BEVERLY HILLS (AFP): French actor Omar Sy has come a long way from the gritty Paris suburbs where he grew up. But sitting in a five-star Beverly Hills hotel, he has clearly not forgotten his immigrant roots. And the same goes for his career — weeks after starring in the record-breaking “Jurassic World” blockbuster franchise, he will be on US cinema screens in his latest French film, “Samba,” out here this week. “Last year was the perfect example: during the winter, I was shooting ‘Samba,’ and during the summer, I was shooting ‘Jurassic World.’ And for me that’s the perfect year,” he said in an interview.
“To travel to such different projects in the same year... If it can continue like that, it will be a dream,” said Sy, who lives outside Los Angeles with his wife and four children. The 37-year-old, whose parents were immigrants from West Africa, has long been known in his native France both for television and film work. But he was catapulted into international success by 2011’s “The Intouchables,” about the relationship between a quadriplegic millionaire and a caretaker he hires from a poor Parisian suburb. Directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano — with whom Sy was reunited for “Samba” — “The Intouchables” became the biggest-selling French film overseas of all time. Sy, who also earned a Cesar — France’s equivalent of an Oscar — for “The Intouchables,” said the film’s astonishing success doubtless made it easier to produce “Samba.” “A movie like ‘Samba’ is difficult to release, because of the subject, difficult to finance in France because of the subject. But after the huge success of ‘Untouchables’ all the doors were open,” he said.