“It’s not an artistic work, but it’s interesting”

The actor, Jean Reno, is the exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie, from February 12 to 16, 2024. He traces the thread of his career around five of his most emblematic films. Since Wednesday, he has been starring in Claude Zidi Jr.’s film “Retirement Home 2”, alongside Kev Adams and Daniel Prévost.

Jean Reno agreed to spend this whole week in Le Monde d’Élodie on franceinfo. The opportunity to take stock of this journey of multiple collaborations with the greatest actors and directors. Having become an essential actor, the Franco-Catalan, born in Casablanca, is one of the few to have succeeded in developing a career that has crossed borders.

His meeting with the French was obviously marked by the role of Enzo Molinari in The big Blue (1988) by Luc Besson. In this journey which commands respect, he has managed to touch on all registers, comedies, thrillers and even dramas: Nikita (1990) and Leon (1994) by Luc Besson, The Crimson Rivers by Mathieu Kassovitz in 2000, Operation Corned Beef by Jean-Marie-Poiré (1991), Godzilla by Roland Emmerich (1998), The pink Panther by Shawn Levy (2006) or even The Roundup by Roselyne Bosch (2010).

With his personality, he became the protector, the uncle of the family, the one who is both funny and authoritarian. The father too, the man of confidence, the one to whom we entrust things and the one behind whom we stand for advice.

Since Wednesday February 14, he is starring in the film with Kev Adams and Daniel Prévost: Retirement home 2 by Claude Zidi Jr.

franceinfo: From Clair de femme from Costa-Gavras in 1979 to Impossible mission by Brian de Palma in 1996, through The Roundup by Roselyne Bosch in 2011, you have always been acclaimed by the French public. You have represented us for 45 years in France, but also abroad. You seem to have never lost this desire to play.

Jean Reno : No never. And even one morning when I’m tired, I arrive and they tell me: “We’re going to do a reading“, we often did that in Spain when I did the serial for Amazon, and I answer: oh no, you’re not going to do the reading for me anyway! Do you want to check if I know my lines? And the director replies: “No, no, but I want to see how it sounds“.

“Even on mornings when I’m tired, from the moment the scene starts, that’s it, I’m in. It’s a bit chemical.”

After The big Blue, there had been a sounding board abroad. It was Japan that was interested in you, you even shot commercials for them for 17 years. Did this allow you to have a kind of projection of what you could do elsewhere?

Yes. My first language, when I was little, was Spanish. I had a tendency to be able to learn languages… My son, Cielo, who is 14, is passionate about Japan. He takes Japanese lessons. So, yes, it allowed me to look elsewhere, that’s great.

Your father was quiet. Are you able to communicate more with your children? Have you managed to find the words and say the essential things to them or is it difficult?

We should call them one after the other! But they’re not damaged, so I think yes, something passed from one to the other.

Then there will be Nikita And Leon and Hollywood will literally fall for you. It’s quite rare and they immediately give you a thumbs up. Did it scare you at first that Hollywood was interested in you?

Of course. Above all, Los Angeles is the city of loneliness. It’s drug city. It is the city of excess. Help ! I don’t like Los Angeles. I don’t like living there. But I immediately saw the studio bosses. They came and I maintained relationships with them, particularly with the producers. I did not ask anything. Do not be mistaken. It’s difficult to represent someone from a country that you’re not a part of. So remaking the eternal thug, the eternal killer, no, that doesn’t interest me, thank you very much.

Does this change the way you approach the roles or the way you play? We know that Americans generally overplay enormously.

No way. Nothing at all. It’s the same. I made a film with Kenneth Lonergan called Margaret in 2011, where I play a Bolivian and so the guy was quite reluctant, “Are you sure Jean Reno can do this Bolivian? “Yes, of course, he’s going to do it, you’ll see. And so, we started working. He took me on all the scenes: “We’re going to do it differently, you did it like that, but I want us to do it differently“. Very good. He changed the text for me during the lunch break and I told him: “I hate you, how do you want me to learn?” We gave conferences afterwards for universities and what was my surprise at the first conference. He stood up and said: “I have to say something because Jean is here. He worked with me. I had a lot of doubts. I made him replay all the scenes, I didn’t put any of mine in the edit. Everything I put into editing was what he suggested to me“. So there, old man, I was proud.

There will be Godzilla. You are a DGSE agent responsible for exterminating a monster rising from the depths of the seas. When the film comes out, we are in a bit of the same register as for The big Blue. It comes out at the end of the Cannes Film Festival. The press criticized him from the start. The only person it doesn’t touch is you. We realize to what extent there is a gap between American gigantism and Europe.

It’s clear.

How are you experiencing this moment?

The boss of Sony told me: “Jean, the film made around 300 million dollars. Don’t listen to anything. Make me several like this“. So, there are two points of view. Obviously, it is not an artistic work, it is not Godard, it is not Truffaut. But it is interesting to keep one’s truth in these machines of war. You still turn in front of Manhattan, there is an army. I found that in the Da Vinci Code, there must have been 300 people on set and Ron Howard directing the whole thing like there were only four people. So everything is relative in life.

Are you proud of this international career, of representing France beyond its borders?

“I hope I didn’t betray France because it’s important to me.”

There’s no denying it, it opens a lot of doors because it’s an international broadcast. So when you go to Bucharest for example, there is a guy who immediately says: “Wow, you are the professional!“It opens doors.

Watch this interview on video: