Stop me if you can: how did Nathalie Baye end up in the casting?

Stop me if you can : Inspired by a True Story

In the early 2000s, Steven Spielberg decided to tell the adventures of Frank Abagnale Jr. With Stop me if you canhe embarks on the biography of an outstanding hustler, an elusive chameleon of the 1960s. Portrayed on screen by Leonardo DiCaprioFrank Abagnale Jr. leaves the family cocoon at just 16 years old after the divorce of his parents.

Very quickly, in need, he begins his first scams. He forged checks, usurped identities, and over the years Frank Abagnale Jr. became more and more expert in the matter. The young man goes further and further in his tricks and even manages to pass himself off for a doctor, an airline pilot or even a lawyer.

He quickly attracted the attention of American and international authorities. He is notably chased by FBI agent Carl Hanratty, played by Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg’s film. A game of cat and mouse that lasted several years.

In addition to the presence of actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks, Christopher Walken, Martin Sheen, Amy Adams, Jennifer Garner or Ellen Pompeo, a French actress also slipped into the film by Steven Spielberg. In effect, Nathalie Baye plays Paula Abagnalethe mother of Frank Abagnale Jr. Steven Spielberg has indeed insisted on having a French actress to respect the origins of the mother of Frank Abagnale Jr.

Nathalie Baye in a production by Steven Spielberg

Now 74 years old, Nathalie Baye has a busy film career behind her. In the 1970s it became notice by François Truffaut which offers him his first major roles. It appears especially in The American night and The Green Room. While she is also touring with Jean-Luc Godard and Maurice Pialat, she becomes a important figure of the New Wave. It is in particular his relationship with François Truffaut which would have aroused interest in Steven Spielberg to cast her as Paula Abagnale. During a master class at Series Mania in 2022 she had declared in particular:

I am convinced that he (Steven Spielberg) wanted an actress who had played with Truffaut.

A statement corroborated by an interview with the actress at the microphone of AlloCine in 2012 :

I had a great bond with Spielberg. Because he toured with Truffaut. And Spielberg adored Truffaut. And then Truffaut had spoken to me about Spielberg too. So there was something quite moving.

How was she selected?

Although Nathalie Baye was a renowned and experienced actress, she had to pass a casting for his role in Stop me if you can. Except that Steven Spielberg was in the United States, and Nathalie Baye resided in Paris. Spielberg then asked his friend Brian De Palma, who was in the City of Light at the time, to try out French actresses for the role of Paula Abagnale. In any case, this is what Nathalie Baye explained during her masterclass:

My agent tells me that Steven Spielberg wants to offer me a role. I didn’t know Spielberg, well, just by name. I had to try out, and he was in Los Angeles. So it was Brian De Palma who gave me the tests in his Parisian apartment. The tape was sent to Spielberg and I was taken. I was very happy

One thing is sure, Nathalie Baye has very good memories of this shoot with Steven Spielberg. She remembers, during her first day of filming on the set of Stop me if you can, that she bumped into the maestro and spilled his coffee coming out of his costume trials. A small collision which immediately relaxed the atmosphere:

He was adorable, and suddenly I didn’t have stage fright anymore. Like many greats, it is immensely simple. Whereas for a Spielberg shoot, an entire city is mobilized.

At the microphone ofAlloCine, she returned to the way Steven Spielberg works. And apparently, Stop me if you can was not an easy job:

To work with him we make a bit of a big deal out of it because we are scared. To be honest, it was a shoot…