France’s Elsa Zylberstein Draws on Viral Sketches for Directorial Debut

Elsa Zylberstein, one of France’s most popular actors, is set to make her directorial debut with “My Best Life.” The film is a comedy-drama inspired by “Mytho du soir,” the viral series of sketches she posted on social media while on lockdown during the pandemic.

Rather than doing a straight adaptation of “Mytho du soir” – in which she played a compulsive fantasist living as though there were no restrictions – organizing dinner parties, going to the hairdresser, flying to New York, heading to the mountains and even interviewing Donald Trump — Zylberstein kept only the central character and co-wrote with Michael Pierrard an entirely new story for “My Best Life.”

In the film, Zylberstein will play a failed actress whose mother suffers a stroke and wakes up believing her daughter has become an international movie star. Rather than shattering the illusion, the heroine invents an increasingly elaborate fictional life to protect her mother — and, ultimately, herself.

“The film is really about the power of imagination,” Zylberstein said. “The message is simple: believe in your dreams. Imagination can save you.”

Zylberstein described the project as a comedy-drama rooted in emotion rather than broad satire, saying she wants audiences to “laugh and cry.” While the film gently pokes fun at the movie business, she said it is ultimately about family and abandoned dreams.

“It’s also a mother-daughter story,” she said. “I’ve always been fascinated by the way people arrange reality. Everyone reinvents the truth a little bit.”

Speaking of influences for the story and her onscreen character, Zylberstein mentioned Martin Scorsese’s “The King of Comedy” for its portrayal of someone “who’s constantly on the edge and ready to do anything.” For the tone, she said she was inspired by movies by David O. Russell and Paul Thomas Anderson, such as “Silver Linings Playbook” and…