While Lupin hit Netflix in the United States (a first for a French series), we met the actors Omar Sy and Shirine Boutella during a promo on Zoom. We cooked them on their filming memories, and we ended up talking about tackling, giggles, Dutronc and Nike Air Jordan.
Madame Figaro. – The grigri that you kept from the shoot …
Omar Sy | – I have plenty of them, but first and foremost there is a pair of sneakers. A pair of black and orange Nike Air Jordan.
Shirine Boutella. – For me, it’s more of an expression, which I never said before. It is “chanmé”. Everyone spent their time saying that on the set, especially Soufiane (Guerrab, another actor in the series, Editor’s note). I am not very verlan and when I returned home in the evening, my husband would say to me “but what happens to you to say” chanmé “all the time?” …
The scene that you must have shot 92 times …
S. B. – I ran a lot, especially in the sequence in the Luxembourg Gardens. There are lots of angles, lots of shots, and I spent a whole day running. I had no dialogue, just lines where I was screaming “Stop! Stop!”
The moment of glory, that moment when you were super proud of yourself …
O. S.- I think it’s every morning. You have to understand something, is that filming “Arsène Lupine”, in Paris, in the conditions in which we did it, despite the Covid, with an incredible, ultra-competent team, it was incredible. When I got up, went to my dressing room, put on the clothes to play this character, it was just fun. Afterwards, the scenes at the Louvre with the beautiful suits, it was also cool.
S. B. – The tackle succeeded where I had to make very precise movements for it to be credible. We had a stuntman with us who was really from the police and who made us do the right things. I was very proud of myself at the end when I saw the result, I said to myself “ah yeah I could have been a cop actually!”.
“Lupine, in the shadow of Arsene”, the trailer
The line you haven’t forgotten …
O. S.- “You saw me but you didn’t look at me”. I find that it slams well.
S. B. – I didn’t have very complicated things to say … She doesn’t really have a Belkacem monologue.
The song that followed you during the shoot …
O. S.- Of course, there is that of Dutronc (Gentleman burglar, Editor’s note) they kept singing to me, and so I heard all the time. In truth, they put it on me so much that I can’t hear it anymore (Laughs). I don’t really dare say it because I love Dutronc, but this one I can’t do anymore.
S. B. – (She sings) “He’s the greatest thief, yes, but he’s a gentleman.” Because there is a sequence where I was maybe scheduled to sing, and since I was not necessarily very familiar with Arsène Lupine, I looped it to try to remember it, and today I always have it in my head when I think of Lupine, it’s very unpleasant.
Your ritual before putting on the Lupine costume every morning …
O. S. – I did like Zidane: “First the left leg, and then the right leg, always, and then a sip of Volvic” (the famous advertisement here, Editor’s note).
The stunt that freaked you out …
O. S. – In episode 1, the scene where I am suspended by the balcony and that I am in the void, and there I freaked out. Because it’s the first days, we discover the stuntmen, we discover the team … Confidence is won, eh (Laughs). We look at these guys we have never worked with, we see how they work … It’s not like a jump, or a fight, or driving, where we control a little, there I was just thanks to the other actor and security, I was completely passive. I don’t really like this position. Well, we did it, it went very well and it set the tone for the rest.
A giggle while filming …
O. S. – We had more than one. But in episode 3, there is an actor who has an incredible voice. Except that when you see it, you don’t expect that voice at all. And when he first spoke to me, I was hallucinating and I’m not very good at suppressing giggles. So it came out, and the fact that it came out like that innocently made him laugh, and then everyone else. And it lasted a little while.
S. B. – It’s time for robot portraits at the police station. There were more or less well done portraits of Assane Diop, therefore of Omar Sy, including one that was not really flattering, and at the end of the day, all tired, we found ourselves no longer able to be serious, to the point that the director could not take it anymore. It was our first giggle all together.
The tile during filming …
O. S. – The Covid! Containment, we had not planned. We worked in blocks, and the Covid arrived in the middle of a block. It was impractical. We’re not going to complain, but it was the tile.
The good advice you received …
S. B. – To be natural, no doubt. Let go and not think about the image that could be returned to the screen. We often tend to want to look good on screen when in fact we don’t care, we just have to be real.
Lupine, in the shadow of Arsene, by Louis Letellier, to see on Netflix.
