Currently starring in the 4th season of Lupin, released on October 23rd on Netflix, Soufiane Guerrab, 39, has an already rich career. He has acted in notable films such as Patients, La Vie Scolaire, and De bas étage. The actor retains from his youth in Rosny-sous-Bois, in the Marnaudes neighborhood, a sense of freedom that continues to empower him.
In the series Lupin, he plays Youssef Guedira, a sharp inspector engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with Arsène Lupin. In La Vie Scolaire, currently being filmed at Federico Garcia Lorca college in Saint-Denis after the film's success, he portrays M. Bouffara, a math teacher close to his students. These two works, produced by Netflix, reveal aspects of the personality of Soufiane Guerrab, an instinctive and freedom-loving actor.
"I strongly believe in encounters. I am also very drawn to energies. Before the script, I like to meet people and feel things. We are in a profession where we give ourselves completely, so to be effective, I need to fully trust the director I'm working with," explains Soufiane Guerrab.
This trust he found with Omar Sy, producer of the 4th season of Lupin, and Mehdi Idir, with whom he had previously worked on Patients and Monsieur Aznavour. The series about school years brings the actor back to his own youth. "You ask me what my school was like in Rosny, well, I want to say all of them, because I went to all of them," he laughs. He describes his schooling as "free," practicing this love of freedom at school, "without being mean, mind you." He humorously recalls the idea of playing a math teacher today.
As a child from the popular Marnaudes neighborhood in Rosny, surrounded by "loving parents" and "extraordinary siblings," he dreamed more of being like Zidane than Roschdy Zem. Cinema literally fell into his lap at 19, one rainy day in Paris. "I saw black tents where I took shelter for a moment. A guy told me it was a shoot and I shouldn't be there. So I left, but the rain intensified. The guy, feeling remorseful, told me to take shelter but not to move. As I'm curious, I ended up asking a lot of questions to another guy, Stéphane, who later became my agent. He told me about a casting a few weeks later, inviting me to apply. I did, and I got the part. It was the film Mes Copines, my first appearance in cinema," recalls the Rosny native who believes in "his lucky star" or "God's grace", depending on the day.
"Life is not unfair; it often rewards those who seize their chance," insists Soufiane Guerrab. He acknowledges that cinema has evolved to better represent the diversity of French society. "In any case, you shouldn't stay in your corner; you always have to try," he states. In 2018, he launched the Tapis Bleu festival in Rosny to encourage young people to express themselves. He attributes his self-confidence to his parents, "my father, who passed away when I was 18, and my mother, who always surrounded me with love. No matter where you grow up, that's what's most important."
Soufiane Guerrab, who describes himself as "a creative," spends his time writing, a passion he would one day like to bring to the screen or in a book. He had already directed the short film T6 dément in 2012, shot in Rosny. For him, writing is a "vital need," a way of painting with bright colors.
