Nothing to report (TF1) Benoît Poelvoorde: "How can you say no to the guy who logged 20 million entries with his Ch’tis without looking like a fool?"

A Franco-Belgian duel

Macquenoise, a town on the France-Belgium border, March 2010. The atmosphere was western that morning: Belgian customs officer Ruben Vandevoorde (Benoît Poelvoorde) looks darkly at his French counterpart, Mathias Ducatel (Dany Boon). Threateningly she shouts at him: “If you do a Belgian accent, I’ll blow your ass off.“Who can believe that these two actors adore each other in real life? Dany Boon has always wanted the chauvinistic and obtuse Ruben Vandevoorde to be played by Benoît Poelvoorde. Reason: “The power of comedy is incredible!”notes Dany Boon, who admires her colleague. The only problem: Impressed by the tremendous success of an actor and director he never knew, the Belgian actor did not dare to read the script: “I was paralyzed! What if this script was crap? How could I say no to the guy who logged 20 million entries with his ch’tis without sounding like an idiot?‘, recalls Poelvoorde, quickly reassured: “Thank goodness it was well written. Especially the Belgian jokes!“Meeting Dany Boon on set could have been torture for this sickly shy person: “Fortunately, Dany managed to create a warm family atmosphere on set. All in all, this movie was one of the happiest movies I’ve made in my career…”

Dany Boon’s whims

Beneath his casual appearance, Mr. Boon is an all-seeing obsession on his set. On the first day of filming in Belgium, he scrutinizes dozens of extras: he changes one of them to the unseasonable raincoat. Then he sees a garish red sweater that contrasts with the decor… Like a general inspecting his soldiers, he checks the uniforms of the customs officers, making sure that every button and every cuff is in place. Another whim of this big maniac: snow. “When I arrived on set in the winter of 2010, I discovered five centimeters of snow, which gave the image a very poetic air. That’s why I always told my crew I wanted snow. Weather !“To meet this challenge, the production designers made three types of snow: one from white paper, another from foam, and the third from frozen liquid crystals. This artificial snow, brought to the construction site by refrigerated trucks, started to become part of the total budget of 20 million euros.

4 L spilled

Our two customs officers, who gave up the ghost at the beginning of the movie, are soon replaced on screen by a custom race car that looks like hell. Equipped with extended wings, spoilers, air intakes and fins, three tuning experts worked in secrecy for two months to produce this 4 L. These DIY geniuses have recreated the cabin of an authentic 4 L, which they later welded to the chassis of a Citroën BX GTI. The machine was equipped with a 140 horsepower engine and became the world’s fastest 4 L capable of competing with a Ferrari, as shown in a funny scene from the movie…

Nothing to report A delicious family comedy that can be watched on Sunday, May 22 at 21:10 TF1.

Jean-Baptiste Drouet