In the French audiovisual landscape, it has no equivalent: sixty years hosting its programs, with constant kindness, rare quality in the television world. Three generations of French know his name. An excellent longevity maintained by a discipline of life at the back of the show biz and its exaggerations. At 83, the former Bad student deals with a joke project, repeating sixty years of career, which is still the first surprised.
Have you lived in the same district of Paris for sixty years, you have married the same woman (Dany Saval, a note by the author) for more than half a century, has been on television since 1964 … Did you always like what lasts?
Yes, in any case, this question bothered me early: At 22 years old, at the beginning of my career, I already asked Léon Zitrone, then 50 years old: “Will I be there at your age?” Since I, I have this obsession to last. Today, I am the first surprised to be there after sixty years of career. Professionally, I made sure to last, adopting a fairly rigorous hygiene of life: I don’t go out in the evening, I don’t drink alcohol or tobacco, I eat balanced, physical activity every day. What made my friend Johnny Hallyday say one day, in which we analyzed this discipline: “What a stupid life!” My only drug is my job.
In recent years, however, you have experienced health problems that have forced you to undergo two heavy interventions. How have these notifications changed to you?
Clearly, there is a “before” and one “after these two businesses with an open heart, which put me ko. I remain physically and mentally tired. So I do more: I work more than my house, I stay with the family, I see the broadcasts in the morning, Subsequently. It’s the best proof!
Continue to work at 83, is it also a way to feel fully alive?
Yes, first because I’m bored very quickly, I’m hyperactive. I also have to work so you don’t worry. I have a great opportunity: I live in my passion and passion is not tired! And then, I have to learn. When you are like me, you spend all your life proving that you are capable.
Have you always been completed?
Yes, because I was a bad student at school and I was not studied. I also had no culture. In my cards, it was written: “It is absent, even when it is there” … My dream was to be a doctor, a family doctor, a country, like my father. My brothers were for one, Jean (father of journalist Marie Drucker, a note by the author), Enarque and a senior employee. The other, Jacques (father of actress Léa Drucker, a note by the author), internal hospitals, who became an epidemiologist and public health teacher. Me, through these men, I was the tedious duck … we never heal that.
Everything you start in your life seems to be under the look of the missing …
Yes, again on February 13, when President Macron gave me the insignia of the Legion of Honor Commander, it was my parents I thought. Missing is still there, over me. The violent death of my brother Jean, at 62, was the drama of my life. We still had a lot to do together. I’m a big nostalgic.
In the book, you are not a mystery of your anxious personality …
It’s true, you don’t imagine how much I am a dark and anxious person. I’m Ashkénaze, my parents come from Romania. Ashkenazi are tortured people, my father was in front of me. It’s a pain like any disease, but I can’t say it made me unhappy. This endogeneity is my engine.
You say that during your first TV, they tremble like a leaf. Do you still have the scene?
But always! The only difference is that today, I manage to hide it, tremble in my head, gives the impression that I am absolutely peaceful in the antenna. But in fact, it is wrong to believe that you can get your hands on your pockets on TV. Radio, we hear it. The written press, we read it. But television, we watch it! So I always have the scene, but it’s a “good” stress. And then you know, Aznavour, Hallyday, Brel had a huge horror scene before going on stage!
Your kindness is infamous and sometimes mocked by humor. How do you take it?
Good! Goodness is important. Thierry Ardisson said one day that he had “cracked” all these years. He had finally recognized that I was right, that there was no shame to be kind.
“When I come back. I can’t come back to do all this,” you say. What are your best memories?
In my personal life, I would say that it is every time I tried to overcome myself. I think of Telethon, in the 1990s, which allowed me to be 520 kilometers at night by bike in mid -December, in 22 hours of effort. The three times I did Mount Ventoux. While I jumped with Belmondo parachute over the Eiffel Tower. Professionally, my best memory is Céline Dion, which I underlined at 14 years. To see her sing under the Eiffel Tower during the Olympic Games, he took me a lot.
And in front of you, what do you see?
What is certain is that I want to get out of the top, without supporting too much. I have a big project: Going on stage taking over my last show, “de vous à moi”. The scene is a unique happiness for me. Suddenly, the people who love you are no longer behind their little screen, but there, in front of you, and they welcome you! It will be this, my post-télé, even if, for the time being, my cardiologists tell me no. Our work is “Love Me, Keep me for a long time”. But if success is removed at 85, it doesn’t matter: we did the biggest. And you need to know how to go in time.
