From 1996 to 2008, Sous le soleil, starring Tonia Kinsinger, Adeline Blondio, Benedict Delmas, Romeo Sarfat and Avi Marciano himself, fascinated TF1 viewers for at least 14 seasons and 480 episodes. The prenatal spin-off in 2013 was simply called Sous le soleil de Saint-Tropez.
Although the series is cult for many viewers and the full version has been available for a few days now on Salto, Avi Marciano, who met at the Monte Carlo TV Festival last year, talks to our microphone about the success of the program, his partners time and opportunity to see the sun one day. Will return that form.
Don’t forget to go back to the story that revealed him the most, namely the arrival of David Callas in Season 7, who was nothing more than Samuel, the character he played at the beginning of the series and who eventually died. Season 4.
AlloCiné: You have starred in several successful series like Plus belle la vie or Sous le soleil before. Do people still talk a lot about the sun and Samuel when they meet?
Avi Marciano : of course. This series was very memorable, both for the people and for us who played in it. There is no reason for it to be in people’s heads, not to be in my head. My head is under the sun, it’s too late, the memories are still very fresh. As if it was yesterday and 25 years have passed since the start of the series.
Remember the first day of filming at Sous le soleil?
Even perfectly. It was so special because I was in hell watching (laughs). Since I was young, I was impressed. I wanted to, so I was a little clumsy. I even remember the first moment in Saint-Tropez, with the team, Adlyn Blondio. I remember everything.
Speaking of Adlyne, do you still have contact with her and your ex-partners?
Yes, I stay in touch with the actors of Sous le soleil that I have worked with. I am very good friends with Gregory Fitus, Romeo Sarfati, David Brekur, Frederick Deban.
As for the girls, I had the opportunity to meet Benedict Delma on many shootings as he has since become a director. With Tonia Kinzinger playing today at Un Si Grand Soleil, we have rarely seen each other, but I still have a great love for her and we send each other news regularly.
As for Adlin Blondio, he has moved away from this profession a bit. I also have a lot of tenderness towards him, I have very fond memories, but today we talk less.
Is there a story that stood out to you in particular?
I do not know if we can talk about specific conspiracies, but there is a period that fundamentally pointed me out: it was the death of Samuel. I expressed a desire to stop and the authors came up with this idea. I did not think killing him was very clever, but it did happen.
Finally, three years later, Pascal Breton, the producer of the series, asked me to come back. In addition to the fact that the character was dead, we had to find a trick. The authors even came up with the idea to come up with David Callas, who looked like Samuel (laughs).
Which often happens in soaps …
Yes (laughs). Of course, for this reason: because the actors chose to leave the adventures at some point. But at the time he was very new. I even think I was the first to experience it in France.
Did you enjoy a game like this Samuel?
At first, no. To be honest, I was very embarrassed at first. I did not understand how I found the best way to play this character. Especially since they really did not allow us to. I was too young to inherit being authentic and trustworthy.
It was the will of the producer and writers to get me back to the series and re-create a pair with Adlyn. It does not matter the means until we have the result. We saved a bit on credibility, but people agreed to it very quickly. What they wanted was to find this pair.
The series celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021. Why do you think “under the sun” remains in the minds of important people?
Because it was a novelty, a journey, a window into southern France and Saint-Tropez. The French Riviera, in the opinion of the people, is a bit phantasmagoric, it is a place of dreams, of all excesses. And then I think the characters were so well defined that they could enter people’s hearts and never leave them.
Under the Sun already had a sequel called Saint-Tropez under the Sun. Do you still think it is possible to return to the series one day?
Why not, but in a different way, because it is no longer possible to shoot in the conditions in which we were shooting. Today television has changed. The novelty of Sun Under the Sun is that we filmed it, so the series at that time had a cinematic quality that no longer exists today.
On the other hand, shooting a 90-minute episode or TV movie in which we find aging characters will not be bad. Like friends recently, or a lot of TV series that had the right to reunite episodes. I would gladly exist.
Source: allocine
Camila Luna is a writer at Gossipify, where she covers the latest movies and television series. With a passion for all things entertainment, Camila brings her unique perspective to her writing and offers readers an inside look at the industry. Camila is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in English and is also a avid movie watcher.
