HAFSIA HERZI BELLYDANCE SCENE - [THE SECRET OF THE GRAIN, KINEMATOGRAFI 2007]

When and why did you decide to become an actress?
I’ve always wanted to do this, it really was my childhood dream. I tried my luck by working as an extra when I was very young. I lived in Marseilles and there wasn’t much of a film scene at the time.
A casting director who’d hired me as an extra three years previously called me about the role in The Secret of the Grain. I was also lucky that the director held major auditions in Paris, Marseilles and Sète. When I went along to the audition, I didn’t even know whether it was for a feature, an advert or a TV drama, and I didn’t know who the director was either.

You didn’t hesitate in gaining 15kg for Secret of the Grain.

What is your method for preparing your roles?
It depends. Every actor makes a role their own and there’s always a bit of your own personality in there.

For Française, I did a lot of sport because the character is dynamic and determined. When I made Iraqi director Abbas Fahdel’s Dawn of the World (released in 2009), in which I play a widow, I focused more on wisdom and gentleness.
In general, I don’t think about it too much in advance. I don’t improvise when the time comes, but I prepare myself three weeks before the film shoot, not six months. But if I’m playing a physical character – a dancer or sportswoman for example – I have to prepare intensively well in advance.

[from an interview to Hafsia Herzi]