(In costume) Hi guys! I am here on the set of Petit Royaume or Rouantelezh Vihan, a show that I serendipitously got cast in! This clip won’t be up until the last episode of me airs! Hope this new adventure goes well!
Hi guys! Caël here! People have been nagging me to discuss and make a video about my uh…
thing on TV that aired the previous month. Today I will be answering the questions people had been bombarding me on Twitcher and on my Viedéo.
People were wondering if I appeared in the Interflix series
Petit Royaume.
Petit Royaume is a Bethanian-language
period drama which is also being aired by
Saintonge Télévisions (STV) over at STV 7, its cultural channel. Its original Bethanian title is
Rouantelezh Vihan, and the dialogue is in Bethanian. For STV purposes, it is subtitled in Santonian.
When it was aired last month, I was inundated by messages asking me if it was me who played who played Fañch, Count of Lanester, in
Petit Royaume.
The answer is, yes, it was
me that you saw on TV. Heh, the chatbox is blowing up…!
@amala_aries says in all caps
NEPOTISM!!!
Hahahaha, kinda. You guys know that my uncle helps run Interflix. But it’s not Uncle Thibault that brought me in. Uncle Thibault was even surprised I ended up on one of those Interflix series! It was my dad’s fault!
In the chatbox, @whorepresents asks
How did you get the role?
Yes, I am about to get there. It was an accident. I promise! It was not intended. I didn’t want to be an actor – yet! I blame my dad.
You see, my dad has a side hustle as an actor in Bethanian-language theatre. So
HunvreGweled, one of Interflix’s studios, was making a period drama set in in 18th century Bethany. They had a casting call in multiple Bethanian cities and were specifically looking for Bethanian-speaking actors.
Petit Royaume had an ensemble cast, and the cast list runs in the hundreds. My dad also had a bit role as a monk.
So what happened was, four months ago, they were filming a scene in
Mont-Saint-Caël just outside Redon. Two actors unfortunately got sick and dropped out at the last minute. They searched for replacements. This being a big production, a lot of theatre and film people in Redon were already involved, so baseline, there were few other available people. Since everybody else suitable on the set had appeared in episodes that had already been aired, they couldn’t re-cast any of them. They needed new guys. They had an emergency casting call in Redon, looking for two actors to fill those roles.
They were looking for Bethanian-speaking guys in my age range who have some experience in the entertainment industry and was willing to film in front of the camera. My dad called me on the phone and told me to try out the casting call. I guess they were that desperate! They needed two guys!
And there were only three of us there at the final audition. They only needed two, but they got all three of us some roles. They just assigned the roles. I was told that I will be the Count of Lanester. Arthur Couic, the series’ director, told me it was only a bit role and would be just for a few episodes. Little did I know that ‘bit role’ is gonna explode! I think my character appeared in just four episodes.
“I hated you!” says @ambrentendu.
Thank youuuu!! I was initially bothered by the viewers’ hostile reaction, but my dad, the director, and the scriptwriter all told me that it was the mark of a good villain-playing actor to get the audience to hate me. Their words, not mine.
So you see – SPOILER ALERT! – the Count of Lanester was a villainous character in
Petit Royaume. In the story, he was the illegitimate son of the Petty King of Bethany. He gets married off to the daughter of the Petty King of Domnonée to seal an alliance between the two kingdoms. He was sent to Domnonée and settled in the town of Douvres, which was the dowry and wedding gift to the couple. The first scene we filmed – and the one where they needed an emergency casting call – was the marriage of the Count of Lanester to Nolwenn, Lady of Douvres, daughter of the Petty King of Domnonée. In character, Nolwenn didn’t even know who was she getting married to until she got to the altar! I guess that also applies to the actor who had to play the groom!
Unfortunately, the character of the Count of Lanester was an abusive pompous b~stard. Literally an example of the nobles that the Santonians revolted against during the Santonian Revolution.
“Was it hard playing such a role?” asks @candide_redon.
Yes! I was not prepared! It felt totally out of character for me. Thank gosh my dad was there coaching me. He was a stage dad, literally! Haha. I felt that the casting director also deliberately chose me for the role for nefarious purposes. During the audition, she told me, “You look like someone who people won’t suspect to be
that evil!” I just laughed her comment off. But jeez, the character was
that evil. I only knew that they will kill the character off immediately – I didn’t expect they would stretch that wickedness to four episodes!
Says @whine-et-dine on the chatbox,
“I think I know the answer to this, what was the most difficult scene to film?”
I only filmed a few scenes! I think I know what you are referring to. It’s my answer too. The r~pe scene. Again – SPOILERS! – the Count of Lanester r~pes his new wife the day after their wedding. That scene was so difficult to do. And before you ask! NO! There was no real s~x involved! It was simulated, they got creative with the camera angles and the lighting and the sheets and stuff.
Although I gotta say, everything I did was difficult to some degree. Like the Count’s cruelty to his subjects. The scene where the Count of Lanester whips his servants… ugh, that was difficult too. That wasn’t fake. I really
had to hit my fellow actors. They were cool with it. It needed two takes. Nolan, the actor who played the servant, told me after the first take: “Don’t fake it. Hit me for real. Or else we’ll be retaking this scene over and over. Instead of just one big hit, you’ll have to hit me multiple times if we keep on re-taking. Do it and get it over with.” Thank gosh Arthur was satisfied after the second take.
Another scene was when the Count of Lanester screams obscenities inside the Cathedral of Douvres. He was trying to display dominance over the Bishop of Douvres. As a good
catholique boy, it was challenging for me to yell cuss words at a priest inside a church!
@counterlife asks
“To the opposite, what was the easiest scene?”
The death scene, haha! Was so easy, just lie there, pretend to be dead. The preceding scene was difficult, but the end was fun.
“You deserved to die!” says @ambrentendu.
Awww, still hating on me? Whyyy? It’s not me, it’s just a character! I’m not like that in real life, I promise!
Anyway – MORE SPOILERS – the Countess of Douvres manages to kill the Count of Douvres after another drunken attempt to r~pe her. Like in the other scenes, a lot of the hitting, action, and others weren’t fake. Gaëlle Le Coz, who plays Nolwenn, didn’t hold back! I had bruises and scratches afterward! She slammed me around the room and threw things at me. She smashed that prop vase on my head. She tore out some of my hair.
Afterwards, Gaëlle apologised for the violence but the director was happy at the result. We did not have to do a lot of retakes for that sequence. Gosh, I’d be so battered if there were a lot of retakes! So Gaëlle and I did our best to avoid re-takes!
The most challenging part of that scene was when Nolwenn slaps Fañch’s corpse to confirm that he was dead. And me, being dead,
MUST NOT react. Not even a flinch. Man, it was hard not to react to a slap!
“How was the experience?” asks @elisabethany in the chat.
Not gonna do it again! Haha. Just kidding. If I’m gonna act again, I hope it won’t be those evil characters again! To this day I am still getting angry comments on my social media pages!
Aside from those, the support and feedback I got was so amazing, I might be encouraged to audition next time!
“Why didn’t you tell us you landed a role in a TV series?” asks @finbar_rabnif in the chat.
I was made to sign an agreement that I can’t talk about my roles and spoilers until
after the scene had aired on STV. So I could only talk about it now! But I filmed this video’s intro segment on the first scene’s set after I got the role!
Also, you guys figured it out quick anyway! There were lots of folks posting gifs of “Caël’s Evil Twin” and tagging my Twitcher account! And then there’s the “Slap to confirm death” meme! Sooo mean!! Haha, just kidding.
@furnesss says in the chatbox,
“It didn’t look like it was your first role…”
Thank you for the compliment, @furnesss, but this really was my first big acting gig.
“… did you have training on acting?”
No, I did not have formal acting training. Even though my dad was a theatre actor, I wasn’t a theatre kid. My only sorta training was that my parents enrolled me in an acting workshop as a summer class during middle school – that’s it. It was mostly on-the-fly coaching from my dad and the director. Katell, the casting director, also helped me much.
“What is the best tip you got?” asks @ryan_c.
There’s this one thing that I learned from my dad and the venerable
Gabriel-Gaël Guermeur, who played the Bishop of Douvres. Something they called “character separation”.
The scene was the Count and Countess of Douvres were attending a private Mass officiated by the Bishop of Douvres. The bishop delivered a homily that was a veiled attack at the Count’s behaviour, and so the Count became angry. The script had it that the Count interrupted the Mass and threw a tantrum. Like I said earlier, as a good
catholique boy, it was hard for me to do that. I had difficulty spewing obscenities and screaming insults while at Mass
inside the cathedral. It was embarrassing as they had to re-take because of me!
During the break,
Monsieur Guermeur took me aside and told me that
I am not my character. At that moment while filming, it was not Caël Boënnec who was there, but Count Fañch of Lanester. It won’t be Caël who is shouting and making a scandal, but Fañch. “Like a demonic possession?” I asked
Monsieur Guermeur. He laughed at my analogy.
It might sound like schizophrenic, but being the geek that I am, I think the better analogy would be familiar to tabletop gamers and roleplayers: “In-Character” vs “Out-of-Character” separation. Your character in the game isn’t necessarily reflecting of you as a person. Being able to separate the two is a critical and basic skill in these activities. Hence you might hear me saying that the bad guy you saw on TV was not me!
Having some sort of experience with roleplaying and tabletop gaming, I think that might have helped me separate myself from Fañch. My dad and Katell helped me
de-role afterwards. I don’t want to bring Fañch home with me, Gaëlle said he was terrifying!
@l_archer asks
“Do you have any other acting projects?”
No, I don’t have any coming up. Acting is not my main career… yet! I’ll stick to making Viedéos and explainer videos for now. But I’d be happy to pick up any casting calls!
Alright, I think that's it! If you’re still with me, thank you very much for listening! If you like my content, please subscribe to my channel. I very much appreciate it!
