Asterix: Guillaume Canet did not want to play the little Gaul in The Middle Empire


Guillaume Canet returns with us to the challenges of “Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom”, and explains to us that he initially intended to play it… Julius Caesar.

Asterix in the flesh: fifth! After Claude Zidi, Alain Chabat, the duo Frédéric Forestier – Thomas Langmann and Laurent Tirard, Guillaume Canet resumes the adventures of the famous Gaul in hand. In front of and behind the camera, since he also embodies the title role opposite his friend Gilles Lellouche in Obélix.

But it is not this character that he initially wanted to embody, as he explains to us while returning to the genesis and the challenges of The Empire of the Middle, a project rich in twists and adapted from an original scenario, in the cinema on February 1.

AlloCiné: How was this project born? Did you go to see Pathé to suggest that they stage the next “Asterix”? Or did the studio come to you?

Guillaume Canet: At the start, Pathé wasn’t even involved in the project. Yohan Baiada, who is a producer, had succeeded in obtaining the rights to this original scenario which he developed with Julien Hervé, Philippe Mechelen and Hachette. And they came to get Alain Attal, my producer, who came to see if I was interested in directing it.

I read the treatment of about twenty pages that had been written, and I immediately saw that there was something that was very ambitious and a little different from the other films that had been made, because, there, it stuck more to the comic strip.

There was also the travel, adventure or action film side, which made it possible to move towards special effects and to have a certain modernity for our superheroes – because that is the case, they are superheroes .

I felt there was real material to make a popular film, and that excited me a lot because it was going to be something more than what had been done. Not just a comedy.

At first I wanted to play César

When did the fact of also playing the role of Asterix arise?

At first I wanted to play César. But I realized that was unreasonable. Well, no, because playing Asterix is ​​even less so. But I thought we were going to repeat too much with what we did with Marion [Cotillard, interprète de Cléopâtre ici, ndlr] in Rock’n Roll, returning again to this self-mockery. I found it a shame to start over with the same theme, but there was no question of me playing Asterix either.

But it was my entourage and the production at Pathé, once they arrived on the project, who convinced me that I was the right person because I had the character: the somewhat conquering side of the character . A bit boring too, very on the rules.

So I finally decided that might be a good idea. And it’s very exciting for an actor to play Asterix, there’s a lot to do with this character.

Is it easier, to reclaim the universe of Asterix, to start from a scenario which did not adapt any comic strip?

It’s very complicated. Because it is necessary, at the same time, to have the freedom to tell a history which does not exist. And, at the same time, you have to manage to stay within the codes, within the DNA of Asterix and Obelix.

For that, I had the incredible chance to meet Albert Uderzo before he left us [en mars 2020, ndlr], to read a few pages to him and to see his eyes sparkle and his smile. It was extremely encouraging.

I then made him a promise, which is also the one I made towards myself and the work of René Goscinny, namely to be the most faithful and to respect the DNA and the genre of the original work. .

The people of comics try to succeed in transcribing a certain modern topicality, as they did at the time, but in the mouth of these Gauls, with a certain language which is never coarse but with this absurdity, a little offbeat , and puns.

Then I was lucky to have the support of rights holders: Sylvie Uderzo, Albert’s daughter, or Anne Goscinny, René’s daughter. We had to be sure to stay in the language of Asterix and Obelix, and I think, if I’m not mistaken, that we did it well.

Memory of a foggy shoot for Guillaume Canet

This “Asterix” is by far your biggest project. What were the main difficulties on set, and what did you learn from them as a director?

I learned to shoot day by day. It was so huge, with problems coming up every day. I arrived in the morning – knowing that I slept four months in my caravan, on the spot, because I wanted to be able to rest and not waste time in transport – and there were problems.

Every morning, on a film like that, you are told that such an actor has injured himself and that we are finally obliged to change the work plan. That it must rain in two days while we are doing a scene with five hundred extras outside and where the weather is supposed to be fine.

So every day is enough, and we say to ourselves “OK, today we’re shooting this. We’re focusing on that and we’ll see tomorrow.”

That’s how I made this film, little by little. Trying not to think about the future. Not to think about what the movie will be like. Try to be a little oblivious and keep smiling.

I was with people who were extremely happy to be part of the film and to be there, and I also had to hide my distress or my concerns. So I tried to have fun, which wasn’t always easy. But I tried.

And the Covid has undoubtedly changed the project a lot from what it was initially supposed to be.

Yes, a lot ! Already we did not shoot in China because of the pandemic. And when you have five hundred extras, when you’re filming in Auvergne when it’s five degrees and they’re all in sandals and skirts, when everyone’s cold and you’re giving everyone fleece blankets, there’s about a quarter of an hour between “Engine !” and the “Stock !” : because at “Engine !”guys with wheelbarrows are in front of each row of extras to collect the blankets.

And behind it, the extras have to take off their mask and put it in a pocket made on purpose in their costume. It’s crazy how much inertia there is. It was a peplum thing. (laughs)

It gives wings to learn to work with special effects specialists

And what do you want after making a peplum? Go back to something smaller or aim even higher?

Frankly… I’m barely getting my head above water because I’ve just finished the film and now I’m promoting it. Then he’ll come out and I’m waiting to see how he’ll be received.

Obviously, when you make a film like that, it gives you wings to learn how to work with special effects specialists. We understand how films like the Avengers are made for example.

It develops an imagination and it makes you want to make other films like that. And, as a director, it makes me want to offer French people French films with enormous resources.

But for that, films like the one we just made have to work. If people don’t go, there won’t be others. And not for a long time in my opinion. There, the cinema is picking up a bit, fortunately, but people have to go there. And that people who haven’t seen it have the curiosity to go there before criticizing.

Which seems to be something complicated today.

Yes, people are vehement. And sometimes very very hard, without even having seen the things or the work. But that, we can’t do anything about it, that’s how it is. But I can only encourage them to have a little indulgence. And above all curiosity. If afterwards they see it and find it good, it’s a shame because they will realize that they spoke too quickly.

I think it’s a good rule, today, to encourage creation and cinema, to respect that at least and to see the film first. And then to criticize, of course, and to be free to do so. But it always existed. I am in this excitement because the release is approaching. (laughs) And we are obviously sensitive to it.

Interview by Maximilien Pierrette in Paris on January 9, 2023



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