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Quotes
 Actually,
I only have a few friends in real life. And when I say friends, I'm
referring to those people who I've known since the 1960s.
No,
finito. Don't stay in the past. It's like playing tennis. If you win a
match, you're not going to stay. You have to go to the next tournament.
You're not going to come saying "I won the match, I'm the
best." No, again on the courts and play. That's the life. It's like
you. One article is not the same, so you have to write another one and
another challenge. That's life.
I thought,
Well, they wrote it for me, But these character, I will have to explain him
to the French press. I hope they understand who this guy is and what he
is saying about nuclear testing.
I
do comedy because I had the opportunity through Christian to have a
team.
But
I worry when the French say, 'Oh, you're living in Los Angeles, now.
You're leaving France behind!' I say, 'No. When Yannick Noah was a great
tennis player, he lived where he worked. That is what I do.
We honor a group of young people who were essential in bringing down a reviled dictatorship.
Everyone
has his reasons.
I have been very lucky with my movies," smiles the 50-year old actor.
With Godzilla, Roland and Dean actually wrote the part of the French secret service agent especially for me. They had sat down and watched all my movies with Luc Besson - Nikita, Subway, The Big Blue, Leon,
and they just came up with a character they felt would be perfect for me to play. That was very
flattering.
I
grew up watching John Wayne, William Holden, Marlon Brando, while also
mentioning French actors like Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet. I had space,
liberty, that's American. And I had [black & white] stories in
little streets, with a little music in the background, that's the
French.
The
advantage of being eighty years old is that one has had many people to
love.
'They
trust me. They know I can do this. It's up to me to change the roles I
play. I tried with For Rosanna (1997), a little romantic comedy I
did with Mercedes Ruehl. But the audience said, 'No no, Jean. Ees not
for you.' But I will try again. I do comedies and tragedies in France. I
will try them again here.
prefer
comedies but I try always to change. Rollerball is not a comedy.
It is a crazy guy, a monster owning the rights, owning the teams, owning
lives and having possibilities to kill. So, I try to change. I'm not
attached to one role because for me I like to think about being not like
a product.
Some
of my movies are too French, too far from American life, to
work here.
I'm
not criticizing products because sometimes they are very good to tell
the stories, but that's why I try always to change, not to be only into
one thing. I didn't come to be just one thing.
Six
years ago I met John Hughes while I was shooting Mission Impossible.
He was on his way to Paris to meet Christian [Clavier, costar and
co-writer] and Jean-Marie [Poire, co-writer and director]. He saw the
original "Les Visiteurs" on the plane and he wanted to do
something with us. So, it took a long time for Christian and John Hughes
to write the adaptation, to find a common land of the humor, because
they were two kids. They were laughing all the time and trying to find
where they're going to be together, agreeing with the humor they have in
common
In
comedy, the rhythm is not the same. Sometimes you have a few
improvisations you're obliged to follow them because the comedian and
you don't have the same rhythm.
The
villain. I'm the villain. And John McTiernan, a very good director, very
good guy.
I
don't know, to tell the truth. I don't how the American reaction is
going to be. But, I hope they will follow the historical situation,
which is a true, logical historical situation. I mean, English wasn't
the only language and they were speaking French in British court and
also a little English, because at that time the English were coming from
Germany, the Saxons.
They
can twist a scene because they're more crazy than regular actors. So, in
fact it is a good exercise for an actor to work with a comedian. It
helps.
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