Sophie Marceau and Dany Boon are the most popular actors in France. They are "a dream couple", says French weekly magazine Paris Match, which recently put the pair on its cover.

Marceau is the 41-year-old former Bond girl and star of Female Agents. Although unfamiliar to audiences in Australia, Boon is a seasoned comic actor last seen alongside Daniel Auteuil in My Best Friend. More recently, Boon is single-handedly responsible for setting the French box office on fire. Welcome To The Sticks, the film he wrote, directed and starred in, has become the biggest money earner ever in France.

If James Cameron proclaimed himself the king of the world with Titanic, is Boon the king of France? "No, no, no," he splutters. "CNN asked me about that last week and I said, 'Oh great!' I was scared they wouldn't understand my English, actually."

Understated in person but with a smile that lights up a room, Boon hails from the working-class region of Nord-Pas de Calais, which is often labelled the hick region of France. In his film, the 42-year-old plays the good-natured underdog character he has made his own, a character he admits has elements of himself. Boon is as astounded as anyone else by his film's success.

"The story is so close to me because it's my family, it's my region, it's my childhood," he says in near-perfect English, "and that makes the success all the more incredible. At first it was supposed to be a little movie and it just grew."

The story follows Philippe Abrams (Kad Merad), a post office manager in the south of France, who is sent to Nord-Pas de Calais as a punishment after trying to cheat his way into a transfer to a resort. His depressive bourgeois wife (Zoe Felix), in need of a warm environment, remains behind with their son. When Philippe arrives at his new job, however, despite struggling to understand the local dialect, he is surprised by the amount of fun he is able to have, especially with goofy Antoine (Boon), a postman who likes a drink.

"Antoine's not so smart but he's intuitive and kind," says Boon, on the set of his new movie. "He's typical of someone from the north of France. People say that in the south people welcome you with open arms but never close them, whereas in the north they don't open their arms right away, but when they close them, they never open them again. When I wrote my movie I realised how in the French cinema they tend to shoot comedies in the south of France and when it's a drama they go up north. I wanted to go against that trend."

Raised a Catholic in poor surrounds, Boon says he was the reason his parents had to marry when his mother was 17. "She was depressed because of her hard life and as I grew up I became focused on the fact that you had to laugh at it. I had to make my mother laugh." When his mother gave her life savings to her son to help him pursue his acting dream, he spent it all in three months. Now he has made her "a queen by buying her a castle", though his life is no longer as uncomplicated as Antoine's.

"Now I have a shrink but I see him only once a month. I used to go five times a week because I needed it. When I started to become successful and earn a lot of money it was kind of weird for a little boy. But now I'm OK," he smirks smugly.

Usually sedate French audiences have been in hysterics watching his film and especially identify with the characters. "All kinds of people, even little kids, stop me in the street and tell me they want to see the characters again in a sequel, so that's great," he says. As well, Will Smith has bought the US remake rights, though it's difficult to see him achieving this film's magic.

"In the end I know that I'm 42, I know I'm not going to experience the same thing again, not ever, so I'm going to enjoy it," Boon says.

In France he seems to be in high demand for every movie going, and today, filming his first romance, he leaves me for a brief smooch with Marceau. The he returns and quips, "Not bad, huh?"

WELCOME TO THE STICKS

Director Dany Boon Stars Dany Boon, Kad Merad Rated M. Out now.