Pierre Richard Terrified to Work With Legendary French Actor 55 Years Ago!

Legendary French actor Pierre Richard, now 91, is gearing up for the release of “The Man Who Saw the Bear That Saw the Man” on September 17. As he embarks on a promotional tour, Richard reflects on his illustrious career. During a recent podcast appearance on France Inter’s À voix nue, he discussed his breakout hit, “The Distracted Man,” a comedy he directed featuring the well-known Bernard Blier.

“I adored Bernard, but I was quite intimidated at the start,” recalls Pierre Richard, whose role was later played by Tom Hanks in a lesser-known American remake. “He had been in 103 films; it was my first, and he was under my direction. It’s not easy to say ‘Cut! Bernard, that wasn’t good; you can do better.’ I was terrified of him, especially since he had a reputation for being somewhat difficult. One day, I told him ‘You know, you have a reputation for being mean.’ He replied ‘I’m not mean, I just don’t like fools!’”

Richard fondly remembers working with the unforgettable star of “Les Tontons flingueurs.” “He was the most obstinately unreasonable man I have ever met. To such a degree, it becomes poetic,” he says with a smile, before sharing an anecdote that illustrates this trait.

“One morning, he arrived with a long monologue to deliver in a lengthy corridor,” Richard recounts. “He suggested, ‘What if I had a folder?’ I asked him ‘Bernard, why a folder?’ And he said, ‘Because I’m a president. A company president always has a folder!’ So, I told my assistant to give Bernard a folder. Bernard went off to makeup, and the assistant, checking to see if he had left, tells me ‘He doesn’t know his lines. When he doesn’t know his lines, he asks for a folder and puts the script inside.’ And it was true!”

“It’s Not a Gap, It’s a Pause!”

Richard vividly describes the filming of the infamous monologue scene, which was interrupted repeatedly because Bernard Blier, clumsily trying to read his hidden script while walking, kept hesitating, forcing the rookie filmmaker to cut the shoot.

“Bernard asked me ‘Why did you cut?’ I answered ‘There was a pause, I thought you’d forgotten your lines.’ Then he said ‘It’s not a gap, it’s a pause.’ He turned to the crew and, looking at me, exclaimed, ‘Such dishonesty!’” laughs Pierre Richard. Yet, he ultimately affirms that despite this flaw, which made them reshoot the scene 18 times, Bernard Blier was “an incredible actor.”

Released in theaters in 1970, “The Distracted Man” stars Pierre Richard as a clumsy and absent-minded young man working in an advertising agency run by Bernard Blier. The comedy was a big hit, drawing over 1.4 million viewers in France alone and kickstarting Richard’s career, which continued with “The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe” two years later.

Trailer for “The Distracted Man”: