Vanessa Paradis Begged This Actor To Star With Her In This Popular Movie

In 2010, Vanessa Paradis and Romain Duris burst the screen in the film The Heartbreaker. The tandem was a hit with the romantic comedy, in which a man is paid to break up couples. A duo completed by the famous comedian François Damiens, who played one of the secondary roles. But did you know that the interpreter of Joe the cab literally begged him to join her in the casting?

Vanessa Paradis “begged” François Damiens

More than 10 years later, the Belgian has an intact memory of the moment the project arrived on his table. For François Damiens to agree to have his name in the credits, the film team had to work extra hard. Vanessa Paradis, Romain Duris (the main roles) and Pascal Chaumeil (the director) had to “to beg” the one we nicknamed “François the Confuse”.

“Several of us got involved, remembered Vanessa Paradis on the set of C to you on France 5 last January. It’s true, one evening, I didn’t know François, and we were Pascal Chaumeil, the director, Romain Duris and I, we called François and we begged him to join us on the film.”

François Damiens “was afraid of acting Belgian”

The hidden camera pro remembers the scene like it was yesterday. “I remember when you called me, then relates François Damiens. I was at a friend’s house who had a sloping garden, I was at the bottom of the garden, I had gone to relieve myself and suddenly I see my phone ringing with a +336. I pick up. It was Vanessa, Romain and Pascal Chaumeil”, he remembered.

François Damiens then hesitated, thinking that a Belgian actor in a French film would open the door to clichés: “I was afraid of playing the Belgian in a film, it was the beginning. A bit like French actresses who are afraid of acting in American films, all things considered.”

But the actor was right to give in since he was nominated for a César in the best supporting actor category for this film which marked his career. “It wouldn’t have been the same at all without him.”estimated Vanessa Paradis. “We loved shooting it, it was great,” added François Damiens. In France, The Heartbreaker had 3.7 million admissions. Just that !