French Actress Leïla Bekhti Reveals Racist Barriers in Film Industry

It is in the magazine Marie-Claire that the actress has mentioned her difficult beginnings as an Algerian woman in a closed world. Leïla Bekhti is a French actress with a certain experience in the field. She has even received the César for best female hope in 2011 for her role in "Tout ce qui brille". But her foray into French cinema has not been all smooth sailing. Leïla Bekhti confesses to having faced racist criticism. "I didn’t tell this story to my family, for fear that everyone would worry and think oh, it’s going to be tough for her in this job."

She remembers with a certain pain the final of a casting, where she made a sensation in front of another candidate. But what a surprise when she receives a rather disconcerting phone call from the director. "Listen, you did great auditions, but we hadn’t planned for it to be a rebeue who gets the role." A very shocking message, to which the actress at first did not know how to respond. "He threw it at me almost kindly and benevolently, without realizing the violence of it. So I answered sorry, as if I had a disease, before hanging up. I didn’t have the repartee of today." But once the shock had passed, she says she called him back to tell him directly what she thought of this insult. "In fact, I’m sorry for you, and above all, I’m very glad I’m not doing your movie," she told him. Fortunately, the young woman has always known that she wanted to be an actress and has done everything to become one, despite the obstacles to overcome.

In addition to the racist remarks, Leïla Bekhti also confesses in this interview to having received "too many", according to her, role proposals related to her origins. "The cliché of the veiled, submissive woman, for example, I can’t stand it anymore. The cliché of the eternal big brother who doesn’t want his sister to go out in the evening, the same. Why do some directors stigmatize communities like this? Have they already left their sphere? No, we don’t eat couscous with our feet, and no, the doorbell of our door is not a youyou," she says angrily.

Fortunately today, she is a fulfilled and recognized woman and actress in the world of cinema for her talent. She does not hesitate to give her point of view on certain subjects affecting women. This is the case in October 2019, when she publishes a handwritten letter after a controversy over veiled mothers accompanying school outings. She is appalled by the hatred and rejection of the other that are spreading in society. "I no longer want women to be rejected because they wear a veil or not. I don’t necessarily have the solution. We can call me naive, but despite the haters, the voice of living together exists. It’s up to us to spread it."