Eric Cantona’s co-star in the movie Looking for Eric, Steve Evets explains the appeal of the enigmatic Frenchman.

“Women love him,” he ponders. “And blokes love him.”

“If you caught him sh***ing your wife you’d ask if she was up to scratch.”

The actor also added that being on the camera with the famous footballer under the direction of Ken Loach was like being in a “legend sandwich”.

Steve also revealed that he had no idea Cantona was in the movie until he shot their first scene together.

Watch an interview with the director Ken Loach, Steve Evets and The King himself @The Sun.

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Digital Spy recently interviewed Looking For Eric director, Ken Loach & Cantona. Here are some excerpts from the interview.

Eric, what was it about Ken that made you want to work with him?
Eric: “It was my two brothers, Jean-Marie and Joel, who wrote two pages of a story. They wanted to make a movie and we went to a French production company called Why Not, and the first name we put on the list was Ken Loach. It was a dream for all of us, but we tried and we met Ken, Paul [Laverty, screenwriter] and Rebecca O’Brien [producer] and they read the two pages and they said it was very inspired and with that we can do something. Paul had the freedom to write his own story which was better than the one we showed him.”

Eric, you also reveal a talent for playing the trumpet in this film.
Eric: “Well, when I was banned [from playing football] for nine months I needed to focus on something else. I admire a lot Miles Davis and Chet Baker, and I like the sentiment, so I tried it. I practised for a few months and I stopped after. And then, when I spent time with Paul, speaking about different things, about life, he said, ‘I don’t know how, but it will be in the script.’ So, just before shooting I started again, just for a few days. I tried my best.”

Do you also see yourself as a bit of a philosopher? When you were banned you made that famous comment about seagulls following the trawler…
Eric: “I’m not a philosopher… No. Everyone tries to analyse what I said at the press conference about the seagulls, but I didn’t want to give sense. I just wanted to put [across] the words. I think anybody can find sense in any situation; the meaning was not in the words, the meaning was just that I came in front of you and said something that means nothing. It’s because they tried to make the situation very serious and I think, in life, there are plenty of serious things, but I don’t think the world of football it’s so serious. It’s important to have distance from things about yourself. If we believe we are king or God we become crazy. Football is a game we all enjoy together because we all know it’s just a game.”

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