Asterix and Obelix are part of everyone’s childhood. Well almost! Now, Asterix and Obelix: The Middle Kingdom it is on its way. It is the fifth installment in the French Asterix-Live series and there is definitely a lot of excitement surrounding it. Guillaume Canet plays the role of Asterix while Gilles Lellouche is Obelix. Guillaume is also the director of the film. In an interview, he revealed how he came on board to play the role of Asterix, the euphoria surrounding the movie and much more. Excerpts from the interview below:
Let’s start at the beginning of this incredible film adventure, which has spanned a total of four years. Were the adventures of Asterix and Obelix part of your culture as a child?
Absolutely! My father owned almost all of the Asterix comic books, and they definitely belonged to him. If he wasn’t sharing them with me or my sisters, he’d dove back into them when he was alone, so it’s pretty touching to be able to read his books with my kids now. That’s one of the reasons I’m involved in this project: to finally make a movie for my kids. For everyone’s children.
What are your memories of the first four movies in the franchise?
I saw Claude Zidi’s movie in 1999. I really liked it, but it was Alain Chabat’s 2002 movie that really opened my eyes. That was the movie that really piqued audience interest in the live-action adventures of Asterix and Obelix. It preserved the DNA of the comics while adding a special touch or tone to the mix. It came up with something no one had ever seen in a French movie. I’ve also seen the next two movies and while it’s hard to compare, I think the art direction in the 2008 Olympics episode is top notch.
When did the project Het Middenrijk reach you?
Alain Attal, my old producer, worked with Yohan Baiada, who had developed an Asterix and Obelix project in China, and got Hachette’s approval for this original story. They asked me if the project interested me on paper and gave me a treat to read. Initially it wasn’t something I saw myself doing, but while reading it I saw a glimpse of the possibility of making a great travel and adventure film. I imagined all the things cinema could add to the story, with battles, action sequences and fantastical environments, all on an epic scale rarely seen in France anymore. I knew Asterix was a franchise that had the resources to do all of that. But once I showed my interest in the project, I had to pass the director’s test and prove my credentials. Then I got the first version of the script, written by Julien Hervé and Philippe Mechelen. We worked on it together, then I went on alone because I wanted to make the film more personal by adding elements from my own universe. In all, I think I wrote about a dozen drafts before we started shooting!
As you mentioned, Asterix is one of the rare blockbuster franchises in French cinema. Worldwide box office of nearly $450 million, and nearly forty million home admissions. Is it easy to free yourself from all that?
I always put that aside when I make a movie. I have at least one quality, I think, and that is recklessness! I mean, it doesn’t stop me from being realistic and serious, but I want to maintain a carefree attitude by telling myself that the reason I’m on this project is that people have faith in me. Then it’s up to me to get the best out of myself with what I can. It’s like bare-handed mountain climbing: when you stop to think if you can make it to the top, your grip stiffens and you fall. With a project like Asterix, there’s no going back once it’s launched. It’s a monstrous machine involving an army of people, and every question you’re asked, as well as every answer you give, immediately has,
monumental consequences. The moral of the story is to never doubt yourself and always pretend you have the answer! More seriously, this is my eighth movie as a director and my past experience on set was very helpful because while I didn’t want to concern myself with the size of the budget, I still made sure to stay within bounds. I also realized that even with such a huge budget, spending problems can arise. It’s crazy! The explanation is simple: every department that worked on the movie knew it was an Asterix and wanted to do the best job possible: sets, costumes, special effects, etc. The costumes, for example: Madeline Fontaine made them with dyes dating back to Gallo-Roman times for more authenticity. All dying was done by hand! On the soldiers’ uniforms, every piece of leather was cut by hand before being sewn, also by hand. For four hundred extras. An insane attempt! So yes, it involves spending a lot of money, but it pays off in the end because you see it right there on the screen.
In addition to co-writing and directing the film, you play the role of Asterix…
Yes, but I didn’t want that at first! To be honest, when I was developing the story and characters, I really wanted to play Caesar. I began writing the character as depressed, madly in love with Cleopatra, who has conquered the Chinese market while settling for ‘only’ fame in his European empire. Perhaps I saw certain similarities with my own life. I thought it was funny to think of things as a kind of follow-up to Rock n’ Roll, but when we talked about it with Gilles Lellouche (who wasn’t lined up to play Obelix yet), we realized that playing that chord again with Marion a little musty. So I thought of Vincent Cassel, someone I’ve wanted to work with for a long time. And I saw Caesar in him. It’s crazy, he has the exact profile of the comic book Caesar. He has that feline aspect, the right age and appearance for the role, and I thought it would work perfectly with Marion. In the end, given the size of the project, it seemed like a good idea not to play a role in the film. Then came a number of meetings to discuss the cast and of course the characters of Asterix and Obelix. For the latter, someone had to take on the role of Gérard Depardieu, who had nailed the role from the very first film. He’s Obelix! And he did the first four films, while three actors (Christian Clavier, Clovis Cornillac and Édouard Baer) played Asterix. So we started going through the names of actors and at one point, at Pathé, Jérôme Seydoux said to me, “I don’t get it, Guillaume. Why not you? I mean, honestly, you’re young, you’ve energy to burn, you’re the little guy with the short fuse who always wants to prove he’s right, you’re the perfect Asterix! thinking, “No way! How can I play the lead role while directing a movie of this magnitude?”
And in the end you accepted the part!
Yes, because I realized that the two actors who played Asterix and Obelix had to be friends, and then I thought of Gilles. It meant he was gaining weight, but I knew he had what it takes to play the character: the ability to play something childlike, a sort of almost poetic naivety. I was going to ask him if he was ready to put on 15-20 kilos and take over from Depardieu. Gilles was brave enough to accept, and I know it only takes a minute to see no one but him in the part. He’s touching, magical, and that makes me super happy because it was one of the biggest gamble in this adventure. I can assure you that Gilles did a great job: he trained and stuffed himself to fill the costume and become a real Obelix.
As we said, you come to the end of a four-year film adventure, with the much-anticipated release of the film. How do you feel?
Exhausted but very happy! I am proud of this film, which is close to how I imagined it in my dreams. During all those years of preparation and months of shooting and posting, I never gave up. And as for Pathé and my producers (Alain Attal, Ardavan Safaee and Yohan Baiada), who put a lot of money into the project, I have only one wish: I want the film to work for them. Finally, and with all my heart, I hope the audience enjoys watching this Asterix. I hope they will laugh and have fun. That would make me really happy.
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