He has roles that stick to your skin… This is the case of Jean-Claude Dusse, played by Michel Blanc in Les Bronzés, this loose and nerdy bachelor who accumulates rakes with girls – we remember the scene memorable, stuck on a chairlift singing “When will you see me again, wonderful country”… A character who suddenly made him famous with the French, but from whom he had a lot of trouble getting rid of, especially in the eyes of the profession, who cataloged him for a long time in the troupier comic repertoire. To the point of having difficulty pursuing a career, as he told on the set of C à vous, barely promoting his latest film, Les Petites Victoires.
“All the people who make auteur cinema employed me before Les Bronzés in small roles. From Les Bronzés, nothing more, no more news”, remembered with regret the actor, who saw himself answering: “Ah well no, we will say that it is Jean-Claude Dusse…. “A sidelining from which he suffered, especially in the early 1980s. Michel Blanc then chained comedies, always with Patrice Leconte (Viens chez moi j’habite chez une copine, Ma femme s’appelle reviens, Circulate y ‘a rien à voir), and even tried his hand at directing by filming Marche à l’ombre in 1984.
But everything changed when Bertrand Blier offered him the headliner, alongside Depardieu and Miou-Miou, in Evening Wear, in 1986, a composition role that earned him the Best Actor Award at Cannes. “After that movie, the directors said to themselves: maybe he’s an actor… That’s what my butcher told me, by the way. The evening I came back from Cannes, he said to me: Well finally, you are an actor…” He then chained dramatic roles (Monsieur Hire, Uranus) that he could never have landed without “the stamp of the Cannes Prize”, as he himself admits. An eclectic career that will be crowned by a César for best supporting role in 2012 for L’Exercice de l’Etat.
