Netflix has this weird habit of dropping shows that feel like a warm hug, but Plan Cœur—or as we know it in the English-speaking world, The Hookup Plan—hit a bit differently. It wasn’t just the Parisian backdrop, which, let's be honest, makes everything look about 40% more romantic than it actually is. It was the chemistry. When you look at The Hookup Plan cast, you aren't just looking at a list of French actors; you're looking at a masterclass in ensemble energy.
Most romantic comedies live or die by the leads. If the central couple doesn't have that "it" factor, the whole thing collapses like a poorly made soufflé. But this show? It leaned into the group dynamic. It understood that your friends are often the most dysfunctional, chaotic, and loving part of your life, especially when your romantic life is a literal dumpster fire.
The premise sounds like a recipe for disaster. Two friends, Charlotte and Emilie, decide to help their perpetually single and heartbroken friend Elsa by hiring a male escort to woo her. They wanted to give her a "confidence boost." It’s a terrible idea. Seriously, in real life, this would end in years of therapy and a permanent block on WhatsApp. But because of the way these actors handled the material, we somehow rooted for them.
The Heart of the Mess: Zita Hanrot as Elsa
Zita Hanrot is the soul of the show. Before she was Elsa, Hanrot was already making waves in French cinema, even winning a César Award for Most Promising Actress for her role in Fatima. She brings a grounded, slightly awkward, but deeply relatable energy to Elsa.
Elsa isn't your typical "manic pixie dream girl." She’s a bit of a disaster. She’s stuck on her ex, Maxime, and she’s working a job that doesn't thrill her. Hanrot plays the vulnerability so well that you forget the show's premise is actually kind of cruel. When she finally starts falling for Jules, you feel her genuine joy, which makes the inevitable revelation of the lie feel like a physical gut punch.
What's interesting about Hanrot's performance is the stillness. Amidst the high-energy antics of her co-stars, she often provides the quiet center. You see the wheels turning in her head. You see the hesitation. It’s a performance that demands empathy, and without her, the show would have been just another vapid sitcom.
The "Gigolo" With a Heart: Marc Ruchmann
Then there’s Marc Ruchmann. He plays Jules (or Julio), the escort with the metaphorical heart of gold. Ruchmann has this effortless cool—the kind that feels very "Rive Gauche." He manages to play a character who is essentially being paid to lie, yet he makes him the most honest person in the room.
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His chemistry with Hanrot is electric. It’s not just about the looks; it’s about the timing. There’s a scene in the first season where they’re just walking through Paris, and the way they play off each other’s rhythm feels improvised. It’s the kind of naturalism that’s hard to script. Ruchmann’s background isn't just acting; he’s also a musician (performing under the name Morgen), and you can see that rhythmic sensibility in how he moves through a scene. He doesn't rush. He lets the silence breathe.
The Chaos Duo: Sabrina Ouazani and Josephine Draï
If Elsa is the heart, Charlotte and Emilie are the nervous system. Sabrina Ouazani (Charlotte) and Josephine Draï (Emilie) are the engines that drive the plot forward through sheer, unadulterated bad decision-making.
Ouazani is a powerhouse. If you've seen Taxi 5 or The Past, you know she has incredible range. As Charlotte, she’s abrasive, loud, and fiercely protective. She’s the friend who will start a bar fight for you but also the one who creates the mess in the first place. Her comedic timing is sharp—sharp enough to cut through the sentimentality of the more romantic scenes.
On the flip side, you have Josephine Draï as Emilie. Emilie is the "stable" one, or at least she tries to be. She’s the one dealing with pregnancy, career stress, and the realization that adulthood isn't what she signed up for. Draï brings a frantic, neurotic energy that contrasts perfectly with Ouazani’s "act first, think never" attitude. Together, they represent the two extremes of friendship: the one who enables your worst impulses and the one who tries to manage them.
The Guys on the Sidelines
We can't talk about The Hookup Plan cast without mentioning the men caught in the crossfire.
- Sacha (Sivan Dicman): The brother/friend who often sees the absurdity of the situation before anyone else does.
- Matthieu (Guillaume Labbé): The ex-boyfriend who lingers like a bad cold. Labbé plays the "arrogant but somehow still attractive" archetype to perfection.
- Antoine (Savy Sall): Emilie’s partner, who often serves as the audience’s surrogate, looking at the friend group’s drama with a mixture of horror and exhaustion.
These characters could have easily been one-dimensional. In a lesser show, Antoine would just be "the husband." But the writing and the performances give them enough interior life that they feel like real people with their own frustrations and desires. They aren't just there to react to the women; they have their own arcs, particularly in the later seasons when the show explores the toll that keeping secrets takes on everyone involved.
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Why the Chemistry Actually Worked
French television has been undergoing a massive shift over the last decade. Shows like Call My Agent! and The Hookup Plan have found international success because they’ve moved away from the stuffy, overly intellectualized tropes of "prestige" French cinema and embraced something more universal.
The secret sauce here was the camaraderie. The cast actually liked each other. You can't fake the kind of "shorthand" they have on screen. When they’re all in a room together, talking over one another, it feels like a real dinner party where everyone has known each other for fifteen years. They know which buttons to push. They know how to make each other laugh.
There's a specific French word, complicité, which doesn't quite translate to "complicity" in English. It’s more about a shared understanding, a secret language between people. The The Hookup Plan cast has complicité in spades.
The Lockdown Special: A Bold Move
One of the most unique moments for this cast was the "Plan Confined" episode. While the rest of the world was struggling to figure out how to film anything during the 2020 lockdowns, the creators of The Hookup Plan put together a special episode shot entirely on webcams and phones.
It was a risky move. Usually, "Zoom episodes" are terrible. They feel forced and clunky. But because the audience was already so invested in these specific characters, watching them navigate the isolation of the pandemic felt incredibly poignant. It stripped away the beautiful Parisian scenery and left us with just the actors and their chemistry. It was a reminder that we weren't watching for the Eiffel Tower; we were watching for the people.
Looking Back: The Legacy of the Cast
By the time the third and final season wrapped up, the characters had grown significantly. Elsa wasn't the same woman she was in episode one. Charlotte had faced her own insecurities. Emilie had transitioned into motherhood.
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The show ended on a note that felt earned. It didn't try to wrap everything up in a perfect bow—because life doesn't work that way—but it gave the characters a sense of peace. For the actors, the show served as a massive platform. Since the show ended, members of the cast have popped up in major international projects, but for many fans, they will always be the group from the 20th arrondissement.
The Realistic Take on Friendship
Most people search for information on the cast because they want to know if that friendship is real. While we can’t say they spend every Sunday brunch together, their public interactions and social media presence suggest a lasting bond.
What the show got right—and what the cast delivered—is the idea that friendship is messy. It’s not always about supporting each other’s best decisions. Sometimes it’s about being there after the worst ones. The "hookup plan" itself was a lie, but the love between the characters was the only thing that felt true.
What to Watch Next If You Miss Them
If you're feeling a void now that you've finished the series, you don't have to stop following the cast. Here is how you can keep up with their work:
- Zita Hanrot: Look for her in the film School Life (Vie scolaire) on Netflix. It’s a very different vibe—she plays a vice-principal in a tough school—but it shows off her incredible range.
- Sabrina Ouazani: She is a staple in French action and comedy. Check out Kung Fu Zohra if you want to see her kick some serious butt.
- Marc Ruchmann: Follow his music. Seriously. His vibe as a musician is very much in line with the "cool guy" persona he brought to Jules, but with a more experimental edge.
- Rewatch with Subs, Not Dubs: If you watched the show dubbed in English, go back and watch it in French with subtitles. You miss so much of the actors' natural inflection and the specific slang of Parisian youth in the dubbed version. The rhythm of their speech is half the performance.
The magic of this ensemble wasn't just in the casting; it was in the timing. They caught a moment in time where we all needed to believe that even if we're a mess, we have people who will go to ridiculous, illegal, and hilarious lengths to make us smile.
Ultimately, the show works because it recognizes a universal truth: we are all just one bad decision away from needing a "plan" of our own. And if we’re lucky, we have a group of friends as dedicated—and as crazy—as this one to help us through it. The cast didn't just play roles; they built a world that felt like home for three seasons. That’s a rare feat in the era of "binge and forget" television. If you haven't revisited the streets of Paris with Elsa and the gang lately, it might be time for a rewatch. Just skip the parts where you’d have to explain their logic to a therapist.