Gad Elmaleh Reflects on Career and Challenges of Fame in Candid Interview

It was on the set of the "Passage des arts" program, broadcast on France 5, that the 49-year-old Franco-Moroccan comedian looked back on his childhood, his former collaboration with Isabelle Nanty, who directed his first stand-up show entitled Décalages, and his career in general. He also discussed the consequences of his success. Without mincing words, he acknowledged that success can "make him fragile". According to him, popularity makes you lose a lot? you lose at some point, with popularity. "I think, maybe sometimes a form of naivety, in creation," he explained.

Like any artist, Gad Elmaleh has experienced a creative block, which he found again by "taking the risk of going to the United States" a few years ago, to perform on stage. It is from this quest that the show American Dream was born, in front of an unusual audience, both in terms of language and location. When asked about the real reason for his departure from France, the actor said: "I think I know why... Going to make the Americans laugh, on their turf, in what they do best: stand-up, which they invented in New York, in English. It’s bold! I think there was a desire on my part to get out of my comfort zone," reports Gala.

He also confides that if he flew to the Big Apple, it was to prove to himself that he could seduce non-French women. "I think I also wanted to see in relation to my love stories, my relationship with women... if I was going to be able to seduce a woman who absolutely doesn’t know who I am and what I represent in France. I wanted to test that, I tested it," added the star of the film Chouchou.