Guillaume Depardieu and Gad Elmaleh were the first casting choices for La Vérité si je mens!

The first gave way to Bruno Solo (then to Richard Anconina) and the second finally played in the sequel.

On the occasion of the rebroadcast of The truth if I lie !, at 9:05 p.m. on W9, we dig into our archives. In February 2001, the release of the second part was imminent. Part of the team, director Thomas Gilou in the lead, had entrusted Sophie Benamon with the secrets of the creation of the first film, which was a hit in 1996 at the cinema, in Live Cinema Studio.

The roles of Eddie and Dov were initially offered to Guillaume Depardieu and Gad Elmaleh. The first refused, but put the director in contact with Bruno Solo, who thus obtained another role on screen, that of Yvan (like his best friend Yvan Le Bolloc’h, he will have fun ), and the second decided to leave his place to shoot another film… before being called back for the sequel.

The truth if I lie: Aure Atika confides in the filming of the comedy

Here is an extract from the article devoted to the casting of this comedy which has become cult, which evolved a lot between what the director had in mind when writing his script and its filming.

“The casting has started. First on board: Gad Elmaleh. Gilou goes to see him at the Treviso theater, where he is playing his first one-man show, to offer him the role of Dov, one of the feujs who will reach out to Eddie. ” I accepted straight away, he remembers. I even started working on the character.’ Only, there it is: a few weeks later, Gaumont offered him… XXL! ‘I could not resist. I was 25 years old and I said to myself: ‘Playing with Depardieu is class,’ so I refused The Truth.” To replace him, the casting director, Bruno Lévy, thought of a young actor to whom he made his debut in The Young Peril: Vincent Elbaz. Other “hopes” are involved in the adventure: Amira Casar plays Sandra, the young girl with whom Eddie Vuibert falls in love; Aure Atika, the one who makes Dov fall for him; and José Garcia, the gang’s scapegoat. They don’t yet know that The Truth If I Lie! will change their lives. Because the strength of the film is to mix discoveries and better-known actors used for the wrong purpose, like Élie Kakou or Anthony Delon.

And Eddie Vuibert? On paper, the hero is 25 years old. Thomas Gilou and the producers have drawn up a list of potential actors. Among them, Guillaume Depardieu. He prefers to shoot Marthe by Jean-Loup Hubert. Bruno Solo is considered for the role. He then only had one film and his experience at Canal+ as baggage. No matter, he will be Eddie. But, at the same time, Richard Anconina received the script for The Truth to participate in it. “It was a small role where I had to take on the accent,” he explains. “It wasn’t very interesting. But I fell in love with the script and I told the producers that I I identified more with Eddie. There, I was told: ‘That’s not possible; Eddie is not Jewish and you are.'” “It’s true, explains Thomas Gilou, I was a little confused . At the same time, saying that we don’t care about origins is also the message of the film.” “Yes, finally, I still argued for eight days,” emphasizes Anconina (who even offers to shoot on Guillaume Depardieu’s terms, plus an incentive on the receipts – which he won’t regret!) “For me, If there’s a misunderstanding and we take Eddie for a Jew, it’s because it also comes from something concrete. And then, there are plenty of brown, Latin and Catholic types!” It’s won! Bruno Solo therefore finds himself on the sidelines. Not holding a grudge, he agrees to play Yvan, a character who barely existed on paper but who will gain momentum during filming.

D – 8 before the first clap and still no Patrick Abitbol, ​​the show-off mogul of the gang. Gilou is desperate to find an actor capable of playing this character without being ridiculous. ‘And then, I saw Gilbert Melki’s essays. I found it amazing and I said, ‘We’ll take this crazy guy and see.’ I didn’t know it was a composition role.'”

And this is how the initial team of The truth if I lie ! was formed. Here is its trailer:

Mash-up: The Wolf of Wall Street version The Truth if I Lie!