Two years ago, Jean-Pascal Zadi revolutionized French cinema with his comedy just black, a bitter and satirical portrait of the black condition in France. A film that impressed (760,628 admissions) and earned him a César, for the best male hope. Two years later, the troublemaker is still there. This year, he is playing three comedies: Cut!, the year of the shark (in theaters Wednesday) and smoking makes you cough.
Three atypical comedies, far removed from what French cinema traditionally produces. Remake of a Japanese hit, Cut! It narrates the stumbles of a director on the set of a bankrupt movie with zombies. french version of sea teeth in the Arcachon Basin, the year of the shark follows the confrontation between the maritime gendarmes and a giant shark. smoking makes you coughFinally, it is a rereading, by Quentin Dupieux, of the Japanese superhero series.
“I don’t have a career plan,” Jean-Pascal Zadi confesses to BFMTV. “My only career plan is to have fun and take advantage of the opportunity I have. That’s why I made these three movies. They are strong universes where I feel like I’m going to have fun. The stress comes when you start calculating.” But unlike just black and laughs Craignos Y downright creepyis limited to the bottom:
“I’m going too,” he says. “I’m aware of that. I know I have a lot to learn. If I have to go through small roles to rub shoulders with giants like Marina Foïs or Kad Merad, I’m leaving! I’m aware of my shortcomings.” , of my possibilities, of my limits. I compose with my nature. I put her in my roles a lot, but acting isn’t just your nature. There are also things to touch, emotions to give, physical things”.
“There are not many good scenarios”
Within the year of the shark, plays a policeman whose mission is to capture a dangerous shark. “I had to jump out of a boat. I liked it!” enthuses the actor, who says he had a lot of fun playing a policeman: “I liked the idea of being a regional policeman, and not a city policeman , who is looking for drugs. That doesn’t interest me at all.” Above all, he saw the opportunity to play a character like in the series of Gendarme of Saint-Tropez.
The gendarmes and the gendarmes is his cult movie: “I like it because it’s a real nanar! I have a poster in the hallway at home. We had been fascinated by my little brother, the black policeman called Yo Macumba! His country is Bungawa! We had to laugh with my brother for a week. They couldn’t even give him a real name! Gendarme and the gendarmesis Louis de Funes [qui me fascine]: his incredible comedic aura.”
Zadi admires Louis de Funès’s ability to be masterful, even in the worst nanars. “It’s a goal”, he says while he points out that he looks “attentively” at the many scenarios that he receives since the success of just black. “Not everything is interesting. Honestly, there aren’t many good scripts. As I am also a director, and I have my projects to do, when I leave my family, my children, to go to work, if it is an average scenario. , I have no time”.
“The average scenarios are the scenarios where there is a black role,” he specifies. “They need a black paper and they’re bringing in ‘JP’ Zadi. They’re also risk-free scenarios. I like risky things. It’s a bit borderline. Maybe it will change, that eventually I’ll become a couch potato.” !”
“I’m a mega anarchist!”
There is no risk of seeing it gentrify. Jean-Pascal Zadi is full of ideas to change our vision of the world. “I am a mega anarchist! There are many things that do not suit me in the system, in the world today. There are many locks to break! Of course I am not happy with what is happening. My personal situation is good, but the planet as it is, is not good. It is not normal that there are people with a lot of money next to people who do not have “.
“There is also room for new ways of telling stories. I’m not saying that just black It’s the best movie in the world, but I know it was different in the way it approached comedy. And maybe that’s what made people like it, because it wasn’t the usual comedy, with the usual situations. We have proposed limited things. That’s what interests me. This is where there is work to be done. Agreed jokes, I don’t care.”
A few years ago, Jean-Pascal Zadi had the idea of a movie where a black superhero would have faced an African dictator questioning the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. But the project, started with Thomas Ngijol, took another course to smooth out and come out under the title of black snake in 2017. “Thomas and his wife decided to take the thing and do something else with it, but basically the dictator didn’t think it was normal for everyone to have the atomic bomb. He wanted this atomic bomb to blow up the world.” “
“It’s going to be a crazy experience, this second movie”
The actor and director is currently developing his own projects. he just boxed Insteada series for Netflix imagined with François Uzan (Family business) broadcast in 2023. Zadi will be an educator-driven presidential candidate. “Obviously he doesn’t know about politics, he has dubious friends, he has a heavy past and he’s going to put his foot in the plate,” Zadi announces, who will reply to Benoît Poelvoorde, Fary, Marina Foïs, Éric Judor and Fadily Camara.
He is “really happy” with the result: “There is a strong message in it, which is close to my heart. We must not dream small, but dream big. We have our place everywhere. We are legitimate everywhere. We just have to have self-confidence. Stay yourself.” She salutes the freedom that Netflix offers: “We got into some good ‘borderline’ things and Netflix let them slide. I’m so happy we had such a free tone.” At the same time, John Wax, his accomplice in just blackHe writes her a project in which she will be the protagonist.
And Jean-Pascal Zadi is preparing for 2023 the shooting of his second film. “He’s going to blow shit bubbles. It’s going to be crazy,” he warns. “When he was writing just blackI didn’t know it was going to work, but I knew it was important that a movie like that existed. No one could have stopped me. This second film, I am doubly convinced that just black. It’s something that’s twice as big. There will be a sick cast. We’ll have a bigger budget.” The synopsis is secret for now. “It’s going to be a crazy experience, this second movie.”
Source: BFM TV
