Jamel Debbouze, a father with noble values

Jamel Debbouze: “Why didn’t I eat my father”, her new baby

With “Why I did not eat my father”, you embark on the realization. What made you want to adapt Roy Lewis’ book? 

In fact, I didn’t decide to adapt the book. This project was already underway for many years at Pathé. At the beginning, I was offered to do a voice. I tried, it went well, it made them laugh. Then, I tried to change the dialogues, and necessarily the structure of the scenario. They liked it. I think they were delighted with my proposal, without my even wanting to. It happened naturally and I then took over the project.

You worked for seven years to edit this film. Have you encountered moments of doubt?

Yes all the time ! Every three days, you want to cry, to stop. It overwhelms you, it’s stronger than you! There are so many people around you, we ask ourselves 450 questions a day.

Mélissa Theuriau, your wife, is one of the heroines of the film. Did working as a couple help you?

Yes, frankly! In this long marathon which has lasted seven years, we need satisfactions, not daily obviously, but one of my great satisfactions was to see my wife reveal herself in comedy. She really wanted to play. We all want to perform stuff in front of a camera. We all found ourselves in front of a mirror playing the princess, the doctor, the superhero… or the singer. Pushing people to do it in front of a camera isn’t much, you just have to give them confidence. Mélissa didn’t feel legitimate. But since I was helped to do what I achieved, I helped her get started. And then, my wife motivated me to go back for seven years, it’s a real proof of love all the same!

“Why I Didn’t Eat My Father” is the first European motion capture film. That must be a great source of pride?

Yes, I would never have agreed to write a screenplay or direct a motion capture film. I don’t have that pretension or that inclination. However, as soon as I met the French technicians and the producers, that changed. They made me realize that I could do it. And that this technique, as sharp as it may be, is the best for an actor like me who comes from improvisation. We are not constrained by space, by time. You can shoot for 15, 20, 25, 30 minutes without stopping. In the cinema it’s complicated, the scenes last 2-3 minutes, then you have to change the axis of the cameras, the lights… It’s more physically demanding. Motion capture is the best tool that I have been allowed to use, it is the best relationship between the stage and the cinema.

We recognize in Edouard, the main character, your phrasing, your style. In fact, is that you?

Yes, just a few hairs! (laughs) I was lucky to have the motion capture at my disposal. With this technique, the slightest breath is restored, so I wanted to portray the main character, moreover that’s what I was offered to do at the start. And that’s why he’s even closer to me. Obviously, there is what he lives, what he thinks and what he is physically. I hallucinated the first time I showed my son one of the tests. He recognized me immediately, he was 9 months old! It’s extraordinary to be able to humanize animated characters and give them this kind of heaviness that there is in our bodies.

Did your son really recognize you?

Leon recognized me immediately! He was 9 months old. He walked from the computer to me, thinking something’s wrong: the two really look alike!

This movie also echoes your relationship, doesn’t it? Edouard meets a lovely woman, who comes from another tribe …

Yes, he meets a woman who comes from elsewhere, who does not speak the same language, who is different… yet they do not ask questions. This difference brought them together and unites them as in my life. I drew on my own experience. As in my life, I fell from the tree, I broke my arm and I had to fight because I had no choice, like Edouard. We are very similar on that.

In your film, on the one hand there are the progressives and the intolerant reactionaries. Tolerance and respect are values ​​that you instill in your children despite their young age?

Of course, we live in a harsh world, in a world of images. When I see the news channels, the floods of violent images, I want to say to my son: “that’s not the world, don’t be fooled”. I take him by the hand and we go around the world. We traveled to the United States, Africa, Canada. We have been in very hard places, where there is real precariousness. We helped people. We worked for them. He had to understand, as I understood. I had the chance to live in misery and violence and I turned it into something beautiful, I hope: into a family, into values. It motivated me to be a better person.

And then, the world is not what we are sold every day on TV. This is wrong, completely wrong. Most people want to live with each other, are not afraid of difference, the whole world mixes. We mix. We are different, and we have to tell the children that. There is absolutely nothing to hide from them, without preventing them from dreaming of course. It is essential that children continue to dream, to believe in something. We must not break the dream machine as we did in the suburbs.

Is that also the message you want to convey to all the children with this film?

Yes, I am talking about love, friendship, brotherhood, but also exclusion. On the one hand, noble values, and on the other, the problems to be faced. You must not judge, not have an apriori, it’s super important!

“Why didn’t I eat my father” in theaters from April 8, 2015