Les Jokes de Toto 2, in theaters on August 2, is carried by a brand new actor, Hugo Trophardy. Why did the latter take over from Gavril Dartevelle, hero of the first episode?
After pranking over a million viewers in 2020, Toto is back to play tricks on us! This time, the mischievous student and his classmates take the road to the countryside for a green class!
But, if for the other students, this is the opportunity to discover life on the farm, for Toto, it is above all the perfect opportunity to invent new jokes and live crazy adventures. Especially since the farmers who welcome them seem a bit dodgy, and it is said that a ghost is lurking in the area… Toto intends to investigate, and he has more than one trick up his sleeve. !
For this new adventure, Gavril Dartevelle, main actor of the first part, does not return. Now 16, he has grown too old for the role. It is the young Hugo Trophardy, 12, who slips into the costume of the mischievous Toto. The saga follows the same path as Ducobu in the cinema, which changes actors with each opus.
“I saw 1400 children to form the group of five and of course find Toto… Hugo arrived during the 14th or 15th casting and immediately I perceived this little extra thing, this smiling eye, this essential energy for the role”said director Pascal Bourdiaux.
“Hugo had only shot a short film before this film. He is lively, mischievous and has a great range of acting. He is a child who is both spontaneous and thoughtful”, he added. For his part, the young actor was familiar with the universe of Toto comics before embodying it in the cinema.
“I knew he was a comic book hero because I had read a few of them. So I knew Toto, this boy who always makes jokes and he made me laugh because I, on my side, am also a bit like that with my friends at school! I also saw the first film which I loved and if one day someone had told me that I would be filming in the sequel, I would never have believed it”he said.
Hugo met Pascal Bourdiaux in the second round of casting. “I played several scenes in front of him and Pascal told me that my acting was very fair and that I made him laugh with my facial expressions: he had the impression of seeing Toto! I asked him several questions about the number of people who would be on the set or the number of hours of shooting in a day”remembers the budding actor.
DR Hugo Trophardy
“It worried me a little because I only had experience of short films where we shot very little. There, I suspected that it would not be the same thing… I also asked how many there would be cameras for example”explains Hugo Trophardy.
After the Toto experience, the teenager wants to continue working in the film industry. “Once you’ve tried, you don’t want to stop! With Toto, I started with comedy but I would like to do other kinds of films. Since then, I’ve continued with castings and j I played in the spring in a film where I was able to interpret a character who was not necessarily nice, who did not look like me much in real life”he reveals.
“I’m also interested in everything around a set, such as technique for example, the way a film is made. In fact, I would like to make it my job. I know that cinema is not not just a hobby, it really is a passion”concluded the young actor.