Les Sentinels: Louis Peres recounts his transformation into super-soldier for Canal +
Hero of the Canal+series, the 28 -year -old actor embodies Gabriel transformed into a war machine. Between physical role, intimate heritage and human tragedy, he tells how he appropriated this super soldier’s character in the trenches of the First World War.
First: At the start of the sentries, there is the comic strip of Xavier Dorison. How did you discover it?
Louis Peres: I did not read comics, because I did not want to be imbued by someone else’s imagination on the role of Gabriel. I have always done that. I do not like to be influenced and, when I played Étienne Lantier in the adaptation of Germinal for France 2 (in 2022), I did not watch Renaud’s performance in the film by Claude Berri (1993). I always try to create my own story. Otherwise, the risk is to be polluted, even unconsciously, by an image of Épinal. And then for the sentries, the series took a lot of distance from the original work. So I created my own character.
Your character, Gabriel, is a very damaged hero. How did you approach it?
I tackled it in its duality. For me, the sentries is a human tragedy. Gabriel is a man to whom we will give superpowers, who will give him extraordinary capacities. And at the same time, it will increase his faults, both physical and psychological. So I tried a lot to understand his injuries, why he got there, what he feels in the bottom. This is how I could appropriate this universe.
Have you seen similarities between Gabriel and Étienne Lantier, who are both “broken mouths” at the bottom?
No, I think they are quite different. Étienne Lantier always has someone to support him, like the Maheu, who prevent him from abandoning. Gabriel is a kind of lone wolf. His only quest is to come back to his wife and son. But he has so much darkness in him, that he knows how to be a danger for his own family. In that, he is a deeply tragic character: he tends to a goal, but he knows that what prevents him is himself.
It is a very physical role too. Did you need specific preparation?
I see the job of actor as a job where you use your body. So in daily life, I always pay attention to my body. I maintain myself. There, we had to work on speed and agility. I ran a lot. I worked on the resistance. And above all, we made “boot camps” with my casting comrades, to work on our group cohesion. We were screaming on it by instructors who pushed us to go beyond ourselves.
Is it difficult to put yourself in the shoes of a hairy when you turn in the trenches?
My great-grandfather lost an arm in Verdun. And he wrote a slightly crazy letter, which we still read from time to time with family. He said to his father: “Dear dad, I lost my arm, I am a prisoner of the Germans, but we take care of me very well … And besides, how is Henri?” I have always been stunned by the bravery of this man, who finds himself captured in the middle of war but continues to think of others and his family. So I wanted to approach this inheritance as close as possible. In this kind of series, there is always a duty of memory, even when you deviate from history and inject notions of science fiction.
Les Sentinels, season 1 in 8 episodes, to see on Canal + from September 29, 2025
