The Gazelles: how Camille Chamoux convinced Samuel Benchetrit to play in the film

The Gazelles : a team of women in charge

Directed by Mona Achache the movie The Gazelles features a gang of single thirtysomething girlfriends who don’t intend to be depressed, but on the contrary, have fun! Camille Chamoux is at the center of the fiction, but very quickly she will be able to count on the support of all her friends. The cast therefore brings together Camille Chamoux, Audrey Fleurot, Anne Brochet, Joséphine de Meaux but also Naidra Ayadi.

Together, they will try to support their friend Marie who is seized with a vertiginous doubt when she has to buy her first apartment with her darling, Eric. His meeting with a handsome, dark-haired man will hasten her decision: she leaves Eric. But not everything will go as planned. And she will discover that at her age, celibacy is quickly perceived as a defect. Marie will therefore learn to consider her celibacy as an opportunity from which she could emerge stronger, and finally ready to to be happy.

Important arguments

Well in advance, the director spent a lot of time with his actresses. Each of them was therefore able to model their character and refine their way of embodying it. To mature their complicity, several dinners and meetings were organized. The film still has its share of actors and among them we can count Franck Gastambide and Samuel Benchetrit.

Moreover, as far as the male characters are concerned, Mona Achache wanted these men exist through the eyes of women. After careful consideration, they thought of Samuel Benchetrit and it was Camille Chamoux who told him about the role they wanted to offer him.

She confided in an interview for Canal+:

The day we met Samuel Benchetrit we said to him: “listen, it’s extraordinary, we wrote this role of huge asshole and we immediately thought of you!”. And suddenly, it fell apart and Mona slapped me under the table. And I said: “finally, it’s a role of an asshole, but a seducer, a heartthrob, who devastates hearts and not a huge buffoon”. He was decomposed, but ended up saying it was an ambiguous compliment. He finally agreed to make this film, because he has humor and self-mockery.