Why the star of the movie "Amelie" always has his hand in his pocket: Jamel Debbouz

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

This actor, known to the Russian audience, mainly for the role of the architect Nernabis from the films about Asterix and Obelix, and even for the film "Amelie", is one of the most beloved and famous artists and showmen in France. And his hand, damaged in childhood, has nothing to do with it: Jamel Debbouz is appreciated for his inexhaustible optimism, talent as an improviser and ability to constantly radiate energy, as a true star should.

A successful career as an artist - in spite of the tragedy or because of it?

Jamel Debbouz, Moroccan descent, was born in Paris in 1975. The following year, the whole family moved to their parents' homeland in Morocco, and three years later returned to France, settling in the town of Trapp not far from the capital. In addition to the eldest, Jamel, Debbuza raised five more sons and a daughter, Navel. Family relations were warm, and Jamel's parents became support and allies for life, which he does not forget now. But the childhood of the first-born Debbuz was restless, he even managed to be noted for his participation in a local gang, when something happened that forever changed his life and determined his future fate.

On January 17, 1990, Jamel and his friend Jean-Paul Admette, son of the singer Michel Admette from Réunion, crossed the railway tracks in Trappes, hurrying to catch the bus. The boys were hit by a train, Jean-Paul died, and Jamel became disabled: his right arm atrophied and has been hanging with a whip ever since. It was difficult - not only because of injury, but also because the parents of the deceased boy indicted Debbuz, considering him guilty of the death of their son. The court then acquitted Jamel.

Fourteen-year-old Jamel had to learn to live in a new way, and he began to do it without wasting time. Already in the office of the doctor, who announced to the teenager that he would never be able to use his right hand, Debbouz asked to borrow him a pen so that he could immediately try to write with his left. Soon he completely immersed himself in theater courses - as the actor would later admit in an interview, he chose the path of denial - he hid the fact of disability from himself, as he hid his crippled hand in his pocket.

From a childhood hobby that became the main occupation in life, the theater received Jamel favorably, he was noticed. Thanks to the patronage of Alain Deguis, the head of the theater troupe in Trappe, Dubbuz took part in the competition of improvisation artists and even toured abroad, visited Canada.

Fame in France and worldwide fame

“” Is not just a quote from his interview, but also the motto that Debbouz has lived with for the past thirty years. Already in his youth, Jamel used this therapy with might and main - he laughed himself and made others laugh.

In 1995, the young stand-up comedian was noticed and invited to the radio, where he first hosted a regular column, and then - his own show. Debbouz also tried his hand at cinema, these were short films and auteur films, until in 1999 he was invited to the main role in the comedy "Sky, Birds and … Your Mother!" directed by Jamel Bensal.

And since 2001, Jamel Debbouz has become a world-class movie star. The actor is invited to star in the film Amelie by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, where he plays the role of Lucien, a simple, but kind and sympathetic vegetable shop worker. In the same year, Debbouz took part in the filming of the film "Asterix and Obelix: Mission" Cleopatra ". There, the actor has one of the main roles, he plays an architect who received an order from the ruler of Egypt to build a luxurious palace in Alexandria, the problem is that the work must be completed in three months. Jamel does not ignore Luc Besson, who offered the actor a role in his film "Angel-A", a melodrama with elements of fantasy.

In 2006, Debbouz took part in the filming of Patriots, in which he co-starred and acted as a producer. A film about North African soldiers who fought for France during World War II, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film.

The show goes on

If the films with Debbuz's participation touched on various and often serious topics, then on television the actor gave free rein to his main role - to amuse and entertain. And besides this, he did not forget about the stand-up, from which he once began his path to fame. In 2008, he conceives and opens his own theater called Le Comedy Club, which is housed in an old cinema building on Boulevard Bonn-Nouvelle in Paris. The brainchild of Debbuz not only gives the audience a show, it helps young artists to pave their own path to fame, which Jamel has already gone through. The interests of Debbuz himself remain versatile. He shoots a cartoon entitled "Why I Didn't Eat My Father", launches the show "All About Jamel", alternating his performances on stage and in front of the camera with rapping.

In the same place, in the homeland of his parents, Jamel Debbouz annually organizes the Festival of Laughter in Marrakech in early June - this tradition has existed since 2011. This year alone was an exception due to the pandemic.

Jamel Debbouz is married to French journalist and TV presenter Melissa Terriot and has two children, 11-year-old Leon Ali and 8-year-old Leela Fatima Brigitte. The actor does not advertise the details of their life and does not even show the faces of the children in his social networks. Debbouz, according to his own statement, does not strive to keep up with the times, but does everything to stay ahead of it. And besides, he calls himself "the happiest person in the world."

Surprisingly, in the same Ancient Egypt, people already knew how to adapt to life with a disability, so they appeared Egyptian finger and other prostheses that have gone down in the history of human civilization.