Valérie Karsenti (The Feud / Household Scenes): "To see your child disappear is the worst nightmare"

Joshua Daguenet: You are the heroine of a fiction inspired by a novel by Paula Daly, "Just what kind of mother are you? What did you bring to your character in relation to that of the book?

Valérie Karsenti: I did not read the book but only the script and the producer Sidney Gallon was able to draw freely on the author who gave him all the rights of adaptation. When he came to see me, he offered me this scenario and I brought my interpretation.

Lisa is gnawed by guilt after the disappearance of Claire's daughter. Is it worse for her than if her own daughter had been abducted?

It's very difficult to imagine. In terms of dramaturgy, it's atrocious. She has the sorrow of mother and less but the guilt more. Now, Lisa already has inferiority complexes, she believes that others do everything better than she does. This fault, or rather this negligence, resounds terribly in her, and that brings her back to the nullity she thinks she is. She must make an attempt to repair a fault she thinks she has committed. Seeing your child disappear is the worst nightmare anyway.

Claire's sister has a dislike for Lisa, and the adults settle their accounts amidst teenage dramas. Do we ever become totally "responsible"?

I do not think adults settle their accounts but rather life goes on. Claire's sister has a psychological problem because she can not have children and she is in permanent rivalry with other women. She uses the drama to let her hysteria burst but her problem already exists before the tragedy.

"Lisa believes that others do everything better than she does"

On the fiction poster the phrase "Sometimes negligence is worse than crime". How would you defend this statement?

I can not defend it. In negligence, the responsibility is tiny in relation to the crime. These two terms have nothing to do. I can only think that the scriptor relied on Lisa's guilt to write this sentence.

You form with Philippe Lelièvre a very unstable couple who is based on a big lie. How did Lisa, who seemed at the beginning of fiction wanting control of everything, let the events escape her?

For me, this couple is very stable even if there is an event that happens but she is drunk and a guy takes advantage of it. Lisa's husband knows her well, knows she doubts and how fragile she is. The situation makes Lisa make mistakes but that does not call into question their relationship. Very often, everything is smooth in French fiction. They are extremely Manichean and the characters are negative or positive but in life, it's never like that. At the time of writing Fault, I said that Lisa should not justify her actions because sometimes bullshit in life. We must not have moral judgment on the characters otherwise we do not tell anything.

In Scenes of households, Paul Lefèvre embodies your son Manu, in his thirties, while in Faulthe is a police officer and your children are much younger. This fiction rejuvenates you …

Liliane and Lisa are the same age but they are not the same women at all. The first is simple, it is neither makeup nor capped and wears mountain shoes … she is not sophisticated and she looks younger. When I turned Fault, I met Paul, a boy I really like, and I thought of him to embody my son in Scenes of households. I do not have any problem of image and I do not care to be rejuvenated or aged …

"I do not have any problem of image … I do not care to be rejuvenated or aged"

Shortly after your debut as Liliane, you camped one of the main characters in Brothel until 2013. Is it important for a well-established actress to vary her register as soon as the opportunity arises?

I shot both sets at the same time so I was not anchored in any role. I do not choose them based on what I've done before. I do not try to prove anything, I choose comedies, dramas and characters that interest me. My choices are sincere, I have nothing to catch up or change.