A cult sequence in the film “Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra”, the monologue by Edouard Baer, alias Otis, almost remained on the editing table at the request of the producers…
Directed by Alain Chabat with a budget of nearly 50 million euros, bringing together a top-notch cast (Gérard Depardieu, Christian Clavier, Monica Bellucci, Jamel Debbouze, Gérard Darmon, Edouard Baer, Chantal Lauby…), Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra is seen in theaters by more than 14 million viewers.
A triumph. The sets are pharaonic, the humor of Chabat hits the mark, the cult scenes follow one another and the public is beyond conquered. No wonder the film ranks among the best French comedies to date.
Among the brilliant sequences of Chabat’s film is always prominently the famous monologue by Edouard Baer, alias Otis. We simply cannot get tired of seeing and reviewing the sequence, known like the back of our hands by the fans. A monologue which had, moreover, for the anecdote, been taken up by Martin Fourcade, Olympic champion of Biathlon in 2019.
For fun, below…
“It was an improv” had revealed Édouard Baer to the site Widescreen in 2005in an interview. “At first the producers begged him [NDR : Chabat] to cut this scene. Incomprehensible and too long according to them. And after several years, this is the moment that I am most talked about. I happen to come across young people who have literally learned it by heart. Quite simply, because Chabat, like Chabrol, has confidence in its taste”.
Twenty years after the release of the film, the actor again mentioned his character and this monologue, as part of an interview with the site Konbini, in December 2022. A role that sticks to his skin. A little too much.
“I don’t know what to do with it! If someone tells me about it, yeah, great, but you know, when you did something 25 years ago… [Ce rôle], it’s something other than me. It’s Alain Chabat, it’s a film, it was great at the time. The texts, even if they are improvised in the cinema, it is the one who films them who is half the creator. I didn’t arrive with a music hall number! Alain Chabat put me in such a state that I wanted to have fun […].”