Teeth, pee and in bed (M6): the true story that inspired the film

Who has never heard this sentence as a child? As widespread as “Turn off the light, we’re not in Versailles“, l’expression “Teeth, pee and in bed” was chosen by Emmanuel Gillibert as the title of his film, released in theaters in 2018. This Friday April 14, 2023 at 9:10 p.m., M6 is broadcasting Teeth, pee and in bed, with Arnaud Ducret and Louise Bourgoin, who recently opened up about her former relationship with Julien Doré, in the leading roles. The opportunity to return to the very personal story of the director, who greatly inspired the screenplay of the film. It turns out that the character of Antoine, “hardened bachelor, party animal and seducer“, forced to trade his life of evenings for an impromptu roommate with children, is not so far from reality as one might think…

“I found myself living with a person who had two children“

In the film’s press kit, Emmanuel Gillibert talks about this part of his intimacy at the genesis of the project. “I found myself living with a person who had two children and so I landed, overnight, in a family lifehe laughs. One night, I heard my friend say: ‘Teeth, pee and off to bed!’ I stopped short: for me it was surreal. I then positioned myself as an anthropologist of animal documentaries, with a blank and objective eye, and a certain distance to discover this new ‘fauna’.“The experience is so surprising and enriching that the director decides to initiate the writing of a screenplay and the production of a feature film inspired by this life adventure. “I teamed up with Marion Thiéry, with whom I had advertised. She was a divorced mother of a little boy, and lived alone with him, so I offered her to write with me: she could bring that feminine touch that I needed and the experience of a mother with a child on arm“, he says.

“I wanted Antoine to be an antihero who evolves towards family life“

For four years, the two co-screenwriters worked on the writing of this film which attracted 440,000 people in theaters. To play the role of Antoine, Emmanuel Gillibert set his sights on comedian Arnaud Ducret, at the head of a blended family, and refined the character. “I wanted Antoine to be an anti-hero, moving towards family life, and for Jeanne to be the strong but touching mother, a modern mother, a sort of Wonder Woman who takes care of everything, but who also has her weaknesses: when she finally lands in the evening and the children are in bed, she realizes that she has put her life as a woman asidehe said when the film was released. I met Louise when writing the screenplay and she said yes very early on. We rewrote his dialogues together: I wanted to make him a tailor-made suit. For me, the narrating character also had to adapt to the actor. The same with Arnaud, we reviewed his dialogues together so that he better appropriates the role..” And for children, the director favored “strong personalities“able to interact, without letting themselves be impressed, with the two adults chosen to transcribe this slice of his life on the screen.