SAID TAGHMAOUI
Interview of SAID TAGHMAOUI
by Serge TREFEU (2018)
Boxing pictures Sébastien Micke
Serge TREFEU: Hello Said and thank you for giving me this interview, you discovered the boxing towards which age?
Very young, I was 12-13 years old, I come from a rough area and after some bullshit I was managed towards a sport to channel my energy, it was or the soccer or is the boxing and it’s the boxing which the most spoke to me
In what district you grew up?
In 93 (Suburban department of Paris with a lot poor area) in city of Aulnays-sous-bois in the dormitory town call city of 3000
You began the boxing in which gym?
In the Boxing Athletic club Paris 9 in the capital Paris in the 9th district to José Chacon, one gym of Boxing
You went from your city of Parisian suburb (20 Km from Paris) to Paris to train?
Yes, I had a sister who lived in Paris, I went to her place and then to the gym of boxing
You made some competition in boxing?
Yes of course, I made at first of the educational boxing. Then, fights in the gymnasium Max Rousié in the Porte Pouchet, the amateur fights, the classic competitions in Boxing, the Criterion of the Hopes, the Eaglets, I made 12 fights for 8 victories
You did not want to make a career in boxing?
I wanted to become world champion (Laughter). But the cinema fast came and caught me and I understood that it was finished the story of the boxing. But I was really fascinated by this sport, I even wanted to make a job, to be professional boxer…
What year was your boxer period?
At the beginning of the 90s, I started at the same time as Julien Lorcy (WBA professional world champion), he’s of the same generation as me. A generation in which there have been several great champions like Djamel Lifa, Khalid Rahilou, Jean-Baptiste Mendy!
What is that you tried the Thai boxing?
No, I made that of the Boxing, my big passion it was the Boxing. But I knew all the small world of the Thai boxing, I was very close to Sami Kebchi (Organizer of the big events of kick boxing of the 90s). I knew the glorious time of the Thai boxing in France, the fights on TV Canal Plus, in big stadium Bercy, to stadium the Sports center of Levallois, great moments with champions Dekkers, Kaman, Roufus, Hoost, Dida, Dany Bill, Nikiema. Just before period K1, the period of the Jerome Le Banner, Cyril Abidi…
You often went attend Sami Kebchi’s event?
I went to all the Sami’s events. Sami is a close friend, he’s a member of my family. I have memorable memories of his evenings of boxing, every evening organized by Sami Kebchi was exceptional
What memory of an evening of Sami Kebchi most marked you?
I would say when the great champion Dida Diafat beat the legend Ramon Dekkers it was a unique moment. The fight between Rick Roufus and Rob Kaman was also a great moment, a war of madness between two great champions. But there were so many memorable fights, the matches of Morad Sari, Kamel Jemel was also fantastic. I was all the time in locker rooms with all these guys there, I have many of the big memories of this magnificent period of the boxing feet-fists. Of the Boxing also moreover with Louis and Michel Acaries (Promoter N ° 1 of Boxing) which organized incredible evenings, I know well Louis Acaries. I really knew the Golden age of the boxing in France!
You have many friends champion of Thai boxing?
Yes enormously, Dida Diafat, Kamel Jemel, Fabrice Allouche. The speaker Daniel Allouche whom I adore. I have a big respect for Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, for all what it made in Thailand and in France. Big respect also for the phenomenal Dany Bill, I know very well also Kamel Chouaref, Farid Khider, they are all great champions. I’m very intimate with the star of the K1 Badr Hari who was a great champion of K1, one of the best heavyweight to the world, he’s of origin Moroccan as me, it moved closer to us. Badr Hari made a big career in Kickboxing but he began with the Thai boxing, the Dutch school is one of the best schools to the world in Thai boxing after the Thailand
SAID TAGHMAOUI IN THE COMPANY OF SPEAKER DANIEL ALLOUCHE FOR THE WEIGHTING OF A CHAMPIONSHIP OF EUROPEAN BOXING
THE VOICE DANIEL ALLOUCHE WITH SAÏD TAGHMAOUI
SAID TAGHMAOUI AT THE LESSON WITH COACH FABRICE ALLOUCHE
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE STAR OF K1 BADR HARI
Do you continue to follow the events of boxing?
I’m especially the events in Boxing, a little less the Thai boxing, I’m also interested in the MMA. I look at all the big fights in Boxing. In Thai boxing, I look so a little at some big fights with the star Thai Buakaw, I also like the champions Yohan Lidon, Fabio Pinca, the brothers Boughanem, the young boy Yassine is really impressive
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE GREAT CHAMPION YOHAN LIDON (15 TIMES WORLD CHAMPION IN KICK BOXING, THAI BOXING, K1 BOXING) AND THE FAMOUS ACTOR MICKEY ROURKE
You always trains you in boxing?
Yes practically every day. That I’m in the United States, in England, wherever in the world, I go to the gym, it’s a lifestyle the boxing for me
You live in Los Angeles, where are you going to train in there?
At the Wild Card Boxing Club with Freddie Roach, it’s my personal trainer
SAID TAGHMAOUI HAS THE TRAINING IN THE GYM WILD CARD BOXING, ONE OF THE BEST GYM OF BOXING IN THE UNITED STATES
Freddie Roach is one of the best trainers to the world, it must be motivating to train in his gym?
Yes I’m very lucky to train with him, he prepared the stars Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Virgil Hill, he even trained Mickey Rourke for his come back in the boxing. It’s a big Sir of the boxing. In the United States I was able to be next to great champions of boxing in the gym and train me at high level
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH HIS COACH THE FAMOUS FREDDIE ROACH
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE WORLD STAR MANNY PACQUIAO
What is what there are gyms of Thai boxing in Los Angeles?
The Thai boxing is less known in the United States than the Boxing. But there is all the same a world, a universe of the Thai boxing in the United States, the Americans respect this form of boxing but they are rather fond of Kickboxing and Full-contact karate
You go to see events of Kickboxing in the United States?
Not too much, it’s rather rare that I attend events of Kickboxing. I go especially to the events of Boxing and also MMA, I like. I know well Dana White (President of the UFC) and Mark Wahlberg which is a close friend has parts in the UFC, I always have incredible places, I’m very lucky (In 2017, Mark Wahlberg became the actor the best paid to the world according to the magazine Forbes). I also have good relations with the team of Showtime (Showtime is one one of the most important channels of American paying television, she belongs to CBS), it allows me to be often close of the boxing ring
THE AMERICAN STAR MARK WAHLBERG AND SAID TAGHMAOUI HAVE FRIENDS FOR 20 YEARS
What you think of the boxing at present in France?
In England, in Germany, it’s extraordinary, and France we are still lagging behind with the Boxing. When the boxing has took an incredible scale worldwide and that the athlete the best paid to the world it’s Floyd Mayweather, it’s not a golfer, not a basketball player, not a soccer player, it’s one boxer and far in front of everybody. But in France, the boxers win earn nothing at all, the guys they does not want to complicate things anymore to make sacrifices, hard fights for nothing.
Abroad, the champions of boxing they gain millions of dollars, in world championship they gain 14, 15 million dollars. Floyd against Conor McGregor he touched 100 million dollars, I do not know if you see the colossal sum which that makes. In France, they gain how much the boxers professional, nothing.
Then, they it one found one there, Tony Yoka (Golden medal in Olympics 2016 in heavyweight), they try to make him shine, but he’s still very far from the high level. And attention, Olympic champion it’s not the same as professional champion, there is a world between the boxing amateur and the professional boxing. We saw many Olympic champions who made nothing then in professional…
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE LEGENDARY FLOYD MAYWEATHER
You know well the world of the boxing, I believe that you was so several times commentator for TV channels?
Yes full of time, I was to comment on TV Canal Plus, Direct 8, they even asked me on BeIN TV Sport, the Boxing it’s my world, I know well this sport
SAID TAGHMAOUI HAS A LOT OF FRIENDS CHAMPION OF BOXING, HERE WITH THE FRENCH SOULEYMANE M’BAYE WORLD CHAMPION WBA PROFESSIONAL
The boxing served you a little to make a success of your actor’s great career in the United States?
When you are a warrior on the boxing ring, you are a warrior in life. But in spite of the success, I’m someone who did not change, it’s especially it who defines me with regard to others, it’s the authenticity. When you see all those who have a little of success, often they forget where from they come. I think that what pleases people it’s that I remained the same. We are far from of all these guys completely in the political system. I’m a self-taught independent, my career and my route it’s a miracle. In spite of all the obstacles, all the sticks in the wheels which I was put I succeeded all the same. Sticks in wheels, I transformed them into wheel rims gilded (Laughter)
« I WAS MADE TO UNDERSTAND THAT IF I’M GETTING SOFT, I WOULD TAKE FULL MOUTH »
What was the last movie in which you played?
My latest film is the blockbuster Wonder Woman that has real hit in the world (Wonder Woman with $ 821 million in 2017 became the biggest success of Warner Bros Studio at the global box office)
WONDER WOMAN INTEGRATED THE TOP 5 US BIGGEST SUCCESS OF ALL TIMES FOR A SUPER-HERO FILM
THE MAIN HEROES OF THE WONDER WOMAN FILM
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE ACTRESS GAL GADOT ALIAS WONDER WOMAN
I thank you Said for this interview and I wish you CHOOKDEE (Good luck) for your future projects!
Thank to you Serge
Said Taghmaoui is a real enthusiast of boxing, he has this sport in the blood, if it had not been an actor, it’s sure, the projectors of boxing rings would have taken out of shadow. The light of the success, he did not find him in the Noble Art but in the seventh art. Of rough area in Hollywood, his film career is edifying, he’s the pride of the young people of poor area in France, an example to be followed, the living proof of which we can manage to take out with the will, the perseverance and the rage to live!
MY NAME IS BOND ! NO MY NAME IS SAID FROM 93
SAID TAGHMAOUI SHOT WITH THE GREATEST AMERICAN ACTORS, HERE WITH STAR CHRISTIAN BALE
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE STAR OF THE SERIES BREAKING BAD, BRYAN CRANSTON
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH LAURENCE FISHBURNE ALIAS MORPHEUS IN MATRIX
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH DON CHEADLE ALIAS THE WAR THE SUPERHERO IN IRON MAN
SAID TAGHMAOUI AND KATE WINSLET THE HEROIN OF TITANIC
SAID TAGHMAOUI AND STAR GEORGE CLOONEY IN THE KINGS OF THE DESERT
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE SACRED MONSTER OF FRENCH CINEMA, GERARD DEPARDIEU
A HELL CASTING FOR THE FILM WANTED, SAID TAGHMAOUI, GERDARD DEPARDIEU, RENAUD, JOHNNY HALLYDAY, RICHARD BOHRINGER, HARVEY KEITEL, STEPHANE FREISS
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE RAP STAR 50 CENT
CLIP OF THE RAPPER NIRO “PROUD OF US” WITH SAID TAGHMAOUI IN BOXER
SAID TAGHMAOUI IS A STAR IN MOROCCO
SAÏD TAGHMAOUI WITH THE PRINCE MOULAY RACHID (BROTHER OF THE KING MOHAMED VI)
SAID TAGHMAOUI AMBASSADOR OF THE NATIONAL COMPANY ROYAL AIR MOROCCO
SAID TAGHMAOUI HAS COVERED MANY MAGAZINES
BIOGRAPHY OF SAID TAGHMAOUI (INFORMATION ON WEBSITES ALLO CINÉ, WIKIPEDIA, YOU TUBE)
Of Moroccan origin Berber amazighe chleuh and stemming from parents come from Essaouira, Said Taghmaoui is born on July 19th, 1973 to Villepinte and increases to Aulnays-sous-bois in the poor area in France call city of 3000, stemming from a large family of three brothers and five sisters, he leaves the school very early with the will to follow a career in the boxing, a sport which he practises from his adolescence and in whom he becomes a vice-champion of France in 1990. Said Taghmaoui makes his first weapons beside the group Hip-hop Assassin by whom he gets acquainted with Kassovitz (Producer and actor).
Wishing to become an actor, Said Taghmaoui becomes famous from 1994 in movie Brothers: red roulette Olivier Dahan’s, a television film broadcasted on TV Arte.
The same year, Said Taghmaoui meets Mathieu Kassovitz with whom he cowrites the scenario of movie « La Haine » (The Hatred), a full-length film which receives the Prize of the direction in the Cannes film festival 1995. He plays moreover one of the principal roles, that of Said, a young Frenchman origin of north-African (Said Taghmaoui is named for a Caesar in 1996).
VINCENT CASSEL, SAID TAGHMAOUI, HUBERT KOUNDÉ, THE FAMOUS TRIO OF CULT FILM “LA HAINE”
THE ACTORS VINCENT CASSEL, SAID TAGHMAOUI, HUBERT KOUNDE AND THE DIRECTOR MATHIEU KASSOVITZ
After this movie with big echo which reveals him in public French, he takes drama classes to improve his actor’s game and studies the languages to become a comedian of international fame. After Heroines (1997 ) of Gérard Krawczyk, he shoots in Italy I Giardini dell’ Eden (1998 ) of Alessandro D’ Alatri, in Germany the television film Urlaub im East – Und niemand hört dein Schreien, and in Morocco Marrakesh Express, a sentimental drama of Gillies MacKinnon with Kate Winslet.
Said Taghmaoui is besides a member of rare French actors that have succeeded in Hollywood. We see him interpreting in 1999, beside George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg, an Iraqi soldier in the corrosive ” Kings of the desert ” of David O. Russell. So by diversifying the roles, he tries with great difficulty to lead to forget his character of the french movie La Haine, who identity him a little too much.
From the year 2000, he stands out on the French film scene with eight movies in two years, among which The Jail (2000) of Alain Robak, National 7 of the Jean-Pierre Sinapi, Ali Zaoua (2001) of Nabil Ayouch, Gamer of Zak Fishman and Confession of a womanizer of Alain Soral. He also plays the second knives in big productions French as Absolutely fabulous of Gabriel Aghion and The Tom Thumb of Olivier Dahan.
Suicidal sniper in ” Between dogs and wolves ” (2002) of the Alexandre Arcady, he pursues his international career, appearing alternately in Spartan (2003 ), Wanted, The Man of the Riviera, Hidalgo (2004) and I adore Huckabees (2004). Hardly of this fame, Said Taghmaoui sees confiding by Elie Chouraqui the symbolic role of Said Chahine in his movie Ô Jérusalem (2006) who talks about creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
In 2006, Omar Sharif puts back to him ” The Golden Pyramid ” an Egyptian prize which rewards the best actor of the Arab world and sends him occasionally this tribute ” you are my heir, my successor… “
SAID TAGHMAOUI WITH THE UNFORGETTABLE OMAR SHARIF
His Hollywood career continues beside Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox in Angles of attack in 2008 then in the transposition in the big screen of the famous figurine G.I. Joe next year.
SAID TAGHMAOUI ALIAS ABAL “BREAKER” SHAZ IN G.I. JOE THE RISE OF COBRA
FIGURINE OF CHARACTER ABAL ” BREAKER ” SHAZ
In 2008, he obtains the American nationality.
Said Taghmaoui diversifies at the same time his experience by appearing in four episodes of the cult series ” Lost ” or in the independent movie ” The Kites of Kabul “. Year 2010 marks his come back on the French screens in the fantastic fiction in full Algerian War, “Djinns” beside Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet. Then, he chains movies in big Hollywood productions such as Conan (2011), American Bluff (2013), Infiltrator (2016), Wonder Woman (2017)!
Said TAGHMAOUI filmography:
Movie Actor:
Wonder Woman (2017 )
Infiltrator (2016)
American Bluff (2013)
My Brother The Devil (2012)
Conan (2011)
The Killers (2010)
Djinns (2010)
G.I. Joe – The rise of Cobra (2009)
Angles of attack (2008)
Kandisha (2008)
Mogadiscio (2008)
Traitor (2008)
Kabul Kites (2007)
Five Fingers (2006)
The bare bread (2005)
Ô Jérusalem (2005)
Hidalgo (2004)
I love Huckabees (2004)
Spartan (2004)
Wanted (2003)
The Man of the Riviera (2002)
Absolutely fabulous (2001)
Confession of a flirty (2001)
Between dogs and wolves (2001)
Gamer (2001)
Tom Thum (2001)
Vivante (2001)
Ali Zaoua, Prince of the street (2000)
National 7 (2000)
Room to rent (2000)
The Jail (1999)
The Kings of the desert (1999)
Prima del tramento (1999)
I Giardini dell’Eden (1998)
Marrakech Express (1998)
Onorevoli detenuti (1998)
Go for Gold ! (1997)
Heroines (1997)
Elvis Aziz (1996)
La Bougeotte (1996)
La Haine (1995)
Thirsty to get out (1995)
Brothers: the red roulette (1994)
Actor TV Series:
The Missing – Season 1 (2014)
Episode 6
Touch – Season 2 (2013)
Strike Back – Season 3 (2012)
Episodes 3 – 4
Lost – Season 5 (2009)
Episodes 6 – 7 – 9 – 12
Saddam’s house – Season 1 (2008)
Episode 1
Suspicious – Season 1 (2007)
Djihad – Season 1 (2006)
Sleeper Cell – Season 2 (2006)
Episodes 6 – 7
Sleeper Cell – Season 2 (2006)
Épisode 5
The Educator – Season 1 (1995)