Originally from Nîmes, Nassim Lyes, 37, has established himself over a decade as one of the most physical actors in French cinema (Made in France, Farang, Sous la Seine, Ad Vitam). And not the least funny: with director Julien Royal, his accomplice for twenty years, he has developed an unrivaled action comedy in France, with Bagarre, the latest example, hitting theaters on Wednesday.
Where does the idea for Bagarre come from? At its core, it was Julien (Royal, director and co-writer with him) who told me about this urban legend that had been circulating on social media for some time, about a kind of “Uber fight”. Julien saw it as a good subject for comedy, with the possibility of adding depth, saying something about our relationship with violence. When we found the character of Naïm together, whom I play, quite funny and very different in terms of energy from those in our previous films, we said, Okay, we have something here, and we launched into writing.
In our references, we had Son Goku from the manga Dragon Ball, who is a true nice guy, a bit naive, but you better not annoy him too much because as a fighter, he has some really developed skills! We also thought of Jackie Chan and Saitama, the hero of the manga One Punch Man.
Once again with Julien, you refuse to choose between comedy and action, and push the boundaries to the maximum! Whether for En passant pêcho, Nouveaux riches, and Bagarre, these are films where, like in mangas, we go all in but are still very sincere in our proposal. Julien manages to create very colorful and extravagant films, but in every situation, whether comedy or action, it’s always genuine, and that’s what I love.
Can you be associated with his success, since you are the co-author? Of course, of course, we write together but it’s not because our script was written that way that it won’t ultimately translate in a different way, in the direction, acting, etc. With someone other than Julien, it could have turned into a series of sketches, but that’s not the case and that’s what I like. As I often say, comedy is very serious!
Indeed, there is a lot of work on the writing, it’s very precise. In terms of dialogues, it’s almost surgical. Then, with Julien, there are a lot of repetitions, which helps refine the dialogues, add those little strokes of genius that come up, then we lock it in. And because we stick to it, there can be improvisation that works during filming!
You find the same level of demandingness in the action scenes. It’s the same. The fight scenes are very well prepared in advance, there may be some necessary adjustments during filming but the majority is highly choreographed. With the constraint imposed by Julien in the choreography: make it funny and original. This leads to sequences like the fight with the microwave ovens or the fight with the skinheads where the constraint was that I should not hit anyone. We go all in while trying not to do something already seen. Today, we have access to so many films… So we always try to find the original twist. Julien also has his little signature on the music: he always adds a contrasting music, and I think the result is cool.
In humor as in action, you go all out without fear of losing people along the way…
