- Samuel Le Bihan Jet Set, France, 2000. A reluctant superstar – a French Brad Pitt… without the panache. “They keep offering me films I’m quite content to reject.”
- Ewan McGregor, Moulin Rouge, 2001. After sharing The Beach with Leonardo DiCaprio, the French actor was chased for copy-cat American Pies and spent “a fantastic fortnight” doing tests for director Baz Luhrmann. “They didn’t have to be big singers,” director Baz Luhrmann explained about his needs, “but they had to be able to move you emotionally. Basically, Ewan and Nicole [Kidman] were the best for the job. That’s the bottom line of it.”
- Olivier Martinez, Unfaithful, 2002. Too close, he thought, to his work inLa Fidélite – actually it was a Hollywood remake of realisateur Claude Chabrol’s Femme fidele.
- Julien Boisselier, Cortex, France, 2007. Canet never refused the role – the son of Charles Boyer no less, an ex-cop with Alzheimer’s – but asked for the schedule to be re-arranged for him. “I can see you’re very busy,” said auteur Nicolas Boukhrief. “You don’t have to do it. I’ll find somebody else.”In fact, he already had. Boisselier had been in his thriller, Le Convoyeur, 2003.
- Mathieu Almaric, L’ennemi public numéro 1, France-Canada-Italy, 2008. The role: François Besse, who escaped from jail with gangster Jacques Mesrine,something of a 1959-79 French Dillinger:bank robber, kidnapper, killer (39 victims,at least). Hepreferred to see himself, bien sur,as an anarchist during 1959-79.
- Laurent Lafitte, Les petits mouchoirs, France, 2009. The handsome actor was planning on a role in his third film as auteur, then realized the difficulties involved (for him and his pals playing a group of pals) and, anyway, after the César-winning success of his previous movie, that he didn’t have to… He called up Lafitte, another pal from drama school days. There was much of Canet in the lovelorn Antoine, said co-star François Cluzet, particularly in his signature expression: “Now don’t repeat this to anyone.”
- Romain Duris, L’Arnacoeur, France-Monaco, 2009. “Frankly, I’ve rarely refused a film that I’ve regretted when seeing it,” confided the French actor-auteur. “On the other hand, I’ve regretted certain films I did make Par for the course… The sole film I did regret refusing was L’Arnacoeur. But the script was not the one they shot. That said, Romain was formidable!”
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 7