Sting in Camelot: Alexandre Astier tells how the singer got involved in the film

Don’t you dream, the British singer Sting is in the casting of Camelot – the first part. Unbelievable, but true! How did the lead singer and bassist of the band The Police end up in this medieval comedy, with lines inspired by French slang that are difficult for an Anglo-Saxon to understand?

Alexandre Astier explained this in 2021 France Inter :

There is a faction in Camelot called the Saxons and I wanted the English to play them. So I said to my teams, “Imagine it was Sting,” but I didn’t think we’d actually have Sting! On the contrary, he was the team’s vector and inspiration. We asked Sting out of conscience and he said, “Okay, I’m coming,” so I don’t know what to tell you… We asked him, he just came.

However, Astier systematically uses theater and film actors in his projects, avoiding “free” cameos. One might suspect that Sting’s appearance falls into this second category, but it doesn’t:

“Just once, I didn’t want to be an actor, I wanted to be an icon”The director justifies. “(…) a symbol of pop, a certain England. (…) not only the character, but the fact of bringing Sting.

We can’t separate the figure of Sting when he comes into the movie, from his name, from what he’s done elsewhere, and it’s that shift, that inconsistency, that I liked and I think it works.”

• Are you a serial specialist? Do you know the origin of the three notes in the credits?

That’s why Sting found himself on the film, in front of him was an actor who didn’t know who he was! Even though they shared scenes together! But the language barrier did not prevent Sting from fully integrating into Astier’s small group. He also liked being offered the role, as he repeated at the microphone Telerama :

We actually met on set the day before I shot my first scene. I knew Camelot’s reputation, my French friends kept telling me it was great, with a very wry sense of humor. So it was natural for me to say yes.

“First I learned the entire text by heart, then I translated it”he continues. “I studied French at school for seven years, but I never thought that one day I would use it in this way. I regret not knowing the language better, but I have come a long way.”

It is clear that Horsa, who was barely present in Kaamelott – the first part, and who shows some ambition at the end of the film, will return in the next episodes of the trilogy. He asks the court counselors to possess the Isle of Thanet, which actually existed.

What will he do with it? Does he have an ulterior motive to conquer the kingdom of Brittany? So many questions that might be answered in Kaamelott – part two, which will be split into two parts!