- Frederic Diefenthal, Taxi, France, 1998. Too good for such Luc Besson action tripe, as Duris proved – triumphantly – in Jacques Audiard’s 2005 French re-make of James Toback’s Fingers, 1978: De battre mon coeur s’est arrêté.
- Mads Mikkelsen, Casino Royale, 2006.
- Nicholas Duvauchelle, Le deuxième Souffle, 2007. Auteur Alain Corneau approached Duris for the young gunman. Duris passed: the role was too small. (Hey, didn’t he know – no such thing as small roles, only small actors).
- Kool Shen, Abus de faiblesse (Abuse of Weakness), France-Belgium-Germany, 2012. While the cool Duris opposite Isabelle Hupperr would have been a dream team, the French rapper Kool Shen was surprisingly good in the latest chunk of autobiographics from the ever controversial auteur Catherine Breillat. She had a stroke in 2004 and was bilked out of close to a million Euros in 2007 by a renowned conman. But we know all that. Not quite. The film is their battleground, as one manipulates the other. But which one…? Huppert, the first real star Breillathas dared work with in her previous 31 films, is perfection. The scenario is not.
- Lambert Wilson, L’Odyssee (The Odyssey), France, 2015. Or The Making of Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, globally revered for his remarkable TV shows about the sea. Duris (the most wasted French star) and American Adrien Brody were discussed for le commandant. Wilson scored a double whammy of playing the nation’s most admired Frenchmen: Clouseau and the priest called l’Abbé Pierre.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 5