Five years after the fourth and final season of the popular French series Call My Agent! The International Emmy Award-winning gangster returns for a feature film that sends popular agent-turned-director Andrea Martel (Camille Cotin) to the south of France and straight into the chaos of an unplanned film shoot.
The much-anticipated Netflix film brought its characters back to the Cannes Film Festival, where popular cast members Cotin, Fanny Sidney, Grégory Montel, Liliane Lovere, Laure Calamy, Nicolas Maury and Thibault de Montalembert graced the red carpet on Friday. Similar to director Mike White’s The White Lotus, which chose Cannes as the backdrop for Season 4, production for Call My Agent The Movie took place on the Croisette, with additional behind-the-scenes footage shot around the Palais des Festivals.
In an interview with Variety in Cannes, along with co-writer Rison Daniel and director Emily Nobre, series creator and film co-writer Fanny Herrero said the film will be a true Call My Agent, depicting Andrea’s transformation from super agent to director, assembling a troubled production marked by cast meltdowns, contract disputes, and behind-the-scenes disasters. fashion. But the Cannes shoot suggests that Andrea’s film will have a good ending. The film, which takes place five years after the bittersweet ending in which Andrea disbanded her talent agency ASK, loses her lead actor just days before filming begins. The synopsis reads, “She must put her old team back together,” alluding to Matthias and his daughter who started a talent agency, and Noémie, who became a producer.
Herrero said that one of the biggest challenges in writing was finding “the right organic plot” to bring everyone back together, not only because of scheduling conflicts, but also because “everyone went in different directions.” Ultimately, Herrero and Daniel broadened the canvas for the series. “It’s very enriching because it allows us to expand on what we’re communicating about movies, about filmmaking, about behind-the-scenes,” Herrero said.
The film opens according to the convention: “Call your agent!” For a series, “then you take the characters and the story somewhere else,” Herrero said. “At one point, filming started on Andrea’s movie, and we headed to the south of France, into a landscape that was completely different from the usual Parisian backdrop.” Noblet, who was not involved in the series, said she approached the film according to the “cinematic code” of “Call my agent!” “It’s more polished because we had a little more time and budget, but it’s really the same rhythm,” Nobre continued.
The feature expands on the series’ signature celebrity cameos, with French talent such as Laurent Laffite, Vincent Macaigne and Laetitia Casta, as well as a pair of Hollywood stars: George Clooney and Eva Longoria.
“Rison and I dreamed of having an American A-list actor in it. At one point we thought, let’s make ‘Call My Agent’! ‘It’s a movie, so let’s go all out,'” Herrero said. “We weren’t crazy. We were given a little bit of leeway. We weren’t completely in delusional mode. The producers encouraged us in that,” she said, noting the series’ global success earned praise from stars ranging from Brad Pitt to Cate Blanchett. Herrero revealed that Media One boss Pierre-Antoine Capton played a crucial role in getting his close friend Clooney to appear in the film.
Herrero, Daniel, and Nobre had the same restrictions regarding Clooney’s cameo. “It had to be a single unit of time, a single location, a single scene, and within a day. That’s what he gave us. So we had to think about how to orchestrate that moment both in the script and in the director,” Herrero said.
Clooney initially turned down the first version of his scene, which was “a comedic scene but more slapstick and dramatic,” Herrero said. Clooney ended up working closely with the screenwriters to write a new film in which he meets Andrea (Cottin) and Noémie (Callamy).
Fanny Herrero, Rison Daniel, Emily Nobre
“He said, ‘I want to do this, I love this show so much,'” Herrero recalled. “He came on board and pitched ideas to us. It was a true collaboration.”
Noblet admitted that he was intimidated to direct Clooney for the first time. “Fanny and I went to his room and he said to me, ‘Say whatever you want, it’s okay,’ and that’s exactly what happened,” she said. “He was excellent and very professional. We shot for six hours and he talked to the crew between each take.”
Longoria’s cameo in the film stemmed from a real-life encounter with Herrero in Paris. Longoria spoke to her about adapting the series for Latin America and expressed interest in filming more projects in France.
“We thought why not offer her a little cameo in the movie? We liked the fact that she was already connected to ‘Call Your Agent!'” She’s also a great comedic actress. She really adds a little spice to the movie. And she immediately said, “Yes.” She was so excited,” Herrero said.
Longoria plays a producer rather than an actress “because she is actually a producer herself.”
“People don’t know that she’s also a producer. And we want to show that actresses can also end up being producers and powerful women. That’s what she is. She’s a really accomplished businesswoman.”
And while the film marks a long-awaited reunion for fans, Herrero, Daniel, and Nobre hinted that it might not be the last.
“They’re still alive,” Herrero joked. “They haven’t stopped at all. No one has died, no career has ended. No one is in jail. Anything is possible.”
Most of the French main cast of “Call My Agent” got their breaks thanks to their performances on the show. Cottin, for example, has worked with international filmmakers such as Michael Mann (Allied), Ridley Scott (The House of Gucci), Tom McCarthy (Stillwater) and showrunner Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Killing Eve), making him one of France’s most bankable actors. She recently starred in Just an Illusion, directed by Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, which has been a hit at the French box office. Meanwhile, Calamy won the César Award in 2020 for her role in Antoinette Dans Les Cévennes and has since been nominated for Best Actress twice, in 2022 and 2023.
“Call My Agent” has also become a cultural phenomenon, with regional versions featuring top talent produced in many countries including the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, South Korea, Indonesia, the Middle East, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Poland.
The film is produced by Media One-owned Mont Voisin Productions and Mother Productions, with participation from French broadcaster France Télévision.
