The French star - who won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in silent film `The Artist` - admits he never considered working in movies after a career as a stand-up comic and on the television.

He said: "I didn`t think about cinema. It could`ve ended at the cabaret stage. But I crossed over, and happy accidents kept happening. I never stopped working. But it was never a career plan."

However, the 39-year-old hunk is keen to stick to his French roots despite his success because to ask for more success would be "indecent".

He added to Britain`s Marie Claire magazine: "I`ve always been put into boxes with labels on them. What`s funny is to make fools out of people. And not to stagnate in just one role - that`s the essential thing. If there was a nice project I will star in an American film, but I don`t have the fantasy, that dream.

"To make movies in France is huge enough. It would be indecent to ask for more."
sections: Celebrities