Many people from Tours have undoubtedly seen her beautiful smile displayed, not so long ago, at the back of city buses, for a well-known senior residence advertisement. For twenty years, Juliette Niquet worked as extras for series and films shot in the region.
Installed in her cozy interior, the bubbly octogenarian, mother of four children, grandmother and great-grandmother, recalls her arrival in Joué-lès-Tours in 1979 in the Morier district, where she continued to frequent the social center and still to this day. At the end of 2024, she remembers all the anecdotes that accompanied her journey as an extra.
Films, series, TV films… She has rubbed shoulders with big names
“Almost every time, we are asked to come with a suitcase and our own clothes. In the movie The Returned (2004) by Robin Campillo, I was a ghost and, when leaving the Montlouis cemetery, someone came to tell me that my transparent and shiny suspenders were not suitable”she laughs.
For a German film, “we were waiting for the pope to arrive in a popemobile in front of the cathedral. And there, we took out the Sunday outfit. On the other hand, we had the worst meal: sandwiches and company! » Conversely, the filming of the series Drinking and disappointments leaves him with the memory of the best lunch offered to “complementary actors” (their new name).
She met Pierre Arditi to The Blood of the Vine : “He’s a little full of himself, handsome man, but the only one who gave me a signed photo,” shares Juliette Niquet, who also names other famous films or series in which she appeared: ” In The Courjault Affairwe filmed for a week at the courthouse. I was Jean-Louis Courjault’s mother. We don’t come out of a moment like this unscathed. »
And, in the same place, Alexander’s Law with Gérard Jugnot, alongside whom “I’m taken in close-up. He is very nice! » Passing through Truancy with Valérie Karsenti, in Blois (Loir-et-Cher). “ I was dressed in 1900s fashion, I really looked grandma,” she jokes.
And so many other extras which leave him, for best memories, the atmosphere between extras, the pleasure of finding themselves years apart on the same set, of laughing, of meeting actors… “And now I understand that films always begin at the end. If someone calls me again, I won’t say no to the role of a grandmother! »concludes Juliette Niquet.
