Mariana Mazza takes a liking to cinema. A year after taking on the central role of a film for the first time in Maria, the comedian tackled her biggest challenge as an actress to date by defending one of the main characters in the comedy-drama Vanishing Lines.

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Released in theaters last Wednesday, Lines of Flight, a film adaptation of the play of the same title by author and actress Catherine Chabot, features three high school friends from Beauce who meet for a drunken evening, to Montreal.

Mariana Mazza embodies the most discreet girl of the trio, an expert in finance who earns a very good living and who spins the perfect happiness with her new lover, an English-speaking visual artist.

In an interview, Mariana Mazza says she is “very privileged” to have been offered this role by Catherine Chabot, who co-directed the film with Miryam Bouchard (Mon cirque à moi).

“Catherine [Chabot] told me that she was going to adapt her play into a film and that she would like me to play one of the three girls, relates the comedian. I had already met her by chance, during an evening with mutual friends during which we had talked for a long time, she and I. I think she understood that I had in me the same sensitivity as the character.

"I think she was right because it's true that he's a character who is quite close to me. His desire to succeed in society, to not be ashamed of making money, to assume his sexuality, to come from an immigrant family, that sounds a lot like me. »

Mariana Mazza was also able to understand the friendship problems experienced by the three protagonists of the film during this evening of deep questioning. Like them, the comedian recently went through a difficult time in friendship.

“Two months after the filming of the film, I too had to give up a trio of friends,” she confides. We had been friends for 20 years on the pretext that we had been friends for a long time. Shooting the film overwhelmed me and kind of gave me the courage to make the move. I think that's one of the things that is best written about in the film: how comforting friendship can be, but toxic and boring at the same time. »

Impostor Syndrome

Despite her recent experiences in the film Maria and her appearances in the hit comedies De père en flic 2 and Bon cop, bad cop 2, Mariana Mazza does not hide having been "super complexed" when she landed on the film set of Lignes de flight in the summer of 2021, to work alongside experienced actresses like Catherine Chabot and Léane Labrèche-Dor.

“For me, the challenge was not my character. The challenge was to play with these actresses who come from the theater, who have done a lot of things, who are used to repeating texts, to getting up early after having slept only five hours a night, ”she explains. .

“They are machines, these girls. They taught me to repeat the lyrics, to calm down between takes, to temper my energy... I'm not used to that rhythm. I have my little life and my routine. I go to bed late and I get up late. I am a night girl. So of course I grumbled at the idea of ​​having to get up at 5 a.m. to get my makeup done. It was a really tough challenge. In addition, I was shooting in the summer while I was breaking in my show. I had to make sacrifices that confronted me a lot in my freedom as an artist. But I'm proud that I did! »

She says she also found satisfaction in playing a tidy girl character who isn't the funniest of the gang.

“I like having the spotlight when I'm on stage. But in movies, I've always loved supporting roles. I've always found that it's the supporting characters that make the main characters shine. When we watched the film with the public, no one laughed at my lines. It did me good. Cinema is teamwork and I felt like I was part of the gang! »

Vanishing Lines has been in theaters since Wednesday.