By Helen Barlow
Jean Reno may be the second biggest star in France - after Gerard Depardieu - but he is the best-known French actor in American movies.
Tall, strong and with the raspiest of voices, Reno readily admits that his cinematic hero is none other than John Wayne. If not for
the fact that Reno is French, the 50-year-old actor could probably play John Wayne-style heroes in Hollywood. Still, he is content with the way things are, playing noble characters in secondary roles.
But wasn't he the lead in Godzilla?
"No, the main role in Godzilla is Godzilla," Reno insists in his booming voice.
"Godzilla is something the Americans know. They think I'm a good actor, so I can fit in with some stories they want to tell.
"I can't have an accent from Texas. It's impossible. If I try to act and think like an American, I will lose myself. And why?" he asks passionately, waving his hands in the air. "For some dollars in my bank? Come on! I'm not beside the dollar, I'm beside the audience, because it was the audience who made me."
Reno is not joking. Although he appeared in five films for Luc Besson (The Last Combat, Subway, The Big Blue, Nikita and The Professional) it was his leading role in The Visitors that made him a star.
The French comedy epic became the biggest film in French box-office history, and even the far inferior Visitors II was at the top of the French box office last year. In the films, Reno played a medieval knight who accidentally timetravelled to the 20th century and found his world gone to ruin through avarice and greed.
He was a kind of all-knowing clown, who ultimately knew far better than the royalty-obsessed inhabitants of the world today. It was also a role where Reno could take the mickey out of himself, unusual for such a well-built actor. And definitely not John Wayne.
In reality, Reno is a gentle giant who is more like the romantic Italian he played in the little-seen For Roseanna, than in action films like The Professional and Godzilla - though even in these American scenarios he imbued his characters with a caring nature. (In Mission Impossible he was a kind of carbon cut-out baddie.)
Born in Casablanca to Spanish parents, Reno was raised in France and is Latin by nature. He is remarkably down-to-earth and friendly, makes little of his star status and will happily imbibe a glass of red wine with whoever is around.
He grows olive trees on his property in the south of France, where he lives with Nathalie, his 29-year-old second wife, and their two children, and he produces his own olive oil. Reno presented a bottle to Robert De Niro when they made Ronin together in France.
Ronin is an unusual Hollywood film in that it is low-tech. Although disguised as an espionage thriller, it is really a bird's eye glimpse into the psyches of a multinational group of hard-edged assassins, killers and intelligence agents who, in a battle of wits, vie for possession of a mysterious silver case.
The fact that Ronin is set in France makes it exotic. The Parisian car chases must be seen to be believed - and they were for real, as driven by professional racing-car drivers.
Director John Frankheimer (The Manchurian Candidate, 52 Pick Up, Grand Prix, but we'll forget The Island of Dr Moreau) is a racing-car enthusiast who lived in France for seven years. On the strength of his reputation, the film was able to attract the cream of acting talent: De Niro, Reno, Jonathan Pryce, Natascha McElhone, Sean Bean and Stellan Skarsgard.
Originally the story was to have included more romance between McElhone and De Niro, but the chemistry between De Niro and Reno proved too intriguing in the editing room.
"I fell in love with Sam, De Niro's character, from the beginning, when he came inside the warehouse to meet the rest of the group," Reno recalls. "I think that's why John Frankenheimer asked me to be in the film, because I play somebody who can kill him, but the minute after, I can hug him in my arms.
"That was my role, to be a discreet friend of a killer, beside Bob, and I was happy to do that because he's a big actor. He has a lot of colours in his way of acting and a lot of taste also. He was very smart, fast and different every day.
"You know, De Niro is a very secretive guy. In fact, he will give you what he thinks you need to work with him, to be comfortable with him for the movie, and you will discover exactly what he wants you to discover."
Reno plays the Frenchman of the film, the one who knows the logistics, the Eiffel Tower, the Parisian streets, the Montmartre bars and warehouses. He knows where to go for help, he knows how to get things together. He is calm and controlled like Jean Reno; he has true grit like John Wayne.
Reno would now like to bring some of the tricks he has learned in America back to France, a country whose excessively talky movies need an overhaul. "We don't have to stop doing intimate movies," he says, "but we have to do movies that open out the audience."
While Reno ensures he appears in several big movies each year, he features in smaller ones, too. He was disappointed at the box-office failure of his English-language romantic tale For Roseanna.
Reno says for pleasure he has also directed, written, and produced a short film. But he only wants to direct himself if he has a good idea.
Who: Jean Reno
What: Ronin
Where: Cinemas nationwide
When: From today
Pictured: Jean Reno.
By Helen Barlow
Jean Reno may be the second biggest star in France - after Gerard Depardieu - but he is the best-known French actor in American movies.
Tall, strong and with the raspiest of voices, Reno readily admits that his cinematic hero is none other than John Wayne. If not for
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