“It gave us a little blow in the back of the head”

Gérard Jugnot still needs time to mourn his friend Michel Blanc, who died on October 3 at the age of 72. Guest in Culture Media this Monday, November 11 to talk about the film We should have gone to Greece, of which Europe 1 is a partner, the actor had difficulty masking his emotion when speaking about his former accomplice from Splendid. His eyes clouded with tears, Gérard Jugnot remembered the qualities of Michel Blanc, unforgettable Jean-Claude Dusse of Tanned: “He was a wonderful dialogue writer, he had a sense of formula. He was a great author.”

“We were laughing like idiots”

Inseparable in the 1970s, during the Splendid era, Gérard Jugnot and Michel Blanc then led their own solo careers but never lost sight of each other. Although they saw each other less regularly, their complicity remained intact. “With the members of Splendid, we said ‘we’ for 15-20 years and then we said ‘I’. Every time we got together, we laughed like idiots”, said Gérard Jugnot this morning on the microphone by Thomas Isle.

On April 13, the actor saw all his friends from Splendid, including Michel Blanc, for a cover of Paris Match. “We laughed a lot. As usual, Michel arrived grumbling, he had sprained his toe or something. He was a pain in the ass as always (Laughs)! He always had a thing. And then afterward it got better and we laughed,” recalled Gérard Jugnot on Europe 1. The disappearance of Michel Blanc, only a few months later, was a real shock for the actor. “It’s true that it surprised us a little. It gave us a bit of a blow in the back of our heads. It happened so suddenly and a little strangely, an anaphylactic shock because of an antibiotic. “It’s really a very stupid thing but hey…” lamented Gérard Jugnot, his voice choked with emotion.