"I have nothing to play as an actress": Mylène Demongeot was very critical of the first Fantômas film

The actress Mylène Demongeot, the leading female star of the "Fantômas" franchise, was particularly reluctant to take part in the first film, as she found nothing to play.

Tonight at 9:25 PM, TMC is airing "Fantômas" by André Hunebelle, the first installment of the trilogy dedicated to the French prince of crime. On this occasion, let’s revisit what Mylène Demongeot thought of the saga when she was presented with the script for this James Bond-style adventure comedy.

"I don’t have much to do in this"

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"He gives me the script for the first Fantômas, which obviously has little to do with what I had read [in the original stories]. So I read the script and I say: 'Yes, but listen, I don’t have much to do in this, apart from being sparkling, pretty, and nice... can’t you give me a few scenes to chew on, so I have something to work with as an actress?"

And the response was swift, as the actress recounted in the documentary "Fantômas Unmasked" by Dimitri Kourtchine (2022):

"He says to me: 'No, you see, it’s not possible, my script is extremely well-calibrated: the young lead, the young female lead, the comic relief, the comic’s entourage, and it’s perfect like that, you’ll see, it will work very well.'"

Hunebelle was not mistaken, as "Fantômas" was released on November 4, 1964, just two months after "Le Gendarme de Saint-Tropez," and garnered 4.49 million admissions. Two sequels were launched: "Fantômas Unleashed," released on December 8, 1965, and "Fantômas vs. Scotland Yard" on March 16, 1967.

"Thanks to De Funès, we are a little less ephemeral"

As the episodes progressed, Jean Marais, hired to be the superstar portraying journalist Fandor and Fantômas, found himself increasingly sidelined from the action, much like Mylène Demongeot, who played the press photographer and Fandor's companion. While the actor would be marked by this, Demongeot took it with philosophy:

"In the end, in the third Fantômas, Marais and I are just decorative (laughs), but it’s still the best of the three. I love "Fantômas vs. Scotland Yard" because De Funès is brilliant. (...) When you take an acting career (...) you make 70 films, what remains: two or three? A career is ephemeral. And thanks to De Funès, we are a little less ephemeral."

The actress passed away on December 1, 2022, at the age of 87. Notably, in 1955, she shared the screen with De Funès in two films where he only had minor appearances: "Papa, Maman, Ma Femme et Moi" by Jean-Paul Le Chanois (in which Demongeot only opened a door) and "Frou-Fou" by Augusto Genina, where she played the mistress of De Funès's character!

Gamma Film