When Harry met... Michel

Harry was my first chance of playing somebody who isn't a nice guy. In most of my roles, like Western and La Liaison pornographique, I seem to be a good-hearted sort but Harry, I'm happy to say, is a seriously charming psychopath.

The film opens with a frazzled couple, Michel and Claire, played by Laurent Lucas and Mathilde Seigner, sister of Emmanuelle, and their three young daughters on a stressful drive to the country in the stifling heat for what we already know will be a holiday from hell in their broken-down old farmhouse.

They stop in a garage and in the washroom Michel bumps into Harry, somebody he hardly remembers but who he was at high school with. Harry is driving a cool Mercedes and travelling with his rather kooky girlfriend (Sophie Guillemin). He seems a regular guy but all is not right beneath the nice exterior. Harry manages to insinuate his way into the lives of these people - in the nicest possible way, of course. I feel lucky never yet to have bumped into a schoolfriend like Harry.

The writer/director Dominik Moll is a big fan of Hitchcock - and his film is an exceptional thriller - part cliffhanger, part black comedy. It came as a real present to me from Dominik. He and I met through the producer of Western, Michel Saint-Jean, who also produced Harry, who sent me the script with the suggestion I play Michel. Eventually the Paris distributor said, "Why not Sergi for Harry?" I loved the script so much I would have played one of Michel's daughters, or all of them if I'd been asked.