Frédérique Bel

A few months ago, we were awarded the Madame Figaro Beauté Stars prize by Frédérique Bel, an actress we love!
Today, Frédérique tells us about her career as an actress, and she tells us all about her hair.

Tell me Frédérique, who are you?

I'm an actress, that's it! I was the smart one in the family and I wanted to become a French teacher. But it was financially complicated for me, even though I was on scholarship. I did some jobs, then I was a model and then I became an actress... I didn't think I would become one, I was full of complexes and I wasn't looking for the light at all. But we don't decide much: I think that Heaven decides for us!
 
And I have two "axes" to build my characters:
- My hair: I am a "hairy" actress.
I have very fine hair and for my characters, I put wigs or additions, it allows me to appropriate my characters in a playful way. In fact, my hair really metamorphoses depending on the character. At the beginning, I was a model and I realized that with the chameleon side, I was more "profitable" with a book with many different hair. I kept that as an actress.
- My voice, and that goes through the tone: I can go from low to high and that too is a real strength!

You didn't have the goal of becoming an actress: how did it come about?

As a model, I did 43 commercials in 2 years and I met a lot of directors who opened my eyes: they told me "you are really an actress".
In fact, I am not at all anxious about the camera: I decided that the camera was my mother looking at me. No matter what I do, no matter how ridiculous I am, she will always love me... So what people think doesn't affect me.
 
I didn't and don't think about "making a career" or sacrificing anything. I do this in a fun, profitable and fraternal way: I live my job as something fun and necessary because it allows me to be financially independent. My real ambition is something else, it's spiritual... But I don't deny that I was super proud when Stephen King sent me a message telling me that I was scary in the Mantis !
 
After that, I believe a lot in karma and I think that everything is written: the more you let go, the more you will go to the right place! When you don't let go, when you try to control everything, you end up being more "worn out". 

Tell us about the Minute Blonde...

I stopped the Minute Blonde when we were at the top of the ratings (2.5M) after 400 episodes. I realized that I was conveying an image of women that not everyone understood: it was in the third degree, or even in the thousandth degree, but people didn't understand... well, the viewers understood, but the press or the feminists didn't understand my work, all the finesse and intelligence of the authors: they didn't understand that there were several levels of reading. And then, people started to confuse my character - which was absurd - with me: I wanted to get out of this character, and not let it stick to me.
Besides, since I became a brunette, I have managed to "break" that: I am offered different characters, either more serious, or offbeat, or stupid. I don't try to "shine" in my characters at all: I love to play the character that people don't like, the least sympathetic, the villain. I think that as an actress, we are there to tell a story and not to be the most beautiful. The more we show the character's discrepancy, his flaw, the more we show the humanity of people.

And how do you get into your characters?

I swallow them: they get inside me.
So I really like the idea of being "on assignment". I like the idea of being a director's "thing" for 3 months, when he knows what he wants: my brain goes into off mode and I do what he tells me. But in most cases, the director doesn't know what he wants, so I propose things, things that are always offbeat... I always put a little vertigo into my characters!
My golden rule for making a film is: Love / Money / Art. The film must have at least one of these 3 A's. And of course the best is Love: make a film with the people I love or make a film that delivers a message of Love, and that people come out of the film a little bit taller... but I would pay for that film!

Well, you know us, we have our usual 3 questions we ask our Shaeri girls:

Your #Hairtop ?

Of course, my wig in the Minute Blonde or rather my 2 wigs. The first one was ashy and the second one was lighter, it gave an extraordinary volume. The funny thing is that in real life I have very thin hair: it's so funny that my first character had such a mass on his head! This 'metamorphosis' really amused me!

Your #Hairflop ?

Always a wig story. One day on a shoot, a hairdresser cut my real hair when he wanted to cut the wig!

Your #Hair tips ?