Madeleine Sarr was born in Montreal in 1996 to Senegalese parents and grew up in Villeray. When she watched the show “La petite vie” with her father, she discovered the joy of playing. And began to be enthusiastic about this profession. In high school in Père-Marquette, the teenager joined an after-school theater group. But the young woman has no illusions about her future in the theater.
Posted at 7:00 am.
“My parents didn’t see it,” she remembers. My mother kindly suggested that I go to university after CEGEP “for something more serious.” I kept telling my mom: Do you want me to become a doctor and make $200,000 a year while being miserable? I prefer eating pasta and doing theater [rires]. »
It must be said that the theater and television industry in Quebec in the early 2000s was whiter than white.
When I was younger, white actresses were my role models; Black women were very rare on Quebec television. I wasn't aware of this when I was 14, but today I realize that I lacked role models. And also stories and fictional stories that are closer to my reality.
Madeleine Sarr
However, her parents did not discourage their daughter when she told them that she wanted to attend the National School in 2016. “And today my parents are really happy for me,” she says.
Why we chose this
Because she is the winner of the Quebec Association of Theater Critics (AQCT) Award for Best Female Performance for her role in Rome, directed by Brigitte Haentjens, created at Usine C in 2023.
Things change
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The actress Madeleine Sarr, in December 2023, at the La Presse studios.
Things have changed rapidly between his early days at the National School and today! “I look at Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong'o and several other black actresses. “I am working more and more often with colleagues of Haitian and African descent,” she says. Our body shape, our facial features, the way we move… none of it is the same. I started as a deconstruction work. »
COVID-19 action
The 27-year-old actress completed her acting training… at the beginning of the pandemic when all theaters were closed. “When you leave theater school, it no longer matters. With COVID it was like double nothing! But everyone was in the same boat and of course I'm not worried. »
Then everything happened. After the Quat'Sous auditions in 2021, he was offered projects and labs. The professor and director of the ENT clinic, Frédéric Dubois, then suggested that he should continue the question “What time do we die?” at Quat'Sous.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
During a reading of Antony and Cleopatra before the creation of the Rome River Show last spring
Then came the TV roles and a call from Brigitte Haentjens to play in Rome. “I thought she was offering me the role of a plebeian that we can see backstage… But no: she is offering me Cleopatra! » When she received the Critics' Prize last December, she had her marks: “Her interpretation of Cleopatra was able to give a unique, astonishing and impressive vision to a historical figure who is nevertheless very well known,” wrote the jury from Montreal. She concludes that she “blinded the critics”…
The career of this young prime minister, who dreams of playing several big roles, has taken off!
His news for 2024
This year, Madeleine Sarr will play Nina in The Seagull, an adaptation of Chekhov's classic by Guillaume Corbeil and directed by Catherine Vidal. The show will be at Prospero from March 12-30 and then at the NAC French Theater in Ottawa from April 11-13. She will also be involved in filming the third season of Cérébrum. “But I can’t say anything more,” she said.