A significant role in the career of Pierre Niney. In 2018, the actor played Franck Pasquier, a firefighter from Paris, in the film Save or perish directed by Frédéric Tellier. Partly inspired by real events, the story traces the journey of a valiant firefighter who risked his life during an intervention to put out a fire.
Seriously affected from head to toe, Franck Pasquier woke up in a hospital ward intended for severe burns. From his long convalescence to his rehabilitation, the firefighter must relearn how to live in order to find an almost normal life with his wife Cécile (played by Anaïs Demoustier). A character with a poignant destiny through which Pierre Niney made an incredible physical change to embody the firefighter.
As evidenced by several photos posted on his Instagram account, the famous Oscar-winning actor has revealed his mass gain and his salient muscles. In an interview with Paris Match in November 2018, Pierre Niney returned to the preparation for his role. “I was trained in a barracks. I immediately liked the rigor of the firefighters. I participated in training, carried the equipment, I climbed the rope as well as on the famous board at 2.40m from the ground, a symbolic ordeal”.
The opportunity to reveal the strict regime that the actor had to observe to endorse the imposing stature of the character of Franck. “I worked every day with a nutritionist and a coach. In all, I took 10 kg of muscles”. But, this physical change has not been easy for the thirties. “The difficulty was having to lose them for the second part of the film in which Franck is in the hospital and is therefore physically impaired. For 3 weeks I only drank juice! I also had 4 hours of daily make-up to mimic the aftermath of burnt skin. It was intense.”
In just one month of filming, Pierre Niney saw his body transform, juggling between the athletic silhouette and the puny body after this accident. “It was especially very frustrating for those around me!”, he had fun for Gala. Another striking anecdote, the spouse of Natasha Andrews was going to be a dad like her character in the drama film.
“I had not informed the director that my companion was pregnant, probably out of modesty or superstition. When my character becomes a father, inevitably, the link is made”, he confessed to our colleagues. A hero who conquered the public and the critics since he received the Male interpretation prize in 2018, awarded by ELLE magazine. Before watching the film this Sunday, October 9 on France 2, back in pictures on the transformation of Pierre Niney in our slideshow.