“I have a tendency to forget the bad times”

Yesterday I saw Father and Soldier, I have never seen him so serious.

I committed to that film as a producer because of my connection to the subject matter: Senegalese soldiers being forcibly recruited by the French to fight in World War I.

The history of its people.

Yes, my father is Senegalese, and my mother is Mauritanian. The lack of recognition for those soldiers who died far from home for the unknown mother country hurts me.

Do you feel more French or African?

I don’t ask myself that question, I have one foot on each continent, and you don’t put more weight on one than on the other, you need both.

His father, a worker.

In a car factory. And my mother, a cleaning lady. Nice people with simple dreams and who have given their eight children solid values. You had to share and sacrifice, do things for others and have others do them for you, a good school.

Have you suffered discrimination?

The treatment of blacks by the police in France is infamous, but not with me, when they stop me they are courteous and smiling, but when I wasn’t the actor I am today I received discriminatory treatment, without a doubt.

And his answer was humor?

When I was young I had problems with the police, but I discovered the power of humor as a formidable tool to communicate with others at the age of 14.

That’s very clever.

I grew up in a neighborhood in Paris where you are discriminated against for the simple fact of living in it, the others see us as something that can be dangerous, we are scary. I am big, 1.90 tall, and black, humor is a good way to break the ice and communicate.

In 2011 world fame came to him.

Ten years before the film Untouchable became an international boom, it was already known on French television, but the success of Untouchable came as a big surprise.

He moved to Los Angeles.

But not for racing. Before Untouchable, when I went to pick up my son from school, I was Tidiane’s father. But after Untouchable, Tidiane became the son of Omar Sy: “Look, that’s Omar’s son!” He preferred being the father of my children to having them live with the weight of my fame, and we moved.

In social networks he presents himself as a human being.

We are nothing more than that, in the end.

He married the love of his adolescence.

I am married to my love. I was lucky to meet her at a very young age and form a family that gave me great happiness, another perspective on things, and a maturity that has given me a lot of serenity. Family is the most important thing in my life.

He has created a foundation with his wife.

My wife is a social worker and chairs CéKeDuBonheur, the NGO that we created so that hospitalized children and adolescents forget where they are for a while. We take people who teach them to play an instrument, to paint, to cook, to act…

Do you visit them?

Sure, I’ve been doing it regularly for 16 years and each experience is unique. When I invite other artists from whatever field, they have the feeling that they are going to give something away, then they discover that it is an exchange, because children give us something surprising and rich.

He also works in Senegal.

I try to make movies there, and I also have a medicinal plant farm with my wife. She is awesome.

What excites you the most?

To love and to be loved, this is happiness.

I have seen him very reflected in the film: father to death.

Yes, I identify myself, and I recognize those difficult moments that parents and adolescent children go through. I had them too, I didn’t understand my parents and they didn’t understand me.

How about with your teenage children?

Everything is going well because I have given them their space to be adolescents, that is, not to understand them and not to be understood, but with love.

Do you believe in fate or luck?

I have arrived where I have arrived thanks to destiny, luck and work.

What has been difficult?

I have a tendency to forget the bad moments, but the most difficult thing was the illness of one of my children, which thank God he overcame.

Is there a life after this life?

I’m convinced, I know, I’m a believer, I know there’s someone up there.

Do you talk to that being?

Five times a day.

And what does he tell you?

Thank you and sorry, which is a word that is used too little. We are not perfect.

What is worth in life?

The whole life, simply.

Never get depressed?

Sure, but look at an oscilloscope, it only stops oscillating when we’re dead.