Eric Cantona has always known how to work a crowd. His theatrics on the pitch for Manchester United were greeted with roars of approval and his appearances before the press left journalists bemused but eager for more.
Last night, however, a different kind of live audience awaited the striker from Marseille as he attempted to complete his transformation from temperamental sportsman to accomplished artiste.
For the first time in a career full of drama, Cantona – or King Eric, as he is still known by many of his fans – was treading the boards.
The maverick entertainer, who received critical acclaim last year for his role in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, appeared before a packed-out audience at the Théâtre Marigny, just off the Champs Élysées, to costar in a new play, Face au Paradis (Faced With Paradise).
When the curtain came down on the 43-year-old's latest 90-minute performance, warm applause broke out from the crowd, where members of the Cantona clan and the Parisian elite rubbed shoulders with soccer fans who sat in their seats reading fanzines. At least one came sporting a Manchester United shirt.
Vincent Champenoes, a 28-year-old Parisian, said he had come to see the play purely to see his hero in action. "I am not an [Olympique] Marseille fan or a Manchester fan. But I am a fan of Eric Cantona. He is huge. He is a myth," he said.
In his role as Max, an accountant trapped in the rubble of the supermarket where he works, Cantona is on stage for the duration of the play, written by little-known French writer Nathalie Saugeon. He stars opposite Lorànt Deutsch, a popular young actor whose loquacious character Lubin contrasts with Max's dry reserve.
Before the performance Cantona denied feeling any first night nerves and likened the experience of acting to playing football. "You're still in a game which requires a huge amount of uphill struggle and which leads to a real excitement the day of the performance or match," he told Le Parisien. "In terms of emotion, it's all very similar."
Cantona looked visibly relieved as he stood on stage for repeated encores and shouts of "bravo".
His second wife, Rachida Brakni, a classically trained actor, joined him in soaking up the applause after making her directorial debut with a play she says she chose specifically to suit her husband's thespian talents.
Among the audience, however, feelings were mixed as to the extent of those talents. "I thought it was very original and his performance was good, but there was a bit too much pathos at the end. I suppose we're used to seeing Cantona as virile and manly, not as weak," said Fabrice Coret, a Manchester United fan.
Another fan, Antoine, was more frank. "I think he is charismatic and has presence, but I'm not sure he's a very good actor," he said.