‘Paris Has Fallen’ interview: Tewfik Jallab on his love for biryani and ‘Bahubali’

The 'Has Fallen' film trilogy follows secret service agent Mike Banning, with Paris Has Fallen now streaming.

The ‘Has Fallen’ film trilogy follows secret service agent, Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) as he protects the world from all manner of terrorist threats. Antoine Fuqua’s Olympus Has Fallen (2013) was the first in the series followed by London Has Fallen in 2016 and Angel Has Fallen in 2019. While a fourth film has been in development forever, the franchise has expanded to different media and the first of these, an eight-episode show, Paris Has Fallen, is streaming on Lionsgate Play.

Tewfik Jallab, who plays the French protection officer Vincent Taleb in Paris Has Fallen, took a strategic call not to watch the films before shooting. Speaking on a rainy day in Paris (with the Eiffel Tower to his right) over a video call, the 42-year-old actor says, “I knew of the movies because they were my big brother’s favourite. You know how it is between brothers — when your brother loves something, you don’t want to love it!”

When Tewfik received the call from England, offering him the show, he decided not to watch the films. “I didn’t want to be influenced by Gerard Butler. He has done amazing work. I wanted to be myself, and wanted to find my character. I watched the movies after the shooting, and that was a good idea, because I would have probably been scared.”

Physically, Tewfik says he was ready for the role right away. “I do a lot of sports and martial arts, and go to the gym all year long, to be ready for anything. I’m lucky because I get to meet professionals from the Army, Special Forces and the police for the roles I have done. So it was quite easy for me to have access to the information that would help me be Vincent.”

Shooting in England allowed Tewfik to indulge in his love for Indian food. “Some of the crew were Indian. They knew I was a fan of Indian food, so every day, they brought home-cooked food for me.”

Fond of daal and biryani, Tewfik says he did not expect the food to be spicy. “I was thinking, we’re in England, it’s not going to be spicy because, they will not be able to find the same spices. I was wrong, they had everything (laughs).”

Ritu Arya plays MI6 operative Zara Taylor, who teams up with Vincent to bring down Jacob Pearce, the antagonist, played by Sean Harris. “Working with them was a big lesson. Sean and Ritu have their own method.”