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"You're pushing the cork a little too far Maurice!": what happened to the little boy of the ChocoSui's ad?

2023-06-02T06:14:59.037Z

Highlights: Lucas Mongenie played the lead role in the 2001 Nestlé milk chocolate mousse ad. Now 27 years old, he has turned the page of advertising and moved to Luxembourg. Thierry Ardisson retraces The golden age of advertising at 21:10 on France 3 on Friday. For two hours, the Man in Black looks back at more than 400 advertising films that have marked the history of television. Among them Dim, Duracell, Panzani, Éram, Mamie Nova and Barilla.


INTERVIEW - Now 27 years old, Lucas Mongenie has turned the page of advertising and moved to Luxembourg where he is a bartender in a palace.


This Friday, Thierry Ardisson retraces The golden age of advertising at 21:10 on France 3. For two hours, the Man in Black looks back at more than 400 advertising films that have marked the history of television. Among them Dim, Duracell, Panzani, Éram, Mamie Nova, Barilla but also ChocoSui's. Nestlé's Swiss milk chocolate mousse reached its peak in 2001 when a young boy played the lead role in a spot that became cult thanks to the phrase: "You push the cork a little too far Maurice!". Two more spots will follow in 2003. When the documentary aired, we wanted to know what had become of Lucas Mongenie. After some research, we found the young man now 27 years old in Luxembourg.

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TV MAGAZINE. - How did you end up in this ad?
Lucas MONGENIE. - It was a father's idea. When I was little, I had a lot of repartee. He told himself that if I could do something in advertising, it would help me in the future and it did. I had passed three castings with always the reservation that I like it and amuse me. At the third casting, I was mistaken for a Skip ad where I was saying goodbye to a dirty teddy bear who was in a washing machine. Then I did the Nestlé ad.

What memories do you have of the ChocoSui's ad?
I had just turned 4. I lived it as a game but it becomes tiring when you have to repeat it a little too much. There were adults around me who were very attentive to making sure I took the breaks I wanted. I still have the shooting rushes, I would have to digitize them, they are even funnier than advertising. I really had a freedom of tone compared to adults. I remember being quite free on the text. Even if I had respected the one at the start, I prevented some changes including the name of the fish.

That is?
At first they decided to call him Maurice which was a very good idea. But the same day, they had wanted to change it or try other things, which I refused. I think they wanted to name him after my best friend at the time.

In his documentary, Thierry Ardisson reveals that the first name Maurice was chosen because it was that of the Chairman of the Publicis Groupe Management Board, Maurice Lévy. Did you know?
No, I didn't know that. That's funny!

How long did the shoot take?
An ad required a day of six or seven hours of shooting. For the second and third ad, there had been a lot of catches because we had struggled to find the tone of freedom. I was a little more aware of the issues, so a little less natural. So we had to do about forty takes over two days, it made a lot of chocolate desserts.

Do you know how many desserts you ate?
I don't know how much I ate because I didn't eat the whole pots but too much, that's for sure. Today, I don't eat it, clearly!

Do you remember how much you were paid?
On the first ad, I don't remember. It must have been the standard fee of the time, which is equivalent to 400 euros today. Then there was the second and third ad where we had signed a more advantageous contract. In total, everything I did until I was 12 years old allowed me to earn about 60,000 euros.

"The chorus of the other children did not change except that me, it had already been eight years that I heard it"

Lucas Mongenie

Why didn't you continue down this path?
Dozens and dozens of films were turned down. With my father, we sat on the bed and read the scripts but we received horrors, only sad things! I remember one script in particular. I was 5 or 6 years old. My dad comes in a little excited because a script reminds him of E.T. It was the story of a boy and his dog. He begins to tell me the beginning of the story, I am very enthusiastic because if we accept, I spend a summer with a dog. But in midpoint, the dog dies. The only thing we did that was really good and funny was a short film called Boomer directed by Karim Adda who played Vince, the mail service employee in Caméra Café on M6. My father was Gilles Lellouche, my mother was Marion Cotillard, there was also Laurent Lafitte and Philippe Lellouche. It's my fondest memory of filming.

You also starred in an episode of Commissaire Moulin...
Yes, we had tried the experiment but it was as boring as expected.

What happened next?
I was getting a little heavy compared to the other kids because from year to year, their chorus didn't change except that I had already been hearing it for eight years. So we let the different agencies know that we were stopping there and at 12, we went to Luxembourg. Years later, thanks to pub money, I studied in Paris. I went to Henri IV, I studied philosophy and art history. Everything was going well but I was not very happy with what I had found there. I certainly went there with an old-fashioned dream of great intellectual passions.

What did you do next?
I chose to continue solo. I taught privately for a few years. And at the same time, I was doing "my" studies, I learned everything I could. I read all the books I wanted to be asked almost not to read to Henry IV. I also traveled. It was my bohemian getaway. Afterwards, I wanted more practical things so I got closer to craftsmanship and crafts. I did construction, gardening, cleaning, accounting, bar a little on weekends. During the lockdown, I created a vegetable garden for the Hotel Lamy in Troisvierges in Luxembourg, which had a bar that I took over, that's where I added a cocktail proposal to an Irish Pub. I also reached the final of the 2022 World Class.

What are you doing today?
For the past eight or nine months, I have been a bartender at the bar Le 18, at Place d'Armes, a five-star palace in Luxembourg. I'm creating a menu for them on painting, color, cocktails that will be about Picasso, Van Gogh, blue, red... Soon, I will participate in a big competition, if I win, I will represent Luxembourg for the world. And with other bartenders who work like me from fresh products, who think perfumery, we have just launched Natural Drinkers which pushes the use of natural products and processes in the creation of cocktails. At the moment, we are working on an Amaro, a Campari in our own way.

Do we recognize you today in the street or behind your bar?
I live in Luxembourg and my clients are mainly Americans, Australians and English. But some Italians recognize me because the ad was probably broadcast in Italy. When I was in France, it happened to me from time to time. It has become rarer.

Source: lefigaro

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