From locksmith to limelight: Dujardin, star of 'The Artist,' adored in France

Move over Gérard Depardieu. France has a new face on the global silver screen.

Jean Dujardin, who manages to be both suave and folksy – in a French sort of way – is a 2012 "Best Actor" Oscar nominee for his role in “The Artist,” a black and white “silent” throwback to the 1920s, with swing-era jazz and plenty of playful nostalgia.

Mr. Dujardin, unknown abroad until now, is loved in France as an unsnobby comic who rose from a working class Paris suburb, a one-time locksmith who was told his face was too rotund for the camera.

“I adore him …he is a born clown,” says Christine Bertholts, a legal secretary in Paris, in a typical comment. “And those eyebrows!”  

While France has produced several female Oscar winners, Dujardin, will be the first French male to take home the prize if he gets the nod on Feb. 26. 

Dujardin plays George Valentin, a silent star with a pencil-thin moustache who can’t or won’t make the transition to talkies and goes into a funk, but is saved by his adorable dog and a woman he generously helps when he’s riding high.

The French actor learned to tap dance for the part, and says his favorite American actor is Paul Newman. He is up against George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Demian Bichir, and Gary Oldman for the Oscar.  

The Artist is nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. It just won three Golden Globe awards – including best actor in a comedy for Dujardin – throwing film-crazy France into a small state of euphoria. In interviews after the ceremony, French radio hosts had fun with an Anglo version of Dujardin’s last name, asking if they were speaking with “Jean of the Garden.”

"When I started [as an actor],” Dujardin said after winning the Golden Globe, “An agent told me, ‘You won’t make films, your face is too expressive…’It's not my fault,’ I told him, ‘My eyebrows act independently!’"

France's main Hollywood presence for years has been Mr. Depardiu, who earned a 1990 Academy Award nomination for Green Card, but did not win. Le Point, a French news magazine, said of Dujardin, “He may even de-throne Depardieu in the Anglo-Saxon heart.”

"We thought it would be a film for festivals, a film that critics could like, but we weren’t counting on this!" French daily Figaro quoted director Michel Hazanavicius saying about its commercial and critical success.

It's a good thing "The Artist" is a silent film. Dujardin speaks little English and says he’s not preparing for work outside of France.

1 | 2

Next