“I think we have to laugh at our differences”: Artus looks back on the triumph of “A little thing more”

Four, then six, and now more than 10 million entries: the comedy “Un p'tit truc en plus”, directed by Artus, also starring in the film, is a phenomenon. News that the comedian relishes. “I'm levitating. I've become addicted to my cell phone because the application tells me if we're making entries, if people still want to go. There's this slightly stressful side of saying to yourself: 'I don't want people to get bored, I want them to keep going to see it'“he explained to Audrey Crespo-Mara in the “Portrait of the week” of “Sept à Huit” last August, which can be found at the top of this article.

From there to getting a big head? “You would have to ask my loved ones, but I don’t think so”he answers straight away. We would have been surprised otherwise. This adventure seemed to have been with him for a long time. Even as a child, when Artus was asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, he answered tirelessly: “walking disabled people in parks”. “It's not a real job, I think. I don't know why. I've always been attracted to these people who have a little something extra, this simple side in the good sense of the word, that's- that is to say that there are no social barriers, the codes that we have set for ourselves (…) They don't have this hypocritical smile which is a valid smile. They don't know. not do that and so much the better. It feels really good, this human connection. simple”he adds.

In all the disabilities that affect the head, it's crazy to realize that there is always a connection to childhood and to remaining in this childhood bubble.

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Nothing could be more natural for Artus to take this new and tender look at mental disability. “In all the disabilities that affect the head, it's crazy to realize that there is always a connection to childhood and to remaining in this bubble of childhood. It touches me because I think that I I have a bit of this thing: the anxiety of growing old, this thing of becoming an adult. There is a phrase from Jacques Brel that I really like which says: 'so that we become old without being adults'. I think that’s what it’s like, becoming an adult is boring.”says the actor-director.

And when mental disability is most often caricatured on screen, “A little thing in addition” takes the side of laughing with disabled people, and not at their expense. Because here, the two “able-bodied”, played by Clovis Cornillac and Artus, are in for their loss. Father and son on screen, they play two small-time thugs, who decide to rob a jewelry store. To escape the police, they only have one chance left: to get on the bus which is taking a group of young people with mental disabilities to a summer camp.

Artus will pretend to be a boarder, but will very quickly be unmasked, giving scenes of pure comedy. A healthy approach for the director. “I think we have to laugh at our differences. It’s a real strength that we have to embrace. For a very long time, I was very fat and on the contrary, we have to laugh about it”he assures.

The film was a gamble for Artus, known until now as a figure of humor and the small screen, already playing disabled people in sketches. Success proves him right. This human adventure also profoundly changed him. “It can only change people when you arrive on a shoot like that. Already, when you arrive in the morning and you've had a fight with your wife, that there were traffic jams on the road or small problems and there is Soso (alias Sofiane Ribes) in a wheelchair who unfortunately has a complicated illness and he has a banana, well in fact, your little problems, you take them and you put them where you want . We can only put it into perspective. And they have such a zest for life when they arrive on set, honestly, I think it was easier to make this film with 11 actors with disabilities than with 11 actors. of ego, everything is fine, life is beautiful”he explains.

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Sponsor of the Paralympic Games and for years of Handicap International, Artus now hopes that his film will change perceptions. “The feedback I have from spectators and people is in that direction. There are also associations which have more donations. I hope, because in France, we are a little late (.. .)”he whispers. His dearest wish: that the effect is not limited to the success of the film. And that one of its actors “gets a nomination for the Césars”.