If Jean-Pierre Bacri has become one of the favorite actors of the French, it is partly by chance of a fortuitous meeting when this passionate about the seventh art earned his living as an opener at the Olympia. One of his relatives recounts this scene in Bacri, like a family resemblance, broadcast on France 3.
Comedian by accident, but not just any accident. If he did not need any help to rise up against the justices of this world, Jean-Pierre Bacri was not destined for the long and beautiful career as an actor envied by many of his colleagues. The one who will experience success with Agnès Jaoui had managed to get a job at Société Générale in Cannes, where he lived at the time, before going to Paris. But a happy event changed his destiny, when he had sworn to himself never to put on a costume again and to get up at dawn. Well obliged to earn his crust to finance his theater school, he finds a place as opener at the Olympia, where he swaps the tie for the red bow tie, after notably serving margaritas at Pizza Pino. A food job as a premonitory sign for those who will have a moving encounter there.
“He had given her a fairly substantial tip”
Chance will indeed put an eminent personality in his path who will inspire him, as Olivier Doran tells us in Bacri, like a family resemblance, broadcast on France 3. “When he was opener, Lino Ventura had arrived and had given him a fairly substantial tip. But for Lino Ventura, it was not a big deal”, reports his director friend, before putting words on the link that these two great men of heart have kept. “It amazed him, because he hadn’t done it out of ostentation. It wasn’t ‘here, here’s what I’m giving you’, it was Jean-Pierre who had discovered that it was 50 francs. And as that corresponded to Jean-Pierre’s philosophy, he kept the love for Lino Ventura all his life, a deep respect for this gentleman”. From there was born his taste for others…