‘Drops of God’ star Fleur Geffrier tells tales like a sommelier does


The breathtaking first season of Apple TV+ drama Drops of God was deeply, compulsively consumable, identical to the fantastic wine on the present itself. An enchanting portrait of obsessives consumed by a familial burden — and the promise of thousands and thousands — the season wrapped right now with a implausible finale.

Cult of Mac spoke to steer actor Fleur Geffrier concerning the means of inhabiting a wine knowledgeable’s palette, the challenges and classes she discovered whereas making Drops of God, and the best way to make the interior exterior.

An interview with Fleur Geffrier of Drops of God

Based mostly on the manga of the identical identify, Drops of God issues Camille Léger (performed by Geffrier), a lady whose world is rocked by the demise of her estranged father, Alexandre Léger (Stanley Weber), which sends her on a sudden plunge into the world of high-stakes wine gross sales and information.

Camille is thrust right into a form of duel with Issei Tomine (Tomohisa Yamashita) for her father’s fortune. Every should show they perceive wine and the teachings Alexandre tried to impart to them, the issues about wine that make life price residing. I spoke to the charming Geffrier concerning the present as its final episode was about to air.

Cult of Mac: I write about TV for a residing, so can get used to the concept I’m by no means going to see something really new and thrilling. So I used to be pleasantly shocked when this present checked out first, after which acted ultimately, like very little else on tv. Whenever you started studying these scripts after which performing this character, what was it like to find what Camille’s journey on this world was going to be?

Fleur Geffrier: I actually loved having such a very good time with Camille. I felt actually near her. I felt it once I learn the script. I used to be visualizing myself within the scenes; it was bizarre and particular and intriguing. After I was on set, it was easy! I don’t know the best way to clarify it. The work we did with the director Oded Ruskin — we obtained alongside and we understood one another shortly and effectively. I knew my traces by coronary heart straight away, and I got here on stage and Camille was there! I felt actually near her in some ways. Generally I used to be shocked as a result of she’s type of humorous. That shocked me slightly, to be sincere.

Bringing the character of Camille to life on Drops of God

Cult of Mac: A lot of the present is about Camille’s thought course of, the best way she thinks about issues, remembers them, intuits them. It’s very a lot about externalizing what are by nature very inner processes.

Geffrier: It’s attention-grabbing as a result of the truth is all the method she goes by … the very first thing is to be in, to expertise the feeling of the wine. Then there’s the inquiry she does together with her buddies. It’s inquiry about wine but it surely’s principally about her father. She tries to bond with him by this; it’s very intimate, all of this. It’s one thing from the intestine.

As an illustration when Camille describes a wine … I actually tried to really feel all the pieces she was feeling. How a style can change you. A scent that connects with reminiscence. Everyone knows the way it feels to recollect one thing and really feel these issues. Camille was a lot the identical; I attempted to attach together with her inside youngster.

Getting inside Camille’s stomach, not her head

Fleur Geffrier and Tomohisa Yamashita in <em>Drops of God</dm>
Issei (performed by Tomohisa Yamashita, left) and Camille (Fleur Geffrier) work with wine in Drops of God.
Picture: Apple TV+

Cult of Mac: She’s a really tightly wound character, however as you say there’s numerous humor. How do you stroll that tightrope with out overthinking it? I might suppose that might be an awfully tough activity.

Geffrier: It’s completely to do with instinct. Feelings. Emotions. It’s all occurring within the stomach, like right here [she indicates her stomach], it’s not right here [she points to her head], and he or she tries to place into phrases what she feels. The wine, her feelings, her father. She discovers the wine and on the similar time, she reconnects together with her personal historical past. She rediscovers herself.

Cult of Mac: And to deal with all of this whereas additionally working by a complete universe of terminology regarding a self-discipline that should have appeared so alien earlier than the present began …

Geffrier: I watched some actual sommelier assessments, which was fairly spectacular. I skilled with a French sommelier named Sébastien Pradal for a morning. We got here to his restaurant, he opened some wine and he made us scent it and style it at 9 within the morning. That was type of humorous. You will get slightly drunk on two hours of smelling. You may really feel your head spinning slightly.

Simply to reassure you, on the set we have been principally ingesting water. Meals is the worst. You may see on some reveals, like I bear in mind on Massive Bang Principle, I watched it rather a lot they usually’re consuming salad however they’re simply doing this [she mimes poking a plate with a fork and laughs]. For those who put meals in your mouth, you need to do it repeatedly and once more. There’s a scene within the second episode the place I drink a full glass of wine. It was grape juice. I believe we did 16 takes? Ten or 15. By the tip, my stomach was making bizarre noises. I can’t drink that anymore, that’s for certain. We had actual wine for filming close-ups as a result of you’ll be able to see the tears of the alcohol and you may at all times inform when it’s not actual. The primary time I did it, I used to be nervous.

We obtained some coaching on the best way to maintain a glass, first issues first. What does a sommelier do? How do they practice? How do they work? It’s type of a superpower but it surely’s principally coaching. It’s like telling a narrative. It’s like being an actress, truly. You need to inform a narrative concerning the wine and catch the viewers and make them consider their story. I believe more often than not, it doesn’t matter what the wine is, it’s about the way you inform the story. The way you develop an concept, which is similar factor I do in my job.

Cult of Mac: Of all of the belongings you discovered, what shocked you most?

Geffrier: I discovered about me and my job. I discovered to be within the second. To be current. To calm down and belief your self. I bonded with the crew — we have been all in it collectively as a group, as a giant household. I felt like I used to be on the proper place on the proper time with all these individuals. I discovered rather a lot about wine, in fact. I really feel extra assured in selecting wine at a restaurant.

The most effective moments in Drops of God

Fleur Geffrier and Tom Wozniczka during the cathartic finale of <em>Drops of God</em>
Camille (performed by Fleur Geffrier, left) and Thomas (Tom Wozniczka) embrace throughout the cathartic season finale of Drops of God.
Picture: Apple TV+

Cult of Mac: Most likely my favourite second on the present occurs within the penultimate episode when Camille is about to enter what she thinks is the final problem, and he or she goes to the closet in her lodge room and finds a go well with hanging there. And also you stuffed this couple of seconds with such that means and portent; the go well with appears to signify the determine of her lifeless father, but additionally the particular person she may have been.

Geffrier: I keep in mind that second, it was particular. It was all ready for her, and he or she’s nonetheless alone on this closing. On this second, she’s alone. She’s coming into this room and doesn’t know what’s going to occur, and he or she thinks it’s the tip, the final problem, after which she sees this costume.

You completely get it — the absent father, perhaps her future, perhaps one other life she may have lived. She didn’t select this life. She agreed to a few of it, however she didn’t select a lot of her life, even her selections aren’t for her. It was actually solemn.

About that Drops of God season finale …

Cult of Mac: I used to be shocked by the ending, having been skilled by numerous status TV to count on a much less sunny outlook. How did you are feeling about it? To me, it felt like the competition may have gone the opposite manner. I used to be conflicted and nervous. By the tip, I wasn’t certain what I needed.

Geffrier: What did you wish to occur?

Cult of Mac: I don’t know! I imply, I really feel like your character may have dealt with the frustration higher! Issei is so disciplined and his feelings are at an extra take away and your character was slightly extra used to life. It will have been extra devastating for Issei if he misplaced versus Camille. I felt for him!

Geffrier: What she’s reacting to is that she thought she was attending to know and bond together with her father, to know the particular person he was, however then she realizes he’s not the particular person she thought he was. There’s a scene the place she asks Lorenzo about Luca, when she finds out he’s solely involved with cash. She asks, “Do you suppose my father was like this?” She doesn’t know, however he says, “I don’t suppose so, no.”

And he isn’t however he’s nonetheless horrible. She’s devastated, she thinks perhaps the entire thing was a method to bond together with her brother, however no. She realizes he’s simply this man who desires the perfect of his youngsters to … effectively, it’s actually fucked up. What does he suppose, he’s god? She feels betrayal, and much more so when she realizes her father was dishonest on her mom. Why do you try this? You ask for the drops of god. She takes it actually laborious and this look on her face … she has a giant mood.

Cult of Mac: Is it safer and/or simpler so that you can try to discover the emotional content material of the character inside your self, in your previous experiences, or to invent it from entire fabric?

Geffrier: Invention. I at all times attempt to step into my character’s sneakers, their physique, to really feel what she feels. To not try to bear in mind how I handled any emotion prior to now. I attempt to actually think about what Camille would have felt.

Watch Drops of God on Apple TV+

The complete first season of Drops of God is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Rated: TV-MA

Watch on: Apple TV+

Watch on Apple TV

Scout Tafoya is a movie and TV critic, director and creator of the long-running video essay collection The Unloved for RogerEbert.com. He has written for The Village Voice, Movie Remark, The Los Angeles Overview of Books and Nylon Journal. He’s the creator of Cinemaphagy: On the Psychedelic Classical Type of Tobe Hooper and However God Made Him A Poet: Watching John Ford within the twenty first Century, the director of 25 function movies, and the director and editor of greater than 300 video essays, which might be discovered at Patreon.com/honorszombie.



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