Raphaël Quenard is tackling a new challenge. The actor, chosen to play the role of Johnny Hallyday in the biopic directed by Cédric Jimenez, will indeed perform the rocker’s songs himself. The announcement was made by the film’s producer, Hugo Sélignac, on the set of C to you.
“He will sing,” assured the producer in the show. A declaration that sweeps away the uncertainties that hovered just a few months ago. “Perhaps we will mix, thanks to artificial intelligence, the voices of Raphaël and Johnny”, reflected Hugo Sélignac to the Parisianlast June. “We don’t know yet, but in any case, we will hear from Johnny. »
Raphaël Quenard will be accompanied by a vocal coach to slip into the skin of Taulier. “I hope that he will have the same requirements as Tahar Rahim for Aznavour,” commented Hugo Sélignac in the France 5 program. And for good reason, Tahar Rahim had followed six months of preparations with coach Daniel Lucarini. Teacher to the stars, he had already transformed Jérémie Rénier into Claude François for Cloclo and Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf for The Kid.
A biopic and an official biopic
The feature film by Cédric Jimenez, supported by Laeticia Hallyday, serves as an “official” biopic. For her, Raphaël Quenard was obvious: “I was amazed by his performance, his looks, his way of occupying space, of speaking, his spontaneity, his almost animal charisma… I said to myself that if an actor could play Johnny in the cinema, it was him,” she declared in the columns of Paris Match. She promised to guide her protégé in his quest for the character, because, “he must not act, he must be Johnny at the end,” assured the director. The release of the feature film is scheduled for December 8, 2027, to mark ten years since the death of Johnny Hallyday.
Another feature film on the singer’s life is also in preparation. It will be directed by Jalil Lespert (Yves Saint Laurent, Iris, The Turkey). Laeticia Hallyday’s former companion chose Belgian actor Matthias Schoenarts to bring the rocker to the big screen during three tumultuous years of his life, from 1995 to 1998. Filming is scheduled for this fall, but the date of Exit is, for the moment, kept secret.
