Open-hearted interview with Jean Dujardin: “Notoriety can make you stupid”

And then, Zorro arrived… for his 50th birthday. With this series co-produced by RTL Belgium. “And then you say to yourself: how do you do Zorro at 50? Do I still have the peach? Can I claim this? I went slowly because between my desire and reality, there is something else. It doesn’t have to be just a desire to dress up. It’s a project and it takes 8 episodes. But the dialogues are tasty.” And added: “It’s always complicated to tackle legends. Like with ‘Lucky Luke’, which didn’t necessarily have very good press. We could have done much better. But I’m happy when there’s sweat and work like here. Whether you like it or not, at least we didn’t make fun of you!”

However, did you not feel a certain pressure while playing him?

“I think we will never live up to people’s thoughts or fantasies. Everyone has their own Zorro, between that of Antonio Banderas, Guy Williams or… Alain Delon. It’s a legend that belongs to everyone. You will never be at that level. We have to forget. We offer our version of Zorro which we have to take on. Otherwise, you don’t do anything in my life. , I never thought like that, otherwise I wouldn’t have done anything. I loved this childhood refuge that I had when I watched this series. Generally, I have the pressure after filming. trust in people, the curiosity of some and the stupidity of others (smile) !”

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And like your late friend Jean-Paul Belmondo, did you perform your own stunts?

“When I think I can do them or the director tells me it’s safe, there’s no problem. I’m not a daredevil. But it’s true that I like participate because I don’t want to stay in my dressing room. When you’re going to do Zorro, the least I can do is ride the horse and do the stunts and the fights.”

Your incarnation of Zorro breaks the codes of the absurd…

“With Zorro, we think we’re going to have something serious but that’s not the case here. If we do something too serious, we’ll all get bored! It’s a clever mix of love, action and humor. Sometimes even third degree. He has just made love to his wife as Zorro but he speaks to her as Diego, it’s absolutely schizo and tasty. we don’t want to understand it, we stay at the back of the courtyard and then we leave. It talks about the wear and tear of the couple, slavery, hypercapitalism, all these current themes Gabriella is even a very feminist character, very real. She is surely the main character of the film. She is the eye of the audience.”

This dusts off the character, somewhat aging…

“Yes, and that doesn’t necessarily speak to the younger generation. And the older generation is a bit stuck in the eternal hero. The image we have of him. But that doesn’t go further than saving the widow and the orphan. What we wanted was to reinvent. It’s ambitious, as always, something new sometimes calls for criticism. reflection and singularity And that, that. Not everyone knows how to write that. They’re good. It’s not fixed, we don’t have to do it with the same systems or the same scenes. we can explore it. It’s sometimes serious, it’s strange, it’s disturbing. There are lots of things to reinvent in comedy. That’s why I always prefer to look for it. original comedies. And when I don’t. I don’t, I go to much more serious films or films that tell about events like ‘Novembre’ or ‘La French’. You have to take a bit of a risk in comedy.”

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Making Zorro laugh, in a period where we can no longer say anything, a difficult thing?

“When we talk about natives for example, that we cannot call them Indians but natives… There, we are making fun of Cancel culture. Indeed, we no longer call them natives in the United States. We must not say the Indians in France. It is this echo that we have and we enjoy it. Is it good or necessary? Yes, because it is part of our social themes. resonates more in a comedy than when someone tells me on a TV set where it’s going to annoy me, they’re going to give me lessons by telling me that I have to think this or that, and then I wouldn’t want to hear it.

Can we say everything behind Zorro’s mask?

“Of course, it’s a way of hiding. I’ve never been afraid to tell myself… In any case, in their process of a Diego who is honest, a little naive and a leaping Zorro who annoys each other …it’s a source of brilliant comedy.”

The series is set in Los Angeles, land of your Oscar for “The Artist”. Any regrets about not having made a career in the USA?

“No, there has never been that regret. Because I feel that I am already largely spoiled. I don’t want more. I don’t want to be the richest. Go to the United States, What would that imply? That I enter a system which is neither the French nor the European system. That is to say that I am an actor who plays a Frenchman in films. I absolutely don’t have it and I’m not looking for it. really to have. Do an American campaign from time to time, why not but I have a family here, maybe I would have left. what I want is to succeed in life. It is not to succeed in life as Bernard Tapie said. And in your life, you have your family, you, your balance. It’s already huge!”

So what were you hoping for after the Oscar?

“Just keep going. Have fun. I don’t want more. I don’t want to take myself for an American. I know that a French actor will always remain a French actor in the United States. You will be nothing other than that. I’m a popular French actor, who does some infidelities from time to time when I come to Belgium. When I was in the United States, I always saw him as a planet apart In their culture. way of thinking. I didn’t feel it. at best… It was exotic But I was happy to go back.”

Was the notoriety, following the Oscar, too oppressive?

“I think it makes you a little vain and stupid. Notoriety can make you a little stupid. The terrain was not conducive, a priori. I was not a target and I don’t necessarily believe in all that. He is good to think that you are not the best actor in the world when you receive the Oscar. If you believe that, then you are really a fool.”

Is there a danger of falling into your dark side?

“In the USA, they try to make you lose your temper. They try to think for you. There must be something ahead of you. They say that it must not be good or that it must be crazy. That , it’s insulting my father, my mother and the little intelligence I have. Or at least, my thoughts on the profession. Just let me think that I’m not that moron. I make choices. , I move forward, I try to be coherent. But no, we don’t have to freak out. I never wanted to freak out, because I never had to. The most hateful people are the ones who don’t. haven’t had my chance. I’m very aware of my luck and that it can end very quickly. That’s why I’m trying to keep it warm. to become a guy that my mother no longer is likely to recognize. My brothers could tell me: ‘I’ll give you one’! We don’t force ourselves to be. We’ve always been like that. Oscar moment, you don’t really believe it. It’s a bit surreal. But you’re not telling yourself that you’re above yourself. Rather: ‘Are they sure they didn’t mess with anyone?’ Because with my sixth grade English, I don’t see how I could… I talked to Clooney about it and he said to me: ‘you stole it from my house and they didn’t give it to you at your place !’ I said: ‘yes, I know’. It’s a bit absurd. Actually, it’s funny. And quite ironic.”

Is the Oscar a bit like the golden statue of Zorro?

“Yes, it’s a kind of totem of impunity (smile). We say to ourselves: at least he has the Oscar! It’s a bit for the textbooks. For the dictionary. For the family. For my children. It’s nice, but I don’t care about that. What you need is to look for things that animate. The day you no longer have the creativity, the invention, the stupidity, the fantasy, the mischief, you have nothing to do in this profession. There, I would have reached my limits, I would stop and do something else. It’s not a very serious job, but we try to do it very seriously.”

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Belgian style?

“Yes, that’s why we’re quite cousins. I feel good here. There’s a side step that means you’re quite preserved. When I see that we’re celebrating the Manneken -And in Zorro… You are in Brussels, in the center of the world. We know that everything is polarized here with all these communities arriving and being able to have fun and create a bond with a little man who pisses… If not. is not of the second degree, it’s almost an act of resistance to the harshness of the world.”

Would the next step be to come and live with us?

“(Smile) No, there is no step. I am very happy in France. I really like coming here because, in these times, tenderness and friendship are important. I kept my childhood relatives. We do a lot of hiking together. I segment my professional friends and my childhood friends well. I don’t mix everything. I protect myself because they have known who I am for a very long time.”