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Théo Curin took his first steps in cinema with the TV movie Handigang by Stéphanie Pillonca, broadcast on Monday May 2 on TF1. The quadri-amputee Paralympic swimmer won the leading role in this fiction adapted from the eponymous novel, in which he plays Sam, a high school student with a disability and revolted by the lack of visibility granted to him. Interviewed by Doctissimo, Théo Curin reveals his motivations, his dreams and his commitments.
Athlete, model, columnist and now actor… What prompted you to take up this new challenge?
Theo Curin: The idea of challenging yourself, of going into areas that seem inaccessible to me. In my family, no one is an artist, I was born in the countryside and my parents had absolutely no means to pay me for a theater school. I’ve always loved cinema, but it seemed inaccessible to me. When this opportunity came to me, I said to myself that it was an incredible opportunity: a first role as a bonus on TF1!
The opportunity was crazy, and moreover, on a subject that touches me. before turning HandigangI thought “But how will it be? If it happens, I’m going to be useless…”. But it’s also what makes me strong today: I’m still looking for progress, performance, thanks to sport. One thing is certain: I want to progress in this environment, thanks to these solicitations.
With Handigang, you choose to commit to the accessibility and visibility of people with disabilities. Why is it important for you to talk about it today?
Theo Curin: What is important for me is to differentiate the idea of sending a message and that of being in the permanent claim. Handigang could have been a trap, without stopping in the claim; “You’ve seen what’s wrong there, there and there”. In this film, we highlight important causes, we obviously talk about disability and accessibility, but we mainly talk about a teenage crisis. That’s what struck me, and what appealed to me. We also talk about homosexuality.
Today, it is important that we stop categorizing people. Just because I’m disabled doesn’t mean I’m going to talk about disability. From the moment we want to defend values, whatever they are, we have to do it. And this film is just that, quite simply: it talks about things that can be taboo in society, and we break it all up with a cocktail of benevolence, love and fun.
Contrary to what its name suggests, the objective of Handigang is to give visibility to the handicap, but also to all the minorities, too little considered in society…
Theo Curin: Exactly ! Disability, homosexuality and young people too. I think that young people can identify with Handigang, even if they are not disabled. A young person who passes the baccalaureate can recognize himself in this film. We can all identify with this film.
You crossed Lake Titicaca by swimming in November 2020, in particular to defend the ecological cause, you had the leading role in a TF1 TV movie to talk about (among other things) disability… How far would you be ready to go to raise awareness?
Theo Curin: I can go very far as long as I enjoy doing things. Everything I do today, I don’t do it to claim something at first. I do it for fun. Crossing Lake Titicaca, for example, was first and foremost to take up a challenge, it was for me. But I try to add, to each challenge, to each solicitation, a cause. Today I think we can no longer embark on a project without thinking of others. In all my sports projects, there will be an environmental thought behind. Same for Handigangit was first a personal pleasure, then there was the cause of the difference.
Does it bother you that people associate your various activities with activism, because you have a disability?
Theo Curin: Of course it annoys me. People think “It’s Théo Curin, the one who will take up the cause of disability”. For example, I am a speaker for companies, and it revolts me when people think that I am going to come to their company to talk about disability for an hour. No, I’m going to talk about surpassing oneself, personal development, how to bounce back after a glitch.
Finally, what are your future projects?
Theo Curin: In terms of cinema, I would like to do other castings. For now, it’s pretty quiet. I think the spread ofHandigang will open a lot of doors for me, at least I hope so. On the sport side, I will participate in the Santa Fe-Coronda challenge in Argentina, a 57 km aquatic marathon, in November 2022. I also have projects in animation, I would like to be an actor and animator. Hosting a TV show is one of my goals, especially for young people. If tomorrow, a child gets up, turns on the TV, and sees on a children’s channel, a guy who has no arms, no legs, who talks about things that have nothing to do with disability, message, it’s here! And the child who will wake up every morning in front of this scene, he will no longer have the same look at the guy who is in an armchair in his school.
A very concrete example that I often use: when I lived with my parents, my neighbors had a child who grew up with me, he never asked me what had happened to me, and the day he went back to school, the first friend he made was deaf. From the moment you grow alongside the difference, you are more open, you put up fewer barriers, that’s the message; the importance of representation.
Interview by Juliette Gendron