Roy Dupuis confides, "I’m not afraid of growing old."

Roy Dupuis is back in Quebec. After more than 4 years of repeated absences because of the demands of shooting the TV series Nikita, he has reconnected over the last months with a slower lifestyle more in keeping with his desires. He has rediscovered his universe and his relationships, and above all, he’s rediscovered himself. Radiant [I’m not making this up] and serene, the actor (who recently took part in Defi-Vision (a competition put on by Fondation MIRA), answered our questions freely.

Roy, have you really and truly finished your involvement with Nikita?

Yes. All I have left to do is the dubbing for France and Quebec.

Was it a good experience?

(He hesitates), Yeah....

Why do you hesitate?

Four years is a long time. It’s a lot of years of my life. It’s a lot of roundtrips. But the gang of people were fun. It was worth all the work it took.

What are your plans, beyond your involvement in the series The Last Chapter, which will be about motorcycle gangs?

I know that’s been announced, but I haven’t actually signed anything yet. I can’t say anything more about it, except that it probably will come together.

Since your return to Quebec, have you taken advantage of your country house?

To be honest, I haven’t done anything else.

How are you planning to spend the summer?

I’m going to " buff up" my house. I’m getting ready to do some renovations and expand it, have an addition built, a kind of barn or little chapel if you like. I say "barn" to indicate the atmosphere I want to create. Since my house is very old and has no big room, I wanted to have a big open space with big windows. I want this part of the house to give the impression that we’re outdoors even when we’re inside.

Do you have any animals there?

No, except some dogs and a cat.

What have you done since you got back from Toronto? Have you traveled?

I took the whole winter "off" [He says this in English]. I didn’t budge, because I’d been on the road for way too long. My girlfriend was working, we couldn’t go anywhere. We worked things out to spend a good stretch of time together. The last five years, between us it’s been "on and off", as they say in English. We only saw each other on weekends. So, last winter, my first priority was to spend time with the people close to me.

Did it do you good to have all these reunions?

Yes, absolutely!

Do you have the impression that you’ve found yourself again? When you’re always moving from place to place, it’s easy to feel lost.

This past winter, I really slowed myself down. I decided to give myself some time off and forget about my work, to think about just what I wanted to do each day, to do nothing, to let the dust gather eh! I just let everthing that’s happened over the last few years wash away, so that I could see where I wanted to go next.

And where do you want to go?

I’m going to start by building my addition. Then, probably, the miniseries The Last Chapter. Then, I’ll see.

Do you want to work more intensely in Quebec?

That’s for sure. I feel at home here. I love Quebec. It’s home. When I’m away for a long time, I realize how much I miss it.

What do you miss the most?

My friends, my place, my house. But I also get homesick for everything that we are. We’re very different. It’s only us who talk the way we do. It’s just us who phrase things the was we do. So, it’s only people from here who can "talk" to me.

With all the subleties that that can involve...

Yes. In fact, it’s only people from here who can really talk to me, in our words, with our sense of humour, our ideas, our culture. All that, I don’t find anywhere else.

Do you feel cut off from a part of yourself when you’re away for a long time?

No, in fact the opposite. I think it’s a good idea to go elsewhere in order to appreciate where you’re from. You can only do that by travelling. I think it’s also good to become familiar with the world outside, to see other places, to experience and taste. I love travelling, and I still want to travel. At the moment, I’m very tempted by the Himalayas for their culture and the mountains. I also want to travel to Nepal and to Vietnam before it’s too late. It’s possible that in the future I might go work elsewhere, but one thing is certain: I’ll always come back to Quebec.

Do you think that your house has given you an anchor that you didn’t have before?

Yes. A lot of things have happened now that I have my house. All of it has anchored me, given me roots, made me responsible. In the end, being an adult can be summed up as becoming responsible for what you do. And when I say that, I also mean for the things you say.

Have you become responsible enough to want to have a child?

Yes, that’s in the air. My girlfriend and I are moving closer and closer to that.

How long have you been together?

It’s been quite a while...nearly 7 years.

How old are you?

Thirty-eight? I was born in 1963, in April; so yeah, that’s right, 38.

The reality of getting older, does that frighten you?

No, on the contrary. At 33, I went through a period of nostalgia for a certain kind of youth. Then, I decided to stop drinking. I become a little more responsible. (Laughs)

Wasn’t it also at 33 that you started therapy?

Yes. It involved psychoanalysis.

Are you continuing with it?

Yes, I’m going on with my therapy. I stopped the appointments during Nikita because of my schedule. But this winter. I started up again in order to wrap things up.

What are you going to draw from that?

In my opinion, everyone should go through analysis. It should be as normal as going to the dentist or the hospital. That would mean it would have to be free. Honestly, it’s something that could change the world.

Why?

Because psychoanalysis clarifies everything. It allows us to see what belongs to us and what has been taught to us, most often by our parents. The first three years of our lives are very important, because they determine how we are going to come to terms with life, in the situations in which we find ourselves. It’s as if we had enemies but we didn’t know they existed. We all have enemies which live inside us and which put a spoke in our wheels. Inside us, there are also good characters which help us. In short, psychoanalysis allows us to identify our enemies. And when we can see them, we can come to terms with them.

So that we can get rid of them? We may never be able to get rid of them, but we can at least "deal" [in English in the original] with them because, all the same, we know them and we know why they exist. Without going into intimate details, can you tell us who your enemies are? Now that’s personal. But I can say that psychoanalysis was one of the most beautiful journeys I’ve ever made. It’s a voyage through my whole life. It’s fascinating.

For what reasons?

There are important events which have happened to you, but which you’ve completely forgotten, and which you discover through psychanalysis. It allows us to remember them, and that’s extraordinary. It’s one of the most beautiful gifts I’ve ever given myself.

Has it allowed you to reconnect with your true self?

Better than that. Thanks to it, you learn to know yourself, to know what you really love and not what people wanted you to love. You also learn to understand the mechanics of human behaviour, which is no bad thing in my line of work. You have to be curious to go through psychoanalysis, you have to want it. You have to love life. You have to love people. All of that in order to be more present, more given over to life.

Because you’re so aware of the fact that the first three years of life are critical for human development, are you afraid of becoming a father?

No. I think I’m in the process of doing what’s necessary to avoid mistakes, to be an attentive father who’s more devoted to his child.

What kind of father do you think you’re going to be?

I have no idea...I want to keep it a surprise for myself. One thing is certain, above all I don’t want to be an over-indulgent dad. The consumer society, we’ve had enough of it! I will let my child make his own way and I’ll try to be there to go along with him....