‘Youth is not OK’: Cyberbullying at the center of Prime Video series that helps us understand

We hung up the phone. This Thursday, February 1, Amazon Prime Video invites you to discover its new French series called Nudes.

a true television anthology, naked invites us to discover the three different stories of Victor (Baptiste Masselin), Ada (Nelligan) and Sophia (Léon Dahan-Lamort), three young adults at different ages who do not know each other and have little in common. .

However, they all know each other well naked, that is, nude photos of yourself sent to a trusted person, usually a romantic or sexual partner. Unfortunately, these naked Not always taken or shared with the consent of the person concerned.

For Alocine, Andrea Besconde (Les tickilles when you’re big) and Sylvie Verheide (Stella, Madame Claude), two of the three directors. nakedThey agreed to return to filming the series…

Dedicated to: naked It’s a bit like what we’re used to in terms of series, because it’s an anthology, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, because three different directors (Andrea Bescondi, Lucy Borletto and Sylvie Verheide) were chosen to tell the stories of the three protagonists. How did this project come about? Did you interact or work together at any point in the series?

Sylvie Verheide: In fact, I was the first to come to this project. When Grigori told me about this Norwegian series he bought the rights to and wanted to adapt in France, I immediately said yes, because I not only felt concerned about the subject, but also because I was disappointed after I realized that it was Stella. girlfriend I found some young girls who are great in small roles in it and I wanted to continue working with them.

Together with Grigoris, we thought about who could be the other two directors of the series. Then we were thinking about Andrea.

Andrea Bescondi: And like Sylvie, I was very sensitive to the series’ themes. I was also very interested in starting from the point of view of young people rather than adults.

Grigol first suggested Ada’s story to me, because he knows I talk a lot about child crimes, but I wanted to touch the point of view of the accused boy this time, in Victor’s case. What’s cool is that it was obvious for Lucy to talk about Ada, so we didn’t have a hard time choosing each character!

Sylvie Verheide: After that we had a meeting with Amazon where they told us “Dare!”Which was really cool!

Otherwise, before shooting the series, during its preparation, we consulted. For example, with Andrea, we mixed up our teams a little bit so that there was a sort of consistency between the different stories the series was telling. We also told ourselves that we wanted fiction, not documentary. But then we were at a loss.

What’s amazing about the series is that we don’t talk that much naked But in human relations, abuse is associated with use, not as a danger in itself in this new practice. Was that something important to you?

Andrea Bescondi: Yes, especially since it’s not true: as long as it’s part of a relationship and a consensual process, it can be really cool to share intimate pictures at any age. We have no judgment on this: teenagers are not trying to understand nakedIt’s good or bad, it’s part of their life, that’s all.

The parents also don’t have the suspicious and moralistic look you might expect…

Sylvie Verheide: No, because the parents were also teenagers. They know that in this age, the group matters, even if what they think, of course, it has never been more important than it is today.

Andrea Bescondi: He is. And then, above all, we wanted to decipher the mechanisms of anger, to ask ourselves what drives each character to act in this way.

Sylvie Verheide: We also wanted to say that this kind of situation can happen to anyone, because anyone can, one day, be driven by jealousy, envy or a feeling of abandonment and finally do something.

The tone of the series is quite dark. Why is this choice?

Sylvie Verheide: Because the topic is complicated, we are again talking about three dramas. Young people are not doing well, the suicide rate is on the rise, the lockdown hasn’t helped… and despite it all, there’s still a kind of life force, a vital impulse that comes out of our characters every episode and keeps them going. above the water.

Andrea Bescondi: He is. We started making a series full of life and energy from a gloomy topic. Without wanting to throw flowers at us, our editing is also ultra-dynamic. There are also very lively, very powerful, very visceral soundtracks. After all, we never get into trouble.

The series contains many scenes of nudity or sexuality. Have you used an intimacy coordinator?

Sylvie Verheide: Yes! My concern was to make a series that involved violence naked And that in the end, some people benefit from it naked.

Sofia’s story I’m telling is based on the fact that we see her having sex with a girl at a party. Usually at that moment we asked ourselves what to show, what message we wanted to send. Before that, there was a scene where the script originally planned for Sofia to be completely naked, which I didn’t do. Instead, we envisioned the actress wearing slightly watery makeup.

More broadly, regardless of whether they had been filmed before or not, my actors knew how to assert themselves when they wanted or didn’t want something. We also discussed.

Andrea Bescondi: As for me, I absolutely wanted to avoid showing a woman’s body, even in a sex scene. I wanted it to be preserved. That’s why the video of Sarah that Victor takes, which is what my story revolves around, is never shown and we only see Victor filming it. It was important to me that the only dungeon we see in my episodes was Victor’s in the end.

Moreover, I remember regularly asking the intimacy coordinator for his opinion on filming the sex scene with Victor, but he didn’t complain much because what I wanted to do was quite choreographed, I had a lot. Considering that I guided him a lot. In the end, his presence was mostly comforting.

Sylvie Verheide: It was the same for me. His presence soothes the actors and actresses. It also calms us, the directors. It is important.

For you, is there room to tell other stories in season two? What other director could take over from you?

Sylvie Verheide: Directors too, I hope!

Andrea Bescondi: Of course! It might be interesting to know guys’ views on these topics…

Sylvie Verheide: Either way, I want Hafsia Hertz to do an episode.

Andrea Bescondi: Oh, that would be great! I was also thinking of Maimuna Doucure.

But whoever the director is, the material available on this type of subject is, unfortunately, endless. Look at feminicides: although they are always crimes of possession, the background and motivations of the aggressor can vary, so much so that fiction will not suffice to describe what feminicide is. It’s the same here with cyberbullying. Revenge porn or child crime.

Sylvie Verheide: And then, through the dramas mentioned, it’s also about offering and asking for a sort of snapshot of today’s youth to people who don’t yet have a ready-made vision of youth. . And there’s still a lot to say about it.

Comments collected in Paris on January 24, 2024.