When Kad Merad gets "roomed" by inmates of Meaux prison

Mélanie Faure 12:03 p.m., August 31, 2021, modified at 12:06 p.m., August 31, 2021

INTERVIEW

In

by Emmanuel Courcol, Kad Merad plays the role of Etienne, an actor who runs a theater workshop in prison. The star gives the reply to David Ayala, Lamine Cissokho or Marina Hands. For the filming of this new French comedy, in theaters on September 1, Emmanuel Courcol's team set down their cameras at Meaux-Chauconin-Neufmontiers prison, in Seine-et-Marne. A strong experience on which returned Kad Merad at the microphone of Philippe Vandel in the program Culture Médias this Tuesday.

"We filmed in the real prison of Meaux, with 900 inmates, some of whom are serving long sentences. We were hosted for eight days, which is quite rare for a film crew," said Kad Merad, who passed for the premiere. times the doors of a penitentiary center.

"I was filming with Laurent Stocker who is shorter than me. We crossed the corridor at the exit of a stage, from where all the inmates can see you from their room and one of them yelled: ' Hey Kad, did you come with little Nicolas? '. It made me laugh and Laurent laughed a lot. The inmates put you up and at the same time they love you.

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- Philippe Vandel with Kad Merad

An unprecedented shoot

The shooting of

took place in the fall of 2019, before the health crisis.

The 74 technicians, actors and members of the technical team took over the premises of Meaux-Chauconin-Neufmontiers prison, warmly welcomed by the prison staff.

A setting for a film close to reality ... or almost.

To play the role of the inmates, Emmanuel Courcol had to recruit actors, to his chagrin.

"They are false prisoners, real actors, who must have played bad actors," Kad Merad recounts on Europe 1, referring to the theater course he hosts in the film.

"And they play better better. That's where you see the performance of the actors who play in the film."