Jean Reno: from actor to storyteller — novel and stage

At 78, Jean Reno is discovering a new stage — the writing desk. The actor known worldwide for «Léon» and «The Big Blue» released his second novel «L’Évasion» in April 2026, and at the end of November he will, for the first time in his life, appear on stage alone: the autobiographical one-man show «Le Chameau» will be performed at the Antibes theatre «anthéa» from 26–28 November 2026. Reno does not consider himself a writer — only a storyteller.

🏛 How the actor began to write

It all began during the pandemic, when filming stopped and Reno for the first time in decades had empty time. A heroine who had long lived in his head finally received a text: «Then, during Covid, I wanted to overcome the non-existence of this character,» he told the Fnac magazine. The first novel «Emma» was published in 2024 by XO Éditions.

📚 Emma: the massage therapist who became a spy

The idea was born quite literally on a massage table. «It all began with a massage! A few years ago my wife and I went to a thalassotherapy centre where an absolutely exceptional massage therapist worked,» Reno recalls. His Emma is a massage therapist from a small Breton town who, by a twist of fate, ends up in Oman. Her peculiarity is not in weapons or training: with her hands she reads other people’s thoughts — this gift is called «the fluid» in the novel.

That is why Emma does not turn into a female version of James Bond: her power remains human, not spy-like.

🌍 Stolen children: reality within a spy novel

In the second book — «L’Évasion», subtitle «Emma’s New Mission», XO Éditions, April 2026, 330 pages — the heroine is already working for French intelligence. The action moves to Siberia: under an assumed name Emma gets close to a Russian agent to find traces of thousands of teenagers taken to new camps. The plot draws on the real abductions of Ukrainian children during the war — this is one of those cases where a spy novel relies on documentary chronicle rather than invention.

🎭 «Le Chameau»: a one-man show born in Antibes

The show’s title comes from the animal Reno considers his totem. He had talked for many years about wanting to go on stage alone to Daniel Benoin, a friend since the 1970s; the production was eventually put together by director Ladislas Chollat, and the premiere took place at the anthéa theatre in Antibes. Reno wrote the text himself: the journey from Casablanca, where he was born in 1948, to Hollywood — with breakdowns, doubts and his mother’s departure.

By the autumn of 2026 the show had already toured Japan. In Antibes it will be performed three times, in the hall «Jacques Audiberti», and from 1 to 31 December 2026 «Le Chameau» moves to the Paris theatre «Édouard VII».

Reno does not remain alone on stage: pianist Pablo Lanty works with him, and eight songs give the performance its rhythm. According to Chollat, the songs and drawn comic-style projections add poetry to the evening. The season’s poster, in which «Le Chameau» shares the bill with Isabelle Huppert, Étienne Daho and Kad Merad, was called «a crazy programme» by France 3 Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

🖋 «A storyteller, not a writer»

Reno persistently avoids the word «writer»: «Above all I prefer the expression “storyteller” to the word “writer” — it is too honourable for me.» A novelist and an actor, in his view, are not so far apart: both professions let the imagination live and allow you to dream of other people’s lives — like branches of the same tree.

This logic has long been familiar to Antibes. The town, where the owners of Cap d’Antibes villas settled — from Hollywood magnate Warner to the Duke of Windsor — knows how to turn the proximity of celebrities into part of its own biography and preserves it no less carefully than its archives. And before the November premiere on the Riviera there remains another way to meet cinema — open-air screenings.

📅 Dates

• 26 November 2026, 20:00 — «Le Chameau», theatre «anthéa», Antibes, hall «Jacques Audiberti».
• 27 and 28 November 2026, 20:30 — same venue.
• 1–31 December 2026 — theatre «Édouard VII», Paris.
• April 2026 — publication of the novel «L’Évasion» (XO Éditions), the sequel to «Emma» (2024).

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Photo: Svitlana Shakalova / Pexels