It would have been hard to write Boeing Boeing – pochade sixties deliciously outdated by Marc Camoletti, revived this year at the Théâtre Daunou, paris – in this era #MeToo. Frank Leboeuf, always sharp, physically, embodies the seductive Bernard, who juggles with time zones to maintain his three brides hostesses. Then, of course, the final promises to be thunderous. «Yes, the doors slams shut, it does more, it is a bit outdated, but when it is revisited with a modern rhythm, it becomes an exhilarating», he admits with a pleasure not pretended, that we find on stage, where it forms a real good trio comic between Véronique Demonge and Thierry Samitier.
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The former world champion, a good hour and a half prior to the performance of the evening, greets us in the basement of the theater, located a few steps from the Opera Garnier. The same place where, in 1953, a certain Louis de Funès began to truly launch her career by appearing in the play Ah! les belles bacchantes . The comedian will take on the musical comedy at the cinema, in the role that is more a result of the police inspector Leboeuf. A coincidence a little far-fetched that Frank Lebœuf delivers it with tenderness. Its heroes of today, here they are: Funès, «Bébél», Depardieu («give him the Oscar for Cyrano , m****!») – or even Georges Beller, «Platini boards» – rather than Pele, Socratès or Maradona. But also some guys hair is scarce, such as Jason Statham and Bruce Willis, whom he met on the other side of the Atlantic.
Chelsea and the Hollywood FC’s Frank Leboeuf in black and white. GUIREC COADIC
This is thirteen years that Franck Leboeuf has hung up the spikes (after one last draw at the club qatari Al Wakrah), and already two decades, it raised the world Cup after his performance authoritarian face in Brazil. It replaced, then Laurent Blanc in the axis of the defence alongside Marcel Desailly. This «libero with the» old, strasbourg always passed through the fire of Stamford Bridge in the jersey of Chelsea, has since not left a lot of rest. He left the same year to Los Angeles, enrolled her children in acting classes of the Lee Strasberg Institute . «Out of curiosity, I asked if there was room for people like me, 37 years», he says amused. «Then I come back in, making me pass for a commercial. I was in front of guys 18 years of age. Once, I was asked to play a gay man, I went to the bottom. In front of me, a young country, which should not be very tolerant. It is barred in the current!»
For an ex-footeux attracted to the «7th art», what makes more sense once installed in the City of angels that push the door of the Hollywood FC? A team of soccer amateur, composed of stars of the corner, that there is a lack of raise in National. «I have found Vinnie Jones (former player of Wimbledon FC turned actor, editor’s NOTE), a large bales that I had already faced in the Premier League. There was also Jason Statham, Owen Wilson, and Steve Jones, the guitarist of the Sex Pistols. Not all very good at football but good atmosphere!»
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His work begins to bear fruit. The neo-comedian plays its own role in The Ball is Round , continuing with Caravaggio (who will never see the light of day), and went on to small appearances. It is launched even in the production with Programmed , «an excellent scenario on the celebrity, the eighth sin, with a claustrophobic science-fiction where people die little by little without knowing if it is in fiction or in reality…», But the coils remain in the closet, waiting for some news outlets. In 2010, Frank Lebœuf is offered a role of robber of bank in The Intruder , to the theatre in The Temple. He then met his future wife, and decides to go back definitively in France where he remains in the eyes of all a hero of the epic 98.
A player collective
«in The cinema, the rendering is wonderful, but it is boring in between the sockets»
A popularity, still alive not so appreciable in the middle of the cinema. «The casting directors turning their heads as soon as they saw my name,» he says, a little bitter. «Today, I have over 900 performances in the legs. But in the minds of the people, I will never have completely the label of actor. In France, and only France, it is known that it is difficult to get out of a box to go in another. Lino Ventura, in his first interviews, the journalist accused him of behaving on a tray like on a wrestling ring! The first question he was asked André Pousse (former bicycle racer turned actor, editor’s NOTE), it was: «So, it rolling?»»
Frank Leboeuf and Thierry Samitier on stage. GUIREC COADIC
A defiance that pushes the columnist to cross the Channel to try new castings. It lens bit the role of a French chef in the series Downtown Abbey , and got what will go down as his most famous role in A wonderful history of time , where he plays a swiss doctor in the face of Stephen Hawking. Today, Frank Lebœuf has more or less drawn a line on the big screen. And it may be much better, considering the pleasure he seems to take in the scene. «In the cinema, the rendering is wonderful, but it bored between takes», he argues again. «We shoot two minutes of film a day! On a shoot in Spain, it was me who did it accelerate all of the world, which organized répèts'». The rare nights where he can not climb on the trestle, too busy to comment on the football on RMC Sport , he «stamps his feet in his living room».
But, it will be nice to force the comparison between the actor and the drama of the round ball, Frank Leboeuf does not fall into the trap. «It is incomparable. Football is a science undecided for some time, the scenario of a match is never written in advance, with 80,000 persons in the merger that encourage you and others who hate you.» The rigour and the sense of hierarchy, such as on the boards, there are however paramount. «The director, as the coach, has the sacred word. He must know how to crush. When I was told to do four rounds of further field while I was throwing up I was doing. In cinema, a director was amazed, because I was the only one not bitching after the fiftieth take. I am paid for it! It is a professionalism that I have learned from football.»
According to the old number 18, the most important – Aimé Jaquet will have said it enough already – the rest of the collective. «I have often the role of the «clown white»: we laugh at my expense», theorizes there. «A valve, it prepares. So when I balance hurt my reply, Thierry and Véronique are not going to make you laugh in the process. For me, it is like a password challenge’ for a striker!»