They don’t take the word “action!” Lightly but refuse to turn their duo into a duel. They were revealed the same year, in 2015: Rod Paradot perceived in “La tête haute”, Alban Lenoir in “Un Français”. Since then, the two actors who have become friends have dreamed of replying. Director Guillaume Pierret brings them together for the first time in a breathtaking thriller: “Lost ball”.
It was a competition, they met it. In January 2016, the Académie des César chose them both as revelations of French cinema. Rod Paradot made a lasting impression by playing a youthful boost in “La tête haute” by Emmanuelle Bercot. He is not 20 years old. Alban Lenoir has fifteen more. He played the repentant skinhead in “Un Français”, by Diastème. They could be rivals. In one evening, they will become friends. Brothers who have in common a sense of reality and the urgency of a dream, this irrepressible desire for something else that decided their acting destiny. Rod quotes in support this formula from Alban: “A guy who would like to spend his life not being him …”
“We both come from nothing,” said Alban. For him, the cinema arrived like a blow of club, at 9 years. “I see“ Bloodsport ”with Jean-Claude Van Damme and I say to myself: I want to be him. It was catastrophic, in a way, to know what I wanted to be so early. »Chaotic school trip, arguments at home. In Dijon, he was introduced to the martial arts, collided with a wall when he shouted loudly: “It will be cinema or nothing. He is 17 when his mother breaks down. “She says, ‘You won.’ I go to Paris with a backpack. I want to be known, go to the United States… ”But you have to pay the rent: he is a delivery man, bartender, waiter, bouncer, cable puller. For lack of castings, he carries his hopes on the asphalt, by bike, in search of filming. Result: more than three hundred stamps of figuration, some of stuntman, a promising role in the series “Kaamelott”. Alban learns from experience, observing the trays under a magnifying glass. This is for the technique. On the actor side, he counts on the school of life, with his trials and his moments of despondency. Until the big meeting. “During the tests for“ Un Français ”, we had to throw blows in a duffel. All the candidates put in twenty-five … Me, three. They saw that I had killed the guy. I mastered martial arts, okay. But it was my eyes that decided them. He draws his strength from the soil of memories. “I was a porter for a night bar in the Marais, I got kicked. I know what it’s like to have to fight and regret it in a second. I got my first big role thanks to these difficult moments. “
Rod’s journey, on the contrary, is dazzling. Kid of Stains, he too landed in Paris without the contacts or the codes. Before playing the headliner, he misses a plumber training, follows a carpentry CAP, tries to forget his ambitions. “These are very beautiful construction trades, but I was not made for them. I dreamed of meeting, animating trips or working with children … And then Elsa Pharaoh arose in my life. The casting director chooses him from dozens of apprentices. He passed his first audition on Boulevard de Sébastopol: “We were thirty. I told myself that I would never be taken. “He is going to multiply the round trips by RER:” I had to make sixty tries! The rest has the sweetness of a dream, and the bitterness of waking up. A film is the intoxication confused too early with real life. At 19, Rod gave the reply to Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Magimel; he climbed the steps at Cannes … then learned to descend them. The phone did not ring. “My mother was very worried. So I went to work at McDonald’s. When the cinema called me back, I said to myself: I don’t let go. “
When Rod won the César Award for Best Hope, Alban cheered, unrestrained. Instead of fighting over the future, they ended up in the past. Only sons to fathers absent, framed by “single mothers who must play the guy” (Rod), “until they can no longer” (Alban) … Choral summary of a story of kids hardened very quickly and who, to chart their course, found brothers as markers. They write to each other, call each other, give advice and always find themselves between two shootings. Alban is gaining momentum with “Le semeur”, a historic drama by Marine Francen; Rod transforms the essay with “Le fils”, the play by Florian Zeller which earned him the Molière of men’s revelation 2018. Between them, neither competition nor jealousy. If Alban is envious, it is only of those who approach Rod too closely: “Sometimes I say,” Who is he? What does he want from you? ” I am very protective… ”During his difficult years, he studied the environment, the entourage, the good roles and the bad choices. The quarries that set up and shooting stars. How many go up, how many fall? He has forged himself a motto: “I advance slowly but never back down. He wants to avoid the pitfalls of the profession for his cadet. “His knowledge of the plateaus, his technical ease feed me enormously, admits Rod. In the fold of our friendship, I learn and I am protected. I felt it as soon as I arrived on the set of “Lost Ball”. Thanks to Alban, I was totally confident. “
The fraternal adventure continued in the cinema
Naturally, the fraternal adventure continued in the cinema. Alban and Rod share the Netflix poster. Guillaume Pierret’s punch film features them with Ramzy Bedia, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Stéfi Celma. A fiction between “Taxi”, “Fast and Furious” and “Jason Bourne”. An explosive cocktail. We find there the past of martial arts and Alban waterfalls. He plays a fairy-tipped mechanic, taken over by justice, who helps the police track down the go-fast and fights to protect a little brother at heart, named… Rod Paradot. On the screen, the chemistry is obvious. In a film and soon five years of friendship, the duo already form a solid family. He is part of a lineage of actors, from Lino Ventura to Vincent Cassel via Jean-Paul Belmondo, the idol of Rod. There is “Magnificent” in these two, a nonchalant precision that opens up all the registers to them. Burlesque action for Alban (“Brice 3”, “Glittery shrimps”). From dramatic comedy to more intense roles for Rod (“Jamais sans toi Louna”). Well in their skin and well in their time, they share their acting life with their fans on Instagram. Shooting images, vacation memories and more intimate moments. Rod can’t resist posting a romantic selfie with actress Jade Legrand, his partner, in front of a sunset in Mauritius. Alban, tender photos of young father with his little boy. They can be supersensitive, hyperactive, they also learned to preserve themselves, to waste nothing, neither the emotions nor the cachets which make it possible to remain free. To last, they bet on their instinct, with a certainty: “A career is built above all on refusals. The referent who allowed them to keep a cool head, they declare it feminine, with one voice: their mother. Rod says: “She helps me so much! Her protective love and her pride carry me through the trials and guide me in my choices. “Alban adds:” Without mine, I could have slipped. There were times when I repeated myself: if you do that, she won’t get over it. For love, she made huge sacrifices. I would have ended up on the street without her support … She never got tired. It takes time to secure his back. And, often, even more to reassure his mother. Alban smiles: “She stopped worrying only two years ago, when she saw me on TV, in Cannes, climbing the steps, in costume, near Marion Cotillard! “
For them, “popularity is not a profession”. Because their desire to play is immense and their success is so fragile, because they smashed the door of the cinema, they will never stop trying. “The difficulty,” says Alban, “is that our first two major roles may remain the most beautiful. We hope not… but how many of us can declare that we are living our dream? Now we have to ensure. So we’re going to climb the ladder quietly. »Quietly? To have. They were found running on the roofs of Paris. Daring and class. At a height of 30 meters, Rod waltzes above the void. Alban is dizzy but holds him by the hand. “I’m here, my brother! As long as they’re together, these two won’t be afraid of anything.
The making of “Balle Perdue”, to discover on Netflix
Discover all of Rod Paradot and Alban Lenoir’s photos in issue 3711 of Paris Match.
Any reproduction prohibited–
