Dany Boon and Mélanie Laurent are the Frenchies of “Murder Mystery 2”, a new Netflix film which marks the return of the duo of most awkward investigators in the world, Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston. The French stars lift the veil on the set.
Police comedy, and more particularly the genre of whodunit – a mystery film – has not lost its popularity, quite the contrary. After Knives Out, Murder Mystery also returns with a second opus, still worn by Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston.
The couple of detectives this time put their suitcases in Paris to solve a kidnapping case. For this new adventure, two French people are joining the party: Dany Boon and Mélanie Laurent.
The first, already present in the previous part, finds his role of Inspector Laurent Delacroix, an assumed homage to Inspector Clouseau played by Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther. As for the second, she plays Claudette Joubert who sees her marriage turn sour when her husband is kidnapped.
For AlloCiné, the two actors revealed some unusual information about this crazy shoot, punctuated with laughter and anecdotes.
A SHOOTING IN MUSIC
Dany Boon and Mélanie Laurent agree to say it: the filming of Murder Mystery 2 took place in a good mood, in particular thanks to Adam Sandler, who does not separate from his portable speaker.
“He plays very loud music between each take.laughs Dany Boon. Rap sounds in particular. He sets the mood on the set.” Melanie Laurent adds: “We sing, we dance. We know when it’s coming and we hear it from afar.”
Even when he’s not working, Adam Sandler is around, as revealed by the actress who recalls the day when, when he had no scene to shoot, he was present on the scene to give them the answer on the phone.
“Many people would not have made the trip just to give the intonation at the end of the line, but he was there, he did it live”, she explains.
Scott Yamano/Netflix Adam Sandler, Dany Boon and Jennifer Aniston.
THE KINGS OF IMPROVIZATION
Although the scenario is very written, Jennifer Aniston and Adam Sandler left a lot of freedom to their partners. “They participate fully in the writing and they change the valves from one take to anotherrejoices Mélanie Laurent. Besides, I’ve never seen them do the same take, so it changes our whole line..”
This explains the eclectic distributions of the two Murder Mystery films: to follow the comic tempo of the Sandler-Aniston duo, it is better to surround yourself with actors capable of keeping up with the pace. “Adam, I was watching him come up with some very funny thingsconfides Mélanie Laurent. We had trouble keeping our seriousness.”
THE BOLLYWOOD MOMENT
In a wedding sequence, Mélanie Laurent improvises herself as an Indian dancer in a number worthy of a great Bollywood film. She reflects on this experience:The costume was super heavy, just the skirt weighed several kilos.
After the first part of the shooting in Hawaii, we returned to Paris and I called the production to tell them: ‘But by the way, this little dance scene, when are we going to do it?’ They completely forgot about my rehearsals.”
In total, the actress only had two hours to learn the choreography before filming the sequence. “Which is crazy because there is one movement per secondshe adds. There were all the dancers around and that’s the nice thing about an actor’s life: to be surrounded only by professionals who make you feel like you’re getting by… when you’re not. (laughs)”
Scott Yamano/Netflix
Zurin Villanueva, Mélanie Laurent and Jodie Turner-Smith.
A FAKE EIFFEL TOWER
The final act of Murder Mystery 2 takes place atop the Eiffel Tower. A first part of this climax was shot on location with stuntwoman Kelly Phelan – who doubles Jennifer Aniston. For the purposes of the film, she had to fall at more than 48km/h under a perceived temperature of -16°.
Subsequently, all the characters meet in the famous restaurant Jules Verne, located on the top floor of the tower. Dany Boon reveals that no takes were shot at the real establishment: “They completely rebuilt the floor, down to the last detail. All this part was filmed in the studio at the Cité du Cinéma.”
Interview by Thomas Desroches, in Paris, March 16, 2023.
Murder Mystery 2 is available on Netflix.