How Elsa Guedj became the rabbine of the sense of things

The actress tells us about her meeting with Delphine Horvilleur and her approach to a very spiritual role, for a less religious series than she looks. Encounter.

Since yesterday, she has questioned The meaning of thingson max. After being the revelation of Funnyon Netflix, Elsa Guedj speaks before his faithful, embodying a very young rabbine filled with doubts. Between history of faith and family, the actress tells us everything.

First: what an impression left you the book Live with our deaths Delphine Horvilleur, from which the series is taken?
Elsa Guedj : It is a book that made me a lot of effect, because it talks about death and, at the same time, it has a very strong vital energy.

Have you met Delphine Horvilleur to prepare the series?
Yes, I met her after being chosen for the role. We drank some cafes together, I went to see her officer too. I saw her do a bat-Mitzva. I was able to question her about her beginnings as a rabbi. It was not so much to have a model for my character, but rather to understand how she knew how to make her place in the Jewish world. And in French society in general.

Your character, Léa, is one of the few rabbis women in France. How did you get prepared to embody this somewhat special role?
I met other rabbis from the liberal Jewish movement of France, the synagogue to which Delphine Horvilleur is attached. There were very different profiles. I did a little research work on rabbis women in different countries. And then I had a coach in the matter that advised me, guided on the practices of a rabbi and helped me for the liturgical and ritual parties, because I do not speak Hebrew.

For you, it was more stressful to go on stage to do stand-up in Funny (on Netflix) or to stand in front of the faithful to the office?
Clearly, talk to the faithful to the office! Because I do a lot of theater already, so go up stand-up, I can do it, it’s fun. There, the stake was more spiritual so necessarily, it was more scary.

You would say that The meaning of things Is a religious series?
No, not really. Judaism, its traditions, its folklore, if you can say, serve as a framework for history. It is the series of the series. Especially since I have the impression that Judaism is already well known to cinema, it is something familiar for many people who are not Jewish confession. We see him in Woody Allen’s films, or others.

But the series goes further anyway, right? She tells the rites a lot, faith?
Not so much. For me, she mainly speaks of life, death, family and how to find her place in the world. Afterwards, it is true that between Léa and his father (Éric Elmosnino), there is a lot of a question of faith. Does God exist? They wonder, of course. But basically, what the series questions is how to be his parents’ child. Rather, she explores the way in which we welcome her father’s inheritance. How are we dissociated? These are the really central themes of the series, more than faith as such. I have the impression that we don’t care who believe or not. This is the argument of the argument, while the background questions rather: what do we do when we have a child who goes against the values ​​that we think he has instilled in him?

It is a very existentialist series, despite everything. Does it correspond to your vision of things personally?
Yes, downright (laughs)! All that is existential is my thing. This is what makes us human, I think. We are all a little concerned about the same things. The finitude of existence, how to be surrounded, create links … These are the big questions that we all ask ourselves. The goal of the series was to help people find … a meaning in the end.

The sense of things, broadcast on Max from March 28, 2025.