He also appeared in the 2002 film The Transporter as the French commissaire named Tarconi, an active and honest police officer who is an acquaintance of Frank Martin (Jason Statham).

[3] While studying at business school, he trained as an actor, somewhat against his will; his first stage role was in a play called Sur une plage de l'Ouest (On a beach in the West).

After graduation, he enrolled in drama classes with Tania Balachova and then met Daniel, a director under whose auspices he worked from 1974 to 1981, participating in a dozen productions, mainly of contemporary classics.

In Martin et Léa, he plays a police inspector, a role he went on to perform many times on screen (La Balance, Les mois d'avril sont meurtriers (based on the novel The Devil's Home on Leave by Derek Raymond), Marche à l'ombre (Walking in the Shade), The Bait, The Death the Chinese, Fred, The Smile of the Clown, Ne le dis à personne (Tell No One), Transporter 1, 2, and 3) thanks in part to a cold, distant, and piercing gaze.

Berléand often plays military characters (The Hostage of Europe, Stella, Les Milles, Captain Conan, The Prince of the Pacific); he has also played a detective (Follow This Plane), pastor (Au revoir les enfants) and psychiatrist in Seventh Heaven, the film that really showed his talents to the public in late 1997.