Jean Reno interview

I had an interesting verbal joust with accomplished French film actor Jean Reno recently. Reno is an incredible actor who successfully made the transition from European theater and cinema artiste to Hollywood film star with such hits as Big Blue, Le Femme Nikita, The Professional (Leon), The Visitors, Ronan, French Kiss, Godzilla, Mission Impossible, Pink Panther and the Da Vinci Code. He came from a stereotypical starving actor background as he struggled to find work in theatre in the 70s in France. A successful introduction to stage director Didier Flamand saw him act in all of Flamand's stage productions from 1977 to 1981 and pulled him from the brink of the acting black hole he was heading towards. It was shortly after this theater success that he met Luc Besson, who launched his career in film as he launched his own as a director.

Reno is in Hong Kong to promote a bottled water brand called Hawaiin Spring. He has partnered with Mahesh Harilela and Inter Island Distribution to distribute the brand in Asia. The W Hotel asked me to interview Reno about his career in front of a live audience at the W Hotel's Living Room, which I agreed to do because I thought Reno to be a fascinating character.

I began by introducing Reno and Mahesh and they both came on stage. Reno explained his involvement with Hawaiian Springs and why he was in Hong Kong.

He then invited the brand owner, Rick Hadley, from Hawaii, on stage. I had learned previously that Hadley was an experienced free diver, so I tried to connect that line of thinking with Reno's character Enzo - a free diver - in the Besson film The Big Blue.

Reno mentioned to the audience that his only involvement in the company was because of his friendship with Mahesh. To get him talking about his career, I asked him outright about his heritage, "You're not really French are you Jean?" (he was born in Morocco to Spanish parents). He took the bait and admitted to having being born in Morocco but that at the the time the country was a French protectorate, which made him French. This then led on to questions about when he moved to Paris, national service, why he was drawn to acting, the early struggle years of his career, theatre with Flamand, his relationship with Luc Besson, the difficulties of crossing into comedy roles, and a few other tidbits about his career. I also managed to get in a question about the mysterious brief case in the film Ronan (in which he starred with De Nero), i.e., what WAS in the briefcase? (Reno and De Nero's characters, ex CIA agents, were sent to recover the case which leads to an action adventure full of car chases and gun fights). His answer? "Not telling".

The interview lasted about 20 minutes as Reno was suffering from jet lag. You can see the interview on TVB.