“I said to myself that if any actor could play Johnny in the cinema, it was him. » It is with these words that Laeticia Hallyday justified her choice regarding the actor who will play her late husband on the big screen. This man is Raphaël Quenard, César for Most Promising Actor last March for his role in “Scrapyard Dog”.
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In a long interview given to “Paris Match” this Monday, June 24, the widow of the captain was full of praise for him. “The project, the desire… It all starts from there, from him,” she declared. When she meets him for the first time, it’s love at first sight. “I felt like I had known him forever. […] It’s true, between us, it was straight away simple,” she confides. “I was amazed by his acting, 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. »
At the cinema for the tenth anniversary of the death of Johnny Hallyday
The film, Laeticia Hallyday assures: it will “live up to the rocker and the man I loved madly, sometimes in pain, for twenty-three years”. “Raphaël will start by immersing himself, week after week, month after month, eating, drinking and thinking about Johnny to get closer to him,” declared Cédric Jimenez, the director chosen for the project – to whom we must already “Bac Nord”, “November”. “He must not play, he must be Johnny at the finish […] The magic of cinema, the sets, the costumes will further add to this work.”
For his part, Raphaël Quenard spoke on the show “C à vous”. “Johnny, already for my mother, it means so much. My mother went to stadiums to see him perform. And for me, it is the paroxysm of artistic purity and an unfiltered relationship between an artist and his audience. »
As for the release date, the feature film is announced for December 8, 2027, i.e. on the occasion of ten years since the death of the captain.
But before we can discover Raphaël Quenard in the role of the rocker, another biopic should see the light of day. It is “Que je t’aime”, directed by Jalil Lespert and Matthias Schoenaerts in the role of Johnny Hallyday.
