On the sidelines of the promotion of the book of confessions The Splendid on the SplendidThierry Lhermitte revealed that, if the toad liqueur scene of the Bronzés are skiing made the audience laugh, it made the actors laugh less.
The legendary scene of Tanned people go skiing where the Splendid troupe reluctantly tastes a mysterious “toad liquor” remains a cult moment in French cinema. Gathered around a table in a rustic chalet, the traveling companions strive to respect the instructions of their hosts: drink “dry ass, otherwise it burns your tongue“. Very quickly, the taste horror is read on their faces. Jean-Claude (Michel Blanc), the first to swallow, chokes while exclaiming: “It’s strong!“, while Jérôme (Christian Clavier) ignites with a “It unblocks the toilets!“, red with embarrassment and astonishment. Popeye (Thierry Lhermitte) concludes in a groan, without poetry: “What the hell is this?“
As the general unease peaks, the two local farmers finally reveal the main ingredient: “It’s shallot liqueur!“, announces one with pride, followed by an almost sardonic complement from his sidekick: “But it’s seasoned with garlic juice, because the shallot alone would be too bland..” Under the shock of this revelation, Jean-Claude literally collapsed in his chair. The actors had to undergo no less than twenty takes, to the point that Michel Blanc and his comrades said to themselves: “out of breath” after this famous scene. On the set of C to youWednesday November 27, Thierry Lhermitte, in full promotion of the work The Splendid on the Splendidconfided that the sequence was particularly difficult to shoot.
“We had already worn her out a lot on stage”
If the beverage presented was in reality, of course, drinkable, the filming was complicated not by repeated tastings in each take, but by a challenge of improvisation. Thierry Lhermitte explained on France 5 that the toad liquor scene was initially taken from the play Santa Claus is trashbut could not be integrated into its film adaptation. “It wasn’t easy. We had already worn her out a lot on stage, but it wasn’t easy, because as Marie-Anne (Chazel, editor’s note) says, we each had to find something different to do and so the last one, he found with a lot of things already done. It was easier to be first, to have the choice“, he revealed.
