Filming can sometimes be particularly impactful, even traumatic. After starring in the hit series Tapie in September 2023, Laurent Lafitte, leading face of French cinema, is back on Netflix in the film Goodbye up there. Recently uploaded to the streaming platform’s catalog, the feature film is currently in the top of the most viewed films of the moment on Netflix. Laurent Lafitte retains some trauma from this bad experience which contributed to reinforcing his claustrophobiaas he explains in detail in the podcast Unfiltered Paradoxin February 2024.
“I’m totally petrified“: Laurent Lafitte recounts the day he was buried during the filming of the film Goodbye up there
The actor, revealed in The Little Handkerchiefs, has already performed perilous stunts himself. One in particular caused the actor a big scare, speaking to David Laroche, Laurent Lafitte even explains that this event intensified his phobia: “I’m claustrophobic, I was a little but it got worse because of a film shoot.”. In 2017, the actor appeared in the César-winning film Goodbye up there, by Albert Dupontel. He explains that, in one scene, his character finds himself buried under sand. To achieve the sequence, the actor really had to be buried alive, he confides in the podcast: “So it wasn’t sand because it would have been too heavy I would have really been crushed, it was crumbs of cork. I was on a plate (…) and I was buried under this ton of cork and I had to hold out for a few seconds in total apnea and the platform rose and took me out of the pile of cork.” Everything did not go as planned since the platform that was supposed to lift it did not work, Laurent Lafitte remembers his feeling at that precise moment: “I understand that the system is not working, I can’t do anything, I hear panic movements above and I’m totally petrified in the mass, and there it digs to free my head and then they pull me out by hand. I scared myself, excruciating anxiety.” Ultimately, the filming caused more fear than harm and, despite this adrenaline rush, the actor had to reshoot other takes of the scene.
“So I decided out of necessity“: Albert Dupontel confides that a famous actor had to play the protagonist ofGoodbye up there in his place
In this same film, Albert Dupontel was not supposed to take on the role of Albert Maillard. In the press kit, the director explains: “On this film, It was not at all planned for me to play the role of Albert Maillard. One of my favorite actors, anticipated for almost a year, was to take on the role. But a few months before filming, overworked, he admitted to me that he couldn’t take part in the adventure.“ The filmmaker wanted his protagonist to be played by Belgian actor Bouli Lanners, but the latter did not accept because he had already completed several shoots. Albert Dupontel was therefore forced to play his character himself, he did not seem to regret his decision: “So I decided out of necessity more than desire to play this role. The extra fatigue was real, but by focusing on acting and listening to the other actors in the film, little by little, Albert Maillard was finally born. Furthermore, the fact of playing and performing often creates an effect Arcole Bridge and I have the feeling that the actors get more involved when the director is also one of them“, he testifies.
