Jean-Paul Belmondodid a lot of stunts, he had the physical and the mental for“, said Monday September 6 on franceinfo Michel Julienne, son of the stuntman Rémy Julienne, and stuntman himself, after the announcement of the death of the actor.
franceinfo: What memories do you have of Jean-Paul Belmondo who performed his stunts himself?
Michelle Julienne: I have excellent memories of filming with Jean-Paul Belmondo. He is one of the few actors who have had the opportunity to perform their own stunts themselves. He had the physical for it and above all he had the mental for it. I assisted my dad on car stunts that were done on film fear over the city and on other occasions. I worked on Happy Easter where Jean-Paul had jumped with a small Fiat Uno on the roof of two police vehicles to go further. It was Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Did he have a particular respect for professional stuntmen?
Of course, he had enormous respect for stuntmen and we considered him one of us because he took things so seriously and in such a professional way that it was only natural. He was an extremely respectful gentleman and very attentive to the advice that could be given to him.
Were you in awe?
Rather yes, because when your name is Jean-Paul Belmondo you don’t need to go to the puppet show like that, to earn a living, even if the title of the film is Le Guignolo. He did it out of pleasure, out of a taste for risk, simply out of a taste for adrenaline, because it amused him. A bit like us. With my dad, they were very good friends and I have always had immense respect for this gentleman. I remember that in 1985, under the pretext of going to do some location scouting, we found ourselves with Remy Julienne, Georges Lautner, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and me in the cellars of a restaurant where the Monte -Carlo and where the pilots used to meet to eat and drink. I had the opportunity to live part of the day with friends where we ate cheese, charcuterie, we drank a glass of wine, we told stories. It was just a bunch of friends laughing. A very, very simple man. Rather than returning to his dressing room to put on the protections, he got behind a car, lowered his pants, put on his protections. He was more in a hurry to play than to have comfort.
What kinds of stunts did he do?
He did all kinds of stunts. Lots of physical stunts because that was his thing, but he put a few cars on the roof, jumped cars, made them skid, and did a lot of stuff with the vehicles. It takes great technique to go very far, but when it comes to jumping and respecting a speed and a trajectory he knew how to do it. He was very precise and rigorous.
Have you met other actors like him?
Not a lot. People who wanted to, yes, people who had the opportunity to do it much less, apart from Tom Cruise. Very few people have the physical and mental capacities to perform this kind of stunts.