Melvin Boomer has only one series and one film in his filmography as of this writing, but he has already dabbled in both extremes of the cinematic spectrum. In The World of Tomorrow, the miniseries by Katell Quillévéré and Hélier Cisterne which retraces the first steps of the legendary French rap duo NTM, its transformation and performance as JoeyStarr – supervised by the rapper himself – has been unanimously acclaimed. It took me a long time to get rid of this character. I was in a permanent aggressive relationship with my relatives and my friends, I was always making prickly jokes. sufficient for competitions, will choose a reorientation in maieutics. The fear of disappointing his father, who is raising his four boys alone since the death of their mother, will push him to lie about the true nature of his studies in the hope of returning to medicine in three years, thanks to a bridge competition.New departureSee also on KonbiniIf Melvin has never worn the pink blouse of midwives, he put on the pink ballet slippers during his years at the International Dance Academy.“I come from the world of breakdance, a testosterone medium, and then for four years I put on my tights and my little ballet slippers every morning at 8 a.m. I was surrounded by women and there was some transmission, both in terms of dancing , but also personally. It was useful to me for the composition of the character of Leopold because there is this same notion of transmission in the film. the film, the series was not yet available on our screens. It was therefore without the support — but also without the distorting mirror — of his performance as JoeyStarr that Melvin proved, in front of 200 other actors, that he was the perfect half of Karin Viard for whom the role of Nathalie, the midwife who will be his internship tutor, was written. Melvin frankly admits that this radical change of register was voluntary and well intentioned. “I totally thought of it like that because even if the series had not yet been released , I was aware of the category in which it risked locking me up. I’m woven, I played JoeyStarr, a very strong role, I was lucid. And that didn’t fail, as soon as Le Monde demorrow came out, I was only offered projects on hip-hop, the city and roles of thugs. “From the series to the feature film, d a very real charismatic model who inspires and oversees his transformation into a character of composition, from the world of hip-hop whose codes he masters to the mysteries of motherhood, Melvin will take a brand new start which will allow him to forget and to make JoeyStarr forget. “To embody JoeyStarr, I had lost weight and reproduced almost everything he did and was to really put myself in his shoes. It mainly went through the body, gestures and imitation and as I’m a dancer, it’s easier for me. But we can quickly end up in caricatures, so the limit is fine. Léopold, I created him from scratch, I had no model but at the same time, I think that in this character, there are 70% de moi.” After the composition of the character, will come the practice and the internships at the maternity ward of the Saint-Joseph hospital in Paris where the actor will be able to attend two deliveries to familiarize himself with this new world and this impenetrable profession, object of fantasies and illusions. He will be the privileged witness of an uncomplicated, “ideal and harmonious” birth, and of another, more difficult delivery, where the newborn will come into the world in respiratory distress and will have to be resuscitated. . “Jennifer had written the screenplay for the film long before our internship at the maternity ward, but everything we saw in this hospital will happen in the film.” Present in the delivery room to work on a fictional character, Melvin will find himself in the front row seats to the most intimate and important moment in the lives of strangers. To decompress, he puts on his headphones and dances, on set, backstage or in the halls of the maternity ward. something incredibly beautiful and difficult. It’s quite terrifying because at any moment, it could turn tragic. You sometimes want to help but you are not qualified. I was in a corner for fear of disturbing but fortunately, the midwife did not stop involving me. led to knocking on the right door because Sage-Homme is a success. Although the scenario is a little scholarly and the end a bit conventional, it is a film that knows how to mix the intimate with the political with finesse. Leopold’s family sphere is composed with nuance and screenwriter Cécile Sellam has managed to circumvent the expected clichés of the representation of a single-parent, modest and immigrant family on the big screen. Leopold’s father is not the authoritarian or misogynistic father that his apparent harshness or his son’s lies might lead one to believe. He is a father who communicates little but who also knows how to show a lot of instinct when it comes to understanding his boys. Political, the film shows childbirth and women’s bodies with a realism rarely seen in a family film and general public: vulva, placenta and lesson in female masturbation given by Karin Viard to her young intern, the director’s camera does not bother with any false modesty. In contact with his colleagues at the hospital and his classmates, Léopold would become a midwife by profession but also a wise man, who listens, who learns and who understands. Sportsman and son of top athletes – his father practices MMA and his mother rollerblading (or figure skating depending on the sources) in competition — for his first film, Melvin immersed himself in the world of early childhood, which his mother practices daily in her job. Her little sister, meanwhile, wants to become a midwife. The apple therefore never falls far from the tree. “I’m completely matrixed because my next project is totally related to my father. I can’t say anything but if you think carefully, you’ll find out right away. Fate still plays me a damn cool joke.”
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