Christophe Lambert: why he said no to Luc Besson for Le Grand Bleu
Before choosing Jean-Marc Barr for his film on diving to be seen again this evening on Arte, the director had offered the role of Jacques Maillol to the star of Greystoke.
It is undoubtedly one of the greatest paradoxes of French cinema. Like a Nicolas Cage, Christophe Lambert has alternated masterpieces over a thirty-year career (Greystoke, the legend of Tarzan), cult films (Highlander, Subway), UFOs which have their fans (Southland Talesby Richard Kelly) and monumental ovens, both artistic and economic (Mortal Kombat, Vercingetorix).
Fatalist about his tops and his flops – “It’s the game of a career and a life. Successes are easy to manage, but you have to know how to recover from failures” -, the star who has worked with some of the greatest contemporary filmmakers – including Michael Cimino For The Sicilian – gives off this relaxed and unsinkable look that is oh so relaxing. Like a wise man who has seen all the colors, he is aware that his career has been rich in events, good or bad. Ten years ago, he looked back on his filmography in the pages of Pocket TV.
We then learned that he refused the role of Jacques Maillol (ultimately held by Jean-Marc Barr) In The big Blue. After receiving the César for best actor for his role as the peroxide Fred in Subway (1985) Luc Besson, the director had actually set his sights on Christophe Lambert as his first choice to play the freediver in his next film. But he told him no.
“I talked about it a lot with Bessonconfided the actor in the pages of the weekly, but I definitely didn’t want to be the guy who made a film with monkeys, then dolphins… and then why not cows. I would have become the animal actor.”
In 1988, Le Grand Bleu was on the front page of the premiere: “The star of Cannes is a dolphin”
We don’t know if Jean-Jacques Annaud had also offered him a role in The Bearbut what is certain is that Christophe, with this refusal, missed out on a film which brought together nearly 10 million spectators in 1988. In 2020, however, he accepted this choice in the pages of Firstexplaining that he had no regrets.
“I didn’t want to, after Greystoke, to be this actor who played with the animals. Maybe I would have accepted five years later. For Evening outfit (which he was initially supposed to play the role of Michel Blanc, editor’s note)I didn’t think the role was for me – and it wasn’t for a question of image, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it The Sicilian And The conspiracy. As for the role in Cyrano de Bergerac (that of Christian de Neuvillette), my answer will surprise you: I could not accept playing a character who cheats to buy the love of a woman. As I don’t play the characters but become them, I would have felt very bad in Christian’s skin, guilty of the worst cheating in my eyes.”
Here is the trailer for Big Bluerebroadcast this evening on Arte:
Does the world of cinema still want to work with Luc Besson? “It’s not my problem,” he said
