Il a été à l’écran le juge Mongevilleand she, the heroine ofA wonderful family. Within three short months, They are the same age, 78 years old. Apparently there’s no point in talking to them about retirement, these two are still too happy to still be working. Together, they are currently on the stages of the Théâtre de Paris for the vaudeville comedy Le Duplex in which their neighbors – played by the ancient woman of honorCorinne Touzet and Philippe Lelièvre (La Intern) – try to separate them in order to force them to move to get their apartment back. In the columns of JDD this Sunday, May 31, the two actors talk about their experience on this pure boulevard piece which Francis Perrin assures that it requires sporting skills. You have to enter, exit, change costumes, return… If this is the first time for the two actors that they play a couple in a work of fiction, life on the other hand brought these two closer together in their youth.
Francis Perrin : “It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve done in my life.”
The mother of Gaël and Sara Giraudeau remembers her romance with Francis Perrin with whom she had a lovely story, 50 years ago. “Francis was my first lover” she admits to our colleagues. “I was jumping from bed to bed a bit, I was coming out of a long light period. We were 27 years old. For us it was a first attempt at life as a couple, a first attempt that was completely sincere and very beautiful.” She further declares frankly: “I went from the who’s who to absolute loyalty to three men who followed one another in my life. I imagine that it’s linked to the orphanage where, suddenly, attachment becomes something serious.”
Francis Perrin remembers that the actress was “the most beautiful woman in Paris”. “For me it was extraordinary. I was fascinated, admiring. These are four wonderful years that I keep deep in my heart. La complicité entre nous a été très forte”, he declares, remembering a trapeze aerobatics number performed together at the Union Gala. “I still wonder how we succeeded: Anny performed the splits, while I supported her, with a brace between my teeth. It’s one of the most beautiful things I’ve done in my life.” confesses the actor who will soon play with his son Louis and his daughters Jeanne and Clarisse in The Imaginary Sick by Molière.
50 years after the end of their story, the former lovebirds still admire each other and say it to each other. “Francis impresses me with his priestly side, regarding the profession, with lots of rites that he scrupulously respects. Everything must remain very orderly: if I inadvertently put my text on the table, it will not stay there for long…” On the contrary, he says he is impressed by “the apparent legitimacy“from his partner.”With her nothing matters, everything is fine. Behind he assures, there is of course seriousness, seriousness. But it’s OK, I admire this elegance.” He measures his luck, he swears, and explains playfully: “I have a partner called Anny Duperey who told me one day ‘You have to be polite with luck’“.
Why did Francis Perrin and Anny Duperey break up?
There is no mention of their breakup in this interview, where we learn that he carefully kept a photograph of himself. She nicknamed this portrait that she adores “Eat Paris”. “It’s magnificent, I have a copy in my office” he confesses. The actress addressed the breakup with humor and the lightness so dear to the heart of her accomplice, in the columns of Paris Match in 2024.
She remembered that Mongeville’s interpreter had the greatest difficulty remaining faithful to her. “He jumped on everything that moved!”she declared to her interlocutor. She clearly doesn’t hold a grudge against him: “We had already found ourselves in an episode of Mongeville. And last summer, at a mutual friend’s house in Berry, we did readings, with Francis’s wife, Gersende, whom I love very much. In short, we remained good friends.” In the play performed together the former lovers had to play a scene that echoed their shared past. “In the play, my name is Annie, and there’s a line where he says, ‘ Absolute loyalty, and Annie knows it. We both burst out laughing. It’s delicious to be able to laugh about that fifty years later. It’s great.”
