Why Tewfik Jallab Didn't Want to See Olympus Has Fallen Before Making Paris Has Fallen

The actor explains to us how he approached the character of Vincent Taleb and took over from Gerard Butler, to become the hero of the new Canal + series.

Mike Banning and Vincent Taleb, same fight? Not quite.

While Paris has fallen has just started on Canal +, we discover a new agent who must save his leaders from certain death and a national cataclysm. After the POTUS, the White House or the city of London, it is France's turn to be targeted by terrorists. And in the casting, it is Tewfik Jallab who takes over from Gerard Butler in the hero's skin.

If the 42-year-old French actor does not embody the same character as his American counterpart, he confides to us that he wanted to keep “the mind” by Mike Banning. However, Tewfik Jallab has gone all out to make his own version of the French Action Hero. How? He simply hasn't watched the films in the franchise. Has Fallen. Neither The Fall of the White House (2013), nor that from London (2016) or of the President (2019)

“I didn't see them and I didn't want to see them” confides to Première Tewfik Jallab. “I chose not to watch them until after I had finished filming the series. So as not to be influenced or overwhelmed by the weight of their successes. It was really a conscious choice.”

“What Gerard Butler does is very good. He's an actor I really like. But I prefer to have my version.”

The actor seen in Black Hearts And Pax Massilia last year on the small screen had “I didn't want to think about (his) character in relation to these films. Because I could have wanted to correct my character along the way, so that he corresponded to the saga in a somewhat forced way. So, I saw the films afterwards. And I'm happy, because I might have given another angle to this character otherwise.”

And then there is a big difference between the series and the films, according to Tewfik Jallab : “Gerard Butler is in solo mode with Mike Banning. He's going to save the world. There, Vincent, my character, is in a duo with Zara (Ritu Arya). He has more flaws. He's perhaps more human, because we have more time to explore these facets with the format of an 8-episode series. We have more space to go and look for much deeper things..”

Paris Has Fallen has been available on Canal + since September 23.