What was your first reaction when reading the script? Did you know this period of US and French history?

When I read the script, I was very happy. I immediately wanted to be one of these eight women whose story I really loved. I started working on the part very quickly because I really wanted to get this role that had touched me so much.

The script was magnificent, and what I liked was the almost summer camp feeling with all the uncontrollable fits of laughter between the women gathered in the American camps.

Everything rings true ; you feel that the director has really done his work researching the subject. The depiction is lively, happy, joyful and tragic at the same time. When I discovered the role of this courageous woman who leaves her country to go to the United States alone with her son, not knowing a word of English, and all of this happening in wartime, I straightaway became excited. Especially since these adventurous women really existed. It is a great honor, a great pleasure, but also a heavy responsibility to portray them.

How did you get into the character that you portray?

I found my inspiration by spending a lot of time with a lady who lived through the war. She taught me a lot and that allowed me to develop another link to time; to dive into another dimension.

But we all prepared together before shooting started. We had to learn to embody a credible and united group. So we literally lived together before, to the extent of sleeping on the set sometimes. We formed some very strong bonds between us. There was real chemistry between us during the entire shoot.

What was the public reaction in France? Do you think that this film will stir different reactions from American and French viewers?

Many viewers were touched by the real affection that develops between these women. The “Festival de la Fiction TV” of La Rochelle awarded us the prize for aspiring young actress, a prize won by the group and not one actress in particular. This is also homage to the women of courage whom we depicted. French director Patrick Grandperret (Murderers), told me that I remind him of his mother, and that touched me deeply. And I hope that this kind of emotion will also be conveyed to American viewers.

Interview by Marine Leclaire and Julien Lafaye