From Monday and for six episodes, Thierry Neuvic portrays a police captain, a somewhat rigid man of experience, who must team up with a young man who is the opposite of him: unpredictable, out of control and a recently closeted scammer. The actor tells us about this new experience.
Paris Match. What is the little extra that appealed to you in “La Recrue”?
Thierry Neuvic. I liked returning to the thriller by surfing on the comedy tone, like Beverly Hills Cop Or The lethal Weapon. I also found the themes covered interesting: relationships between generations, second chances, preconceptions, mourning… These things touched me and spoke to me in particular.
You team up with Ethann Isidore, who plays Kevin, a young orphan from the Paris suburbs, a high-flying and unmanageable con artist.
This intergenerational relationship spoke a lot to me. I like the difficulty of meeting at first to end up getting closer. I believe in it deeply. Generations must hold hands. Everyone educates themselves. I also liked the theme of second chances and redemption. Vincent, my character has a preconception about this young guy, the opposite of his codes. One is rigid, the other messy. He arrives in his life after losing his son, who has been missing for two years. He doesn’t even know if he is alive or dead, mourning is not possible. Kevin is about the same age as this missing son. There is a mirror effect. Not only is he the opposite of him and he would take his son’s place? It is not possible ! He has a double rejection.
Thierry Neuvic and Ethann Isidore star in the series “The Recruit”.
© Thierry Langro/ TF1
The character of Commissioner Trinquant, played by Judith El Zein, has a particular importance for them…
She teaches both so that the encounter takes place. I also liked the relationship my character has with it. She is his superior and his companion. It represents a fairly virile guy with a big 4X4 and it turns out that it is his partner who has the power.
“I want to make the link between all generations and keep it”
In life, do you feel this gap between generations?
I find that more and more generations are having difficulty connecting. Generations and social circles too. I feel this discrepancy. I’m still trying to fill it. I go to football clubs where I live, there are all ages. I can spend three hours playing with 9 year olds, discussing everything withare 15 year old teenagers. Same with the old ones. I want to make the link between all generations and keep it. It is absurd and harmful not to maintain it. One without the other doesn’t work.
The rest after this ad
Are you familiar with police roles? Didn’t you say to yourself “another cop”?
Not for a second. Policeman is a job, not a character. We can play 12,000 cops, none of them will be the same. There it was in the tone of comedy, I didn’t particularly play a cop in this context.
How did you build this captain?
I asked that he have a big red 4X4 to highlight this very masculine side. He has all the attributes of a leader, but he is not. I also wanted to accentuate the clash of generations by reworking my dialogues a little to mark the difference even more by using old expressions like “they’re going to make me goat”.
Here the captain and his young recruit team up at a crime scene.
© Thierry Langro/ TF1
Which on-screen cops did you like?
There are plenty ! It starts from Starsky and Hutchof Beverly Hills Copof those of The lethal Weapon and more recently, the cops in The Wire. On the French side, Jean Gabin and Lino Ventura left an impression on me. Since I was little, I have always watched a lot of thrillers, in films or series. If I ever draw on these characters, it’s in spite of myself, it’s not decided.
“When I was younger, I hung around, I did stupid things”
Do you prefer to play cops or mobsters?
It depends on the character itself. Both have intense lives, I love both.
You were born in Seine-Saint-Denis. You could have been little Kevin, lost and out of control ?
Of course ! I was hanging out, doing stupid things.
What “saved” you?
Generally speaking, it’s culture, theater, music and poetry classes… Culture reopened the floodgates from the day I enrolled in a theater class lost in the south of France, where it I had to read plays, interpret characters… I had a passion for films. I ate tons and tons of it, but I had never thought about making a career out of it.
You describe yourself as very shy. Is this something that has hindered you in life or in your career?
Shyness can inhibit. As a result, we do not present in a calm manner what we are. We remember things. We are clumsy in expressing them. We can lose our means. It can be disabling when it’s strong. It might have been. It bothered me a lot for a long time. I know lots of shy actors or actresses. In essence, when we play, we hide, it’s not us.
