Audrey Lamy, Jean-Pascal Zadi, Benjamin Tranié and Eva Huault behind the bars of Surveillant!

Meet the cast of Surveillant!, the new creation by John Wax to watch now on Disney Plus. A very complicit quartet, who never misses an opportunity to tease each other.

After Tout simply noir, John Wax reunites with Jean-Pascal Zadi and this time dabbles in workplace comedy with Surveillant!. The series takes as its setting the daily life of a prison. Filmed day by day by a film crew, a group of prison guards (also made up of Benjamin Tranié and Eva Huault, under the direction of Audrey Lamy) try to do their job there between clumsiness, power struggles and absurd situations. Mockumentary, camera gazes and broken fourth wall: the series constantly plays with the gap between the seriousness of the place and the joyful chaos of those who work there, carried by characters deliciously off the mark.

Comments collected by Julie Rossetto

First: What made you want to join Surveillant! ?

Jean-Pascal Zadi: Already, filming with John Wax. He’s really great. He is the screenwriter and co-director of my film Tout simply noir, which was a huge success. And he’s my friend. And knowing that I was going to shoot with Benjamin Tranié, who did a great dance move to cheer me up, and with Eva Huault…

(He does not quote Audrey Lamy.)

Toxic masculinity!

(He claps Benjamin’s hand.)

But also it’s a comedy that takes place in prison, because we know that humor is always better when it starts from something dramatic. Putting comedy in prison, I knew it was going to work.

Benjamin Tranié: I really liked the script. And that’s what I like about John: there’s always humor, but there’s always a little… (He points his two index fingers in front of him)

Audrey Lamy: Ah! There is your character who returns.

JPZ: What he fears! Is it the character or is it Benjamin?

BT: There is some nonsense, but there is always a bottom! Yeah, I’m a bit nerdy. (laugh)

AL: But I like this little nerdy side.

BT: Thank you. And obviously, the casting!

AL: For me it is above all the originality of the project. The fact that it was a film crew coming to film a team of completely offbeat, crazy, crazy supervisors… There was this thing that amused us all. And we all have characters to defend who are incredible.

And what difference does it make to the game to constantly break the fourth wall?

Everyone: It’s hard!

BT: Because I’m doing quite a bit…

JPZ: At the cinema! (They clap their hands.)

BT: It’s very hard to go the other way and stop looking at the camera. A week after the show finished filming, I moved on to something else and, really, I was just looking at the camera. Honestly, I struggled. The director told me: “But you don’t know how to act.” I swear, I really had a hard time. They must have said to themselves: “Whoa, whoa, we didn’t get the right guy.” It was a disaster. But it was so good. And John told us that we weren’t doing enough when for us it was too much.

Audrey, Corinne is completely off the mark in her way of managing the prison. What did you like about your character?

AL: In fact, she is extremely touching because no prison director, at least I hope, works like her. That is to say, she uses too much empathy. She is sad when they are sad, she cries when they cry. She invests 300% in her profession. She manages this prison like she manages a large daycare center. At the same time, it is very touching. And at the same time, aside from that, she absolutely does not respect the rules, she does anything, she is in profound bad faith. She manipulates everyone. Behind this “I love my inmates” and angelic face, there is a little part of a woman a little more angry than that! And that’s what I like about these characters. Even your character Benjamin who is still vile, who is really very mean.

BT: I would even say a little shit.

AL: And you see, when you say it, we agree! But at the same time, each time we scrape off the varnish a little, we realize that these are characters who are still human and to whom we become attached. Because we still want to see him again. We want to see your character all the time, even though he is odious.

BT: That’s true. I think he’s a deeply lonely guy. And the public realizes this and says to itself: “He’s still a poor guy who’s going to go home alone, who really doesn’t have any friends.”

Eva, Stéphanie arrives in this prison with completely different methods from the others. What amused you about her?

Eva Huault: Basically, for the character of Stéphanie… Before, she was a specialist educator in reformatories. She arrives in the prison, it’s new for her. She wants to do well, she wants to be a good student, but in reality, all she’s going to do is fuck up.

BT: But you’re almost the one with the best methods.

EH: What’s funny about Stéphanie is that she’s very first-rate. For example, in his complicity with JP: he is very heavy, while she is really very first degree. This is what creates the comedy between the two. She tries to do well, she tries to stand up to the inmates, to her colleagues, except that she too will be completely overwhelmed by the situation.

JPZ: In the football scene, it’s like his character. She’s really bad at soccer and she wants to give orders: “Come back, come back!” Pass it! » Even though it is rubbish, rubbish from rubbish! My character took the football match into his own hands. And even on the set, you can ask John Wax, I was a bit of a football consultant. In terms of dribbling, right foot, left foot, opening…

BT: You didn’t get paid extra.

JPZ: I didn’t get paid extra.

BT: He did it for free.

JPZ: No, but we’re going to talk to Disney about it because I was a football consultant at the same salary. So exploitation is enough! (Wink.)

I saved the sequence. I saved the series! Because for me, if we didn’t believe in the football episode, we didn’t believe in anything at all. And it’s not you who was going to save her! Because he is very bad, our Benjamin Tranié. And not just in football. (laugh)

Jean-Pascal, how did you approach this character of JP, both very attentive and sometimes downright heavy-handed?

JPZ: First of all, I want to say something. John Wax, in fact, when he writes something, he’s so happy… Before he made me read it, he said to me: “Ah, you’ll see, it’s you!” Then I read the thing. But how does he see me? How does John Wax see me? Because it projects my personality. So I must have a heavy-handed side, I must have a romantic side… But what I like most about this character is the need for street cred. In fact, he’s a guy from the provinces and he likes to play the street. He is friendlier with the inmates than with his colleagues and I find that really great. The role of the guy who is there: “We are the street”, even though he is a guard. It’s really everything the street hates. And at the same time, he falls in love with the news that arrives. He does his best to seduce her, but he’s super clumsy… But there’s the super nerdy side, “we’re the street”, and at the same time he falls in love. It’s super fun to play. But John Wax irritated me a lot on set because, when I tried to act a little, I tried to do things a little… I played in films! I did some real stuff!

BT: He still has a Caesar.

JPZ: And I have a Caesar! And when I tried to play, John was like, “Cut, cut! Stop playing JP, be yourself!” I’m like: “But the guy is crazy!”

AL: No, but because in life, you sometimes play this kind of guy who gets into trouble, who is convinced that he has crazy charm…

JPZ: But let me believe! Let me play! Let me give you something!

AL: You play in life.

JPZ: Yeah, that’s true, that’s true.

AL: So he was able to use that.

JPZ: No, but it was super enjoyable to play. And then when it’s tailor-made, as he wrote, I almost didn’t need to improvise. Because he anticipated in writing what I do in life.

Overseer, September 16, 2026 on Disney Plus