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Le Point Interview with Roy Dupuis |
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Stéphan Bureau: Roy Dupuis, good morning. Roy Dupuis: Good morning, Mr. Bureau. B: You are doing well despite your cold? RD: Yes, outside of this cold, I'm doing very well. B: You're basically on vacation, no? RD: Yes, you could say that, because it is a period where I am no longer filming really. I have only two days of filming left on "Un homme et son péché". We are waiting for the snow, that will happen in January. It's a period finally where I'm reading some scripts and theatre plays. But it's not really vacation because this is one of the most important period of the year. It's time of the year where I have to make some decisions... B: Make some good decisions... RD: Yes, that's it... B: I get the impression that in your work, the more one gets ahead, the more success one has, the more difficult it becomes to make choices and it has more consequences... RD: Yes, that's true...that's more or less right. B: It is a part of the work to take time to make good choices--it doesn't mean you can't be wrong at times because at times we make mistakes... RD: The way I proceed: I read a script and I like it or I don't...I either like the character or I don't...If there are two scripts to read, it can happen that I like both of them! B: Like in love! That can be difficult! RD: (laughs) Well, that has never happened to me in love, not yet, in any case. It was...rather precise! B: So, you haven't had to make a choice too painful then? RD: No, not in love...! B: When you find two really good projects, how do you go about choosing? RD: You'd like to do both, try to do both, see if it's possible to do both. It's like what happened with "Un homme et son péché" and "The Laster Chapter" We arranged the filming schedule, so that it worked. It meant that I had to working on both...filming two weeks non-stop...and if it happens that you can't do both, you have to make a choice, and you hope that it's the right choice! B: These two projects have brought you back directly to Quebec...You have been elusive ("rare") here for the past few years because of your work. Did this happen by chance or was it a choice to come back and practice your craft here at home? RD: Yes, for me, I never really left. I accepted, signed a contract for an American TV series, filmed in Toronto but it was a contract that lasted 5 years. It could have lasted 2 months, but it was a success, the audience ratings were good and they took me back every year...but on the weekend I returned home. So working on the serie did not allow me to do other things here, except a sort of TV movie "Maurice Richard", but for me, I never really left here... B: Because your home is here in Quebec... RD: Because my home is here! That's rather clear to me. I have traveled enough to know that my place is in Quebec. B: Because we could have presumed that with your American success--it's often the dream of actors is to "make it" in the U.S.A--you could have things that work there, and so develop projects. It's a legitimate temptation! RD: I came from the National Theatre School and it opened my horizon, it cultivated me, it nourished me. I think it is there that I learned the reason for the trade. The theatre: to say things, to try to say...important, beautiful things.... After leaving school, I wouldn't fall into an international career. It wasn't my intention, the goal of my profession, my choice. It was more to work, to do things that seemed to me...most important. B: But, it does happen from time to time that you have to "put some butter on your bread" ["mettre du beurre sur la tartine" in French="mettre du beurre dans les épinards"(LOL)-Annick][LOL for me too, Annick, I'd rather have bread than spinach :P! I think the expression is different from France-French because bread/dough is slang for money in English, where spinach is just supposed to be good for you... -nancyn] For an actor--do something just or especially for the money! RD: Yes... B: Like, for example, 5 years on an American TV series...it's more profitable...something that pays more than the theatre, no doubt! RD: Yes, I think that here in Quebec you can't live on theatre and work alone. I don't just think that, I'm absolutely certain! B: The "Nikita" series...aired all over the world. Was it a good choice? Even if it was good money...and had its advantages, was it a good choice? Something good to do for an actor? RD: Yes and no… B: Why yes and why no? RD: Yes, because I was permitted to create a character that was at the opposite of what one is used to seeing on an American TV series. It was an "anti-performance." I didn't create it to do that; it just came to me like that. For me it was an interesting exercise. To take away some "crutches" that actors are use to create a "truthful" character...only little natural gestures...I "purged" the character completely... B: The "working drawing"! RD: Yes... B: Remove, rather than add! RD: Yes, remove almost everything, just keeping only... the eyes...and the body language... RD: And NO because it was long... B: 5 years! RD: Yes...simply...it was long and "my home is here". So, it was a little hard to live... B: The series had a very good success in USA. It was an American experience, a sort of "cult following" with many real fans everywhere in the world. Did this change anything for you (personally), this kind of popular success? You experienced that before in Quebec! RD: Yes, that is what I experienced with "Les Filles de Caleb", it's hard to "beat" that!...because "Nikita" was filmed in Toronto and it wasn't 85% of the Canadian population watching "Nikita". But with "Les Filles de Caleb" I believe it was 80% (of the Quebec population) watching...and in a day "One pointed at me in the streets"!!... B: And you became "The" character, "The" actor, someone well known...very well known. RD: Yes! B: It changes life a bit, no? RD: No, not really...(laughing)...TERRIFIC!!! B: You was not being able to walk down the street, quietly, unnoticed... RD: Yes, it was hard to living with that! When you become famous you loose some "freedom", a certain freedom like...I came to the city from a small town... B: At what age? RD: Thirteen, fourteen.... In a small town, you know everyone and everyone knows you. But when you come to the city, what is fascinating is the freedom that anonimity brings to you. You can meet someone, say what you want, what you think...because you can be almost sure never to see those people again in your life. I found it extraordinary but this kind of freedom has disappeared now... B: And that has disappeared because of "Les Filles de Caleb"? RD: Yes, but it wasn't all bad!...because in the same time, I was proud to participate in that project... (Clip of "Filles de Caleb") B: Your American success. Without questioning your Quebec origin or where you would live... Did it open tempting doors for you? Did you get projects that could be profitable in the middle-term, and in the all areas that you like? Was it an accelator for your career? RD: Yes, certainly, it has opened my horizons.... It gave me international exposure. There are scripts that come from all over the world...yes...but the first thing I felt like doing after "Les Filles de Caleb" was to come back home for...I didn't how long... B: "Les Filles de Caleb" or "La Femme Nikita"? RD: (laughs) "La Femme Nikita"! B: A good slip of the tongue, a little Freudian slip!...we could talk about that for a half-hour, but... RD: (laughs) B: So, you wanted to come back home then, to do something here... RD: In the beginning, it was just to come back home.... The last thing I wanted to do was to plonk myself right in front of a camera. That was about what I did all winter...spent December...January...and February..."under the covers" ["sous la couvert"= in French "sous la couette" LOL = doing nothing -Annick] [LOL. I think it would be comparable to "hiding under the covers" in English -nancyn.] That is near enough what I did and that lasted all winter... B: Last year? RD: Yes. B: That did you some good...after the marathon of Nikita...5 years. You needed a break after doing a weekly TV series that lasted so long... RD: I would say that it was something essential in the beginning... B: A matter of survival? For what would follow? RD: (sighs heavily) No...it wouldn't have killed me...no, maybe...even if I had started work again quickly but...it was...it was...I just simply wasn't capable of "inserting" myself, "to belong to..." [I don't understand what ??? -Annick][I think he might mean "to be in the right place" -nancyn] I needed forget my work completely...to take care of my people...to include me inside...I have immersed myself in that.... It was "The Last Chapter" that-- B: That reawakened you, brought you back to your work...that is "the Bikers", "The Last Chapter"? RD: Yes... B: A role of a "tough"... RD: No, not as much as that...more in the second episode, yes... B: You are used to getting all the same "charmer" or hunky roles, some very physical roles.... Is this true of "The Last Chapter"? RD: Yes..."The Last Chapter" has a beautiful dramatic storyline. That is the reason I accepted...I refused the role at first...it was when I was refusing all work...but the character stayed with me for over a week, so...I finally said "OK"..It was still liberating...I'm very happy to have done it... B: Is that how it works for you? You live with a character for a while and then you know? RD: Yes, if I can take the liberty of doing that. I say yes...I like to do it that way...I like to read the script, then put it aside and then "live" with the character for one or two weeks...and then to call them back and say "yes, I'm tempted"...See what inspires me--of course, if I have the option of doing that... B: You have astounding modesty, as if no one wouldn't wait for you, sometimes! RD: Yes...sometimes... B: Let's talk about Alexis and "The Last Chapter": it's all pratically finished.... Will you be going back "under the covers"? RD: For the winter? B: Yes... RD: Well, I've been doing a big construction, at our place...a sort of chapel... B: A chapel? RD: It's like a chapel, finally...a frame construction. [I don't understand next word -Annick] We are going to erect it, in one day, in the "turn-of-the-century, old-fashioned" way, with 40 men who live in the area, who will erect it like in the movie "Witness", you know.... I'm been working on it quietly, and it will be finished in the winter, so I'll go for enter in...and...I have one (theater) play and script [!!!!! -Annick] on the table... B: Does the theatre tempt you? RD: Yes, I'm missing rehearsals...I miss the kind of "clan" feeling... B: The family? RD: Yes, the family of the theatre, who scrutinize one text, who explore it, who test out, attempt it...Whereas in movie or TV series, it's becoming more and more "here and now" [He says this expression like that ! -Annick] ...There's a pressure to get the finished product right away...and then it's there permanently...and we take no risks... B: So, it's more risky... RD: Well....but I like taking risks. Me... I ... try ... to ... take ... as ... many ... risks ... as ...possible. [He stops between every word! -Annick] B: Well, ...Roy Dupuis we hope to see you at theatre... Thank you very much! It's been a pleasure...since we know that you are so elusive! Good celebrations to all! RD: It's okay!...It didn't hurt! B: (laughing) That wasn't the objective. RD: (laughs) [END] |
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Interview by Stéphan Bureau from the December 21, 2001, broadcast of "Le Point."
English translation by Annick. |