An icon of the 1990s thanks to “Hélène et les Garçons,” one of the show’s emblematic faces speaks candidly about his career and his desire for change. Between amused confessions and a new artistic beginning, he turns the page on a legendary adventure.

Invited to TF1’s “Les docs du week-end” on November 1, 2025, Philippe Vasseur, who played José in the iconic series “Hélène et les Garçons,” made an unexpected and amusing confession. The man fans considered the group’s musician had, in reality, never learned to play the piano! “I can’t play. Back then, we played along to backing tracks, and I hadn’t realized that the bass notes were there (on the left side of the piano). So I played like an idiot here (on the right side of the piano), and my friends would tell me, ‘Phiphi, the bass notes are over there!’ (…) I lied for 30 years,” he recounted on TF1.

Philippe Vasseur, a deliberate departure from the series

Advertisement
Advertisement
After more than thirty years of loyalty to Jean-Luc Azoulay’s world, Philippe Vasseur announced in 2023, during an interview with France 3, that he was definitively leaving Les Mystères de l’amour. “I wasn’t having fun anymore and I was struggling to learn the lines, it was becoming too much for me. I just wanted quality. I’m not biting the hand that feeds me. However, at 58, I have the right to say that I want to act in quality projects, deliver quality lines, where I enjoy myself, something that excites me!” he explained.

An artist at heart, Philippe Vasseur has now turned to painting, a field that has long fascinated him. “I’ve wanted to stop working on the series for a long time to paint my own pictures. Except that, like everyone else, I have bills to pay. I have my son’s education, and that’s the priority,” confided Lancelot’s father.

The end of an era

A few weeks earlier, Jean-Luc Azoulay had officially announced the end of “Les Mystères de l’amour” on TMC. “TF1 and JLA Productions have mutually agreed to stop broadcasting ‘Les Mystères de l’amour’ on TMC at the end of the year, after 14 years of uninterrupted success, as the current schedule no longer allows this cult series to thrive.” An era is therefore ending for an entire generation of viewers, forever marked by the adventures of Hélène, Nicolas, José, and the others—unless the series returns soon on another channel?