MONTREAL - A group of Montreal-based radio pranksters have tricked Charlie Sheen into believing that he'd be considered to star in a sequel to the film The Artist.
Marc-Antoine Audette and Sebastien Trudel, part of the group known as the Masked Avengers (Justiciers Masqués) impersonated actor Jean Dujardin and managed to convince Sheen that he could be right for the role, a prospect which the actor welcomed.
The same group had previously pranked Bill Gates, Britney Spears, Paul McCartney and Sarah Palin, among others.
"We thought: 'why not impersonate Jean Dujardin, one of the hottest people in Hollywood right now, to see how Charlie Sheen would react?'" said Marc-Antoine Audette, who played Dujardin in the phone conversation.
The prankster told Sheen that profits from the Artist 2 would go to Quebec students and to Johnny Hallyday.
"We realized that when you've just won an Oscar, you can ask for whoever you want and get them," said Sebastien Trudel. "We could have offered him anything and he would have signed on, then and there."
The radio pranksters prepared for the call by ringing up a series of other Hollywood figures.
"Wherever we called, the secretary put us through at least to the manager," said Trudel.
The called ended without Sheen learning that the call was a hoax.
The pranksters expect the hoax to get attention in both the United States and France.
