Gad Elmaleh on his film: "I really wanted to talk about religion because this subject is tense in France"

Solène Delinger 11:50 a.m., November 15, 2022

Gad Elmaleh is back at the cinema with "Reste un peu", an autobiographical film in which he recounts his journey to the Catholic Church and baptism.

Invited to

this Tuesday morning on Europe 1, the comedian, of the Jewish faith, explains why he chose to tell, in a feature film, his conversion to Catholicism. 

Gad Elmaleh "sees in spectacle" how difficult it is to talk about religion in France

Initially, Gad Elmaleh, 51, intended to make a film about the midlife crisis.

"I was not playing my own role. I had invented a character called Joseph, who was a novelist and who was returning from New York", confides the comedian at the microphone of Philippe Vandel.

His producer then pointed out to him that the subject was "a little intimate" and "a little personal".

"Why don't you put yourself on the stage?" he asked her.

"So I said to myself 'ok, I'm going to stage myself'", recalls Gad Elmaleh.

"Afterwards, I'm thinking of actors. I imagined a casting. And then, little by little, I said to myself 'no, I'm going to ask my parents to play my parents'. And that's for the form. Basically, I wanted to talk about religion,

really in a France where it's complex to talk about religion, where it's tense.

I see him performing."

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Find Philippe Vandel and Culture-Médias every day from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Europe 1 as well as in replay and podcast here

"We have the right to laugh with religion"

In

, Gad Elmaleh recounts his conversion to Catholicism and his adoration of the Virgin Mary with great humor.

The comedian imagined comic scenes around religion.

"I also prove that we can laugh with it. It's what's behind the joke, ultimately, that's important. We have the right to laugh with religion, we have the right to laugh with rites , the practices and I do it in the film". 

Gad Elmaleh was brought to the Christian faith by the Virgin Mary.

It all started the day when, as a child, he entered a church in Casablanca, defying a parental ban.

A statue of the Virgin caught his eye and has never left his mind since.

"I say it in the film: this is my path. I have not yet grasped the mystery of the Trinity (God Father, Son and Holy Spirit in the Christian religion) in all its complexity, I am still stuck in something too coherent, too logical, but Marie holds me and I carry it in me”, he had declared the actor and director in an interview for CNews on November 6th.