The 20th season of “France Has Incredible Talent” starts on October 14 and Marianne James puts on her juror costume again. The opportunity for her to tell us some secrets in an interview.
The irresistibly outspoken singer, Marianne James, gave us an exclusive interview on the occasion of her return to the jury chair of France has incredible talenton M6. For the Women’s Journalshe confides candidly about what makes her heart beat during the performances of the different candidates, her trips back and forth between Paris and the provinces, her new professional projects and this little temptation of retirement… or not.
Already 8 years in Incredible Talentno weariness?
Our job is to keep a soul, a spirit as sharp as it was 8 years ago. For example, it’s not because I sing myself that I’m going to be bored of hearing female singers. And it’s not because I spent 8 years Incredible Talent that I’m going to be bored to see a little Russian couple pole dancing. And then it’s extremely bad for the program and for us.
“We are paid well enough to…”
Myself, when I watch, as a viewer, other shows where there are also jurors and one of them is showing off because he is jaded, because he has already seen everything, because he doesn’t have much vocabulary to say why he doesn’t like it… Well, I react. Aloud. All alone, on my couch. I say: ‘But go ahead! Tell us why you don’t like it! With your big ass in your chair!’ I’m like everyone else! I don’t like being jaded. I find that we are paid well enough not to have a blasé attitude. So we are very careful to be sharp in our judgments.
What triggers your desire to buzz or not?
When I understand very quickly that we are dealing with a mechanism, at such a level of work that, even if I have never been a dancer and I do not know the vocabulary of dance, I perceive that technically, we have a couple who are dancing and that it is just a marvel. When, for example, we come close to the level of the Paris Opera, or something in that spirit.
So either I recognize, intellectually, that there is real rare work being given, or I am emotionally touched. But really touched. So much so that I’m a little intoxicated, without understanding exactly why I like this performance.
Was it complicated to manage the filming ofIncredible Talent while you live part of the year in Drôme?
I am Madame TGV! I am lucky, in my pretty town of Montélimar, to have two TGVs per day. And I really take it as if I were borrowing an RER. It takes 2 hours 50 minutes to get to Paris. It gives me time to revise a text that I haven’t learned, to send emails that are a little overdue, to drink coffee and go to sleep. It’s been so natural for me to take the train for 30 years that, honestly, I don’t notice the difference at all now.
Could you leave Paris permanently to settle in Drôme?
Ah, I’m greedy… With me, it’s not cheese or dessert… It’s cheese and dessert! I love Montélimar for several reasons. You breathe well there, the light is beautiful, I can swim there every day, I have a great swimming pool. I’m fine, I’m in my garden. I have beautiful flowers. We have barbecues and pétanque competitions. It really is the dream life.
“I alternate one week in Paris, four weeks in the South”
And I like Paris because I have a whole series of places where I like to go to eat Thai, Vietnamese or Japanese but also Cameroonian. I can watch films in the original version. There are festivals. There are some very beautiful exhibitions that I don’t want to miss. There are always incredible exhibitions. There’s also seeing old friends again. There are also shops that I will never find in Montélimar. I have a cultural life in Paris which is exceptional. I am very lucky not to not live like others because I am an artist. I love my apartment in Paris. I alternate one week in Paris, four weeks in the south.
After the success of “It’s all in the voice“, what are your next projects?
I should follow up with a new show. I was very, very afraid to be on stage without being in a character with a Russian accent or a German accent. And in the end, I realized that just being ‘Marianne’ really appealed to people. The public responded beyond all expectations. It was supposed to take 3 years, but it ended up taking 4 years. It was absolutely armored everywhere!
Honestly, I should get back into performing. I’m supposed to write the new show but, at the same time, I’m torn between that and retirement… I’d like to enjoy my house, I’d like to go mushroom growing, enjoy spring. However, when we go on tour, we don’t see spring, autumn or winter… So I wanted to take a little break. But in my opinion, I’m going to get bored and I’m going to go back to it, especially since I already have the subject… It’s ‘sketched’, it’s hot.
No retirement in perspective?
I think it’s a little too early to stop the scene. Around 70, I would stop. But at the same time… get up without having to take a train, go mushrooming, have friends over – who themselves are retired -, go hiking, go to thalassotherapy whenever you want, whether it’s open or closed, travel… When you’re in good mental and physical health and you have a little money, all day and night to yourself, I can say that you don’t get bored. It’s an eternal vacation. It’s great.
