2024 continues with fanfare for Omar Sy who has just been chosen to be part of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival, chaired by Grata Gerwig. The 46-year-old actor is on all fronts. The cinema of his childhood, in Trappes, was renamed in his name and his biography, Come on, let’s talkwhere he confides in the journalist Elsa Vigoureux has just been released by Albin Michel.
In this very comprehensive book, Omar Sy talks about his journey, from his beginnings as a comedy partner with Fred Testot to his international fame for the Netflix series Lupine passing through his Caesar for Untouchablesa triumph that made him a French superstar.
Know how to protect yourself
Behind the star’s radiant smile gradually appears a man who has matured both professionally and humanly. By becoming famous, Omar Sy learned to protect himself and also to protect his wife Hélène and their children. Although they settled in Los Angeles, he kept a close eye on France where, he declares in the book, he pays taxes whenever he works on a French project. Capable of being as charming as he is impatient, the actor firmly leads his boat, keeping his secret garden out of sight and categorically refusing to discuss certain subjects such as sex or the details of his bank account.
A determined juror
The kid from Trappes had already walked the red carpet at Cannes, notably in 2022 for Skirmishers by Mathieu Vadepied. It will be exciting to see how he will participate in the debates with the other jurors, especially now that he masters English after having played in Inferno by Ron Howard and two films in the saga Jurassic World. These fellow judges will have every interest in not being bewitched by his good humor and joviality. Omar Sy knows what he wants.
Attractive projects
He proved it again recently by founding Carousel Studiosa production company that he runs with Thomas Benski and Louis Letterier, director accomplice of Lupine. They plan to create films in Los Angeles, France but also in Senegal. Among their ambitions, they dream of launching a live-action version of the legendary animated series The mysterious cities of Goldfantastic adventures that have made children and parents dream since the beginning of the 1980s.
Still popular
Although these positions on various political affairs have sometimes ignited the Internet, Omar Sy has remained incredibly popular in France while becoming one of our most popular actors abroad. We will soon see him in the remake of The Killer that John Woo made last summer in Paris. He will also reveal a more sensitive side of his personality in Story of a marriage of Anne Le Ny whom he had met on the set ofUntouchables. He will also be an African samurai in the series Yasuke.
“My idea is to be who I am today and someone else tomorrow. To move in my image as time passes,” he confides to Elsa Vigoureux. His changes seem to be successful and provide him with all the necessary assets to make his voice heard within the Cannes jury.
