- Michael Lonsdale, France, 1999. Caustic auteur Bertrand Blier set up his tribute to French actors by stuffing as many as possible (Belmondo, Brialy, Delon, Depardieu, Frey, Marielle, Villeret, etc) into 103 minutes, mostly playing themselves. “He gave me a role written for Christian Clavier!” snorted Lonsdale. (In Hollywood terms: Anthony Hopkins in a part written for Adam Sandler). The film flopped, fortunately cancelling Blier’s sequel, Les actrices – “minus any over 50, because over-50 actresses are lousy.” “Sure,” said Lonsdale, “like Simone Signoret and Annie Girardot, to mention two!”
- Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Deux freres (UK/US: Two Brothers), France-UK, 2003. The new Louis De Funes in the same sense of remarkably unfunniness, Clavier had early talks about playing the father of the amazing young Freddie Highmore. Silly idea from realisateur Jean-Jacques Annaud as Clavier was typed as a Bronzées clown to be a French Ambassador. Then again, he went on to play Napoleon on TV. Napoleon lost.
- Clovis Cornillac, Astérix aux jeux Olympiques, France, 2008. Having lately gone straight, playing a dramatic Napoleon (badly) on TV, Clavier couldn’t face a third trip as Astérix – or having his glory stolen by Gérard Depardieu for a third time in the series? “He was not irreplacable,” insisted the young producer and co-director Thomas Langmann. “No one is – except Depardieu. No other actor in the world has the ingenuousness, the presence and the physique to play Obélix.”
- Francois Cluzet, Le derniere pour la route, France, 2009. He may have played Napoleon (on TV), but the usually comic Clavier didn’t have the dramatic chops to be credible as the Capa news agency chief Hervé Chabalier. Even so, Clavier was sent for after Daniel Auteuil and Danny Boon walked away from the alcoholic role.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 4