with Pierre Arditi, the actress affirmed that her coming out had closed the doors of the 7th art to her: “If we are homosexual[le], we are not desirable, we are not penetrable and when we are not penetrable in the cinema, we are worth nothing, she asserted. If you are old, you are no longer penetrated, if you are ugly, you are no longer penetrated, “penetrated”, “desired” is the same word, I say a strong word to understand what we are talking about . »
An intervention which triggered thousands of reactions on social networks (the video extract of the sequence reached 22.3 million people on Twitter and 2.3 million on Instagram) and to which she returned on the occasion of the promotion of his next fiction Les Yeux Grands Fermes, which will tackle the delicate subject of incest on October 2 on TF1. The actress and comedian notably explained why she waited 30 years before denouncing what she considers to be a banning of homosexual comedians: “I could not have said it before like I do today, in going well. It wasn’t long ago that the tears stopped. It was this year! she told Le Point. But the tears are over, and I think it shows. This is not about me, because that would have been… vulgar. It’s not a question of saying: Oh dear, I’m the poor actress who doesn’t get a role. What is important is the message. »
Beyond denunciation, Muriel Robin especially wishes to alert the younger generation: “Today, we talk a lot about transparency. Young homosexuals want to be transparent and not hide their homosexuality. I want to tell them that this may not go very well, not the way they want it… I would like my experience to be useful! » she told us. The actress also hopes to spark a broader debate on the subject, which would bring together “directors, producers who would speak the truth”. However, she has few illusions about her result: “As it’s a bit violent, would they admit that when the name Muriel Robin came up on their table, they said no? No, no one will say that,” continued the woman who can, on the other hand, boast a great career on TV.
Since Marie Besnard, the Poisoner, which earned her the Emmy Award for Best Actress in 2006, Muriel Robin has had a string of notable roles on the small screen. We will notably cite that of Jacqueline Sauvage, in the fiction Jacqueline Sauvage, c’tait lui ou moi (2018, TF1), or even Agnès Bauer, a journalist whose husband is accused of sexual assault in the TV film Doubts (2021, Arte ): “It should be noted that my homosexuality does not pose a problem on television, even though we have no interest in taking risks in terms of audience…” she points out.
In fact, Muriel Robin brings together millions of viewers for each of her TV performances: more than 11 million for Marie Besnard, 7.7 million for Jacqueline Sauvage, or even 5.7 million on average for the series Mon Ange broadcast in January 2022 on TF1: “So it’s a real subject,” she continues. There is a lot to say about this. There is a state of affairs and we cannot contradict it. I experienced it, she continues, before calling for the organization of a “cross-conversation in a newspaper. I would like to have feedback, to understand why we got to this point.” The call is on!
