His character is condescending, materialistic, and self-conscious. Guest of the show “C à vous” this Thursday, November 7, Grégoire Bonnet looked back on his journey in the cult series “Scènes de households”. Present alongside Michèle Laroque to promote their play “The Next Door”, the actor spoke with humor about the complicated first years of his character Philippe, a pharmacist with caricatured features which earned him criticism from viewers and pharmacists themselves.
“When we arrive on ‘Scènes de households’, it takes time”
For ten years now, Grégoire Bonnet and Amélie Etasse have formed, in the guise of Philippe and Camille, one of the emblematic couples of “Scènes de households”. But the reception from viewers was not warm. “When we arrive on 'Scènes de households', it takes time. We were hated at the beginning. Everything that is new is a bit… We were hated for a year or two… Now it's better“, he confides, laughing. Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine also recalled another controversy that arose during the couple's appearance in the series: “The pharmacists also wanted you.” “Yes, the Order of Pharmacists“, specifies Grégoire Bonnet.
Indeed, the National Order of Pharmacists reacted in 2017, going so far as to send an official letter to M6 to denounce the image that Philippe conveyed of the profession. A dispute “completely absurd“, he confided to the microphone of Europe 1 a few days earlier, in “Culture Médias”.When I arrived on M6, I was offered this role of pharmacist (…), we started to build this character, and I said that I wanted to have all the faults: who loves money, big cars, which is a bit 'new rich'… I didn't give a (good, editor's note) image of pharmacists“, he explained.
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Far from wanting to damage the image of pharmacists, the actor wanted to give a comic and exaggerated angle to his role, ensuring that it was above all a caricature. Following the Order's complaint, the M6 channel, however, took this feedback into account by asking production to readjust the character. “I understand that M6 asked production to calm things down with the authors. And then I asked the authors again, saying 'has it been a long time since we've seen a good asshole?'” laughs Grégoire Bonnet, hilarious. And concludes with mischief: “No but it's just called humor.”
In its response to the Order of Pharmacists, M6 took care to specify the humorous nature of the character. “The characters of Camille and Philippe are exaggerated in order to achieve their comic function. It is in this context that certain sketches of the character Philippe approach his profession as a pharmacist with humor or in a caricatured manner.the channel emphasized. Adding doubt that these scenes “may have had the effect of altering the public's perception of the profession of pharmacy, and even less of the competence of its members.”.
