“I start my show and I see him two meters from me”: 9 years ago, Gad Elmaleh was very impressed by meeting this cinema legend.

A standout comedian in French society who has also appeared in many feature films, Gad Elmaleh has spent much of his career across the Atlantic, appearing on several American theater stages and collaborating with various Hollywood filmmakers.

“That’s super impressive”

We could see him in Spielberg’s Tintin or Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. But as he recently confided Abdul makes his movie on the microphone of the program On the air of France 3, one of his most impressive encounters with the Hollywood superstar took place in New York when he performed on stage in a small hall.

“This is something that really bothered me”he said.

“A few years ago, when I was playing in New York, a friend said, ‘I’m coming to see you tonight, and I’m coming with Al Pacino.’ I was under pressure. He said, ‘Don’t do anything, do your show!’ I see, he’s looking at me, his filmography comes back to me, I see all the movies… It’s super impressive!”

“He comes to see me in the dressing room and talks to me in this slightly broken voice and I connect, he invites me to the theater, I go to see his play… My admiration for Al Pacino was only confirmed when I met him.

“We spent 3 hours talking”

This first face-to-face meeting with the star of Scarface and The Godfather was not the last for Gad Elmale, as a few years later he was able to share the poster for Jack and Julie, a comedy starring Adam Sandler. The famous French actor has the opportunity to experience a new “suspended” moment with Al Pacino.

“We have a scene to shoot in a helicopter, but in a studio”he says.

“So, at a height of 7 meters from the ground, there is a real helicopter with chains. But when they catch us, we have to stay for several hours because it is difficult to get us down. And here I am, sitting 25 feet off the ground with Al Pacino, and he’s asking me questions. We talked for 3 hours about children, life, raising children (…)How can we transfer to our children the desire to work, the ambition and I had an interesting discussion with him. Cinema (…) We offer you suspended moments that you could never imagine.”

(Re)discover the ‘Jack and Julie’ trailer…