François Damiens made the history of the hidden camera, but trapping strangers is not without risks… The Belgian actor talks about a day when his sketch went wrong.
François Damiens has undoubtedly mastered the art of the hidden camera. If the Belgian actor proved that he was capable of adapting to a dramatic register in The Aries Familythe comedian became known above all for his wacky humor and his crazy character: that of François L’embrouille. For several years, he trapped many French and Belgians with ever more improbable jokes, including little Benjamin’s passport control scene, which almost never saw the light of day: “We had been filming for three hours, I said to the team: ‘We’re taking a break’, and I see the family coming in and I say: ‘We still do these before going to eat’, and I didn’t know what to do!“, he confides in an interview with Vanity Fairpublished this Wednesday, January 15. In the same video, the comedian talks about behind the scenes of his hidden cameras which don’t always go as planned…
“I got hit pretty bad once.” François Damiens recalls the day his hidden camera turned into a tragedy
In 2018, François Damiens unveiled his first feature film, entitled Mon Ket. The Belgian actor returns to his roots by mixing fiction and hidden camera. He plays a criminal who escaped from prison, who tries to find his son and start a new life. In an interview given to Vanity Fair, the king of the hidden camera reveals behind the scenes of his film and explains about the trapped: “It’s like when you go fishing, you have to have a little luck“. If the comedian has the gift of coming across people who easily lend themselves to the game, it has already happened that certain sketches turn into drama: “We still feel it, but it’s very difficult to say. I got hit seriously once during a hidden camera and I didn’t see it coming“, he says in the same video.
“Wow he was in jail for 30 years” : François Damiens talks about the time he trapped a former prisoner by posing as a prison escapee
This is not the only time the trap has turned against the actor. François Damiens remembers about the filming of his feature film: “On this film, we were very lucky. There was a scene that we had always dreamed of doing: in a waiting room to have a special flash that is shown on the news, where we announce that there is a guy who has escaped“, he testifies to Vanity Fair. During the scene, the frightened patients leave the waiting room one by one, except for a man sitting next to the actor: “And the guy makes the connection… In fact he was just out of jail, he spent 30 years in jail. There, I say to myself : ‘Wow he did 30 years in jail’. There is no longer anyone speaking to me in the headset. They say to themselves: ‘Maybe he’s armed, still on the run, and how he’ll take it when we tell him it’s a joke.’ Above all, I say: ‘We don’t say directly that it’s a hidden camera.’” The joke ultimately ended well, although the comedian feared the reaction of the trapped person.
