In the podcast Lesson broadcast on January 14, Arnaud Ducret returned to his debut as an actor. He remembers in particular a casting for the musical of Dove Attia, Gone with the wind. The actor keeps a very bad memory…
The beginnings of an actor’s life are sometimes rough. Arnaud Ducret knows something about it! Before being spotted by Parents manual in 2013, he waited many years to make a living from his passion. In parallel with the Cours Florent, the comedian combines odd jobs. “In the afternoon I work in a store, in the evening in a restaurant, and from time to time, I dub pornographic films“, he revealed on Europe 1 last June. But in 2003, his life could well have changed. The budding comedian is spotted by Dove Attia, the producer of several successful musicals. He is sure, his career will take a new turn. However, the casting is not going to take place as planned… The famous juror of The New Star brought hell to the young man still unknown to the general public.
“Do your job as a producer”
For his new musical Gone with the wind (2003), Dove Attia is looking for new talent to carry her show. He spotted Arnaud Ducret and asks him to come and pass the casting. Aware that this is the chance of a lifetime, the one we saw in Divorce Club is “like crazy”. It is full of energy and hope that he crosses the door of the casting. “I tell myself that I can’t dream of this for so long and not achieve it“, he recalls in the podcast Lesson. But his good will will be put to the test since Dove Attia decided to make him wait “1 hour” before receiving it. An attitude that did not please Claire Francisci’s fiancé: “I tell myself ‘wow.’ I hate being disrespected. I see him, he’s no busier than that, and he makes me hang around, maybe to throw me off balance. I think it’s a method he had to have.“A practice that the actor loathes:”I don’t understand the idea of making someone uncomfortable. He’s coming for a casting, do your job as a producer too“, he continues.
“He cut me off in the middle of the song”
But the nightmare does not end there. At that time, the 42-year-old dad wore the goatee “a bit like George Michael”. “Why the goatee there?”, asks the former The New Star, “very straightforward”. Not at ease, Arnaud Ducret’s voice wavered during his audition: “I was really not well in my sneakers. He looked at me and cut me off in the middle of the song“, he regrets. The gospel singer resented Dove Attia for having shattered his dream with so much indifference: “This casting could have changed my life, you, you only hope for that and the guy was not very nice (…) I did not appreciate at all how I was received“, he says. And yet, the one who participated in the show District Z does not hold it against the producer whom he has since seen again and whom he finds “funny”. If he was not selected, he learned a great lesson from this casting!