Four years ago, the urgency to make money combined with the breathlessness of constantly waiting for a new role forced Martin Laroque to quit his acting profession. It was in the midst of a pandemic that he opened his Montreal café, Maudit Bonheur. He will be able to receive his warm customers there again this Monday.
Martin Larocque’s last roles on television date back to the time of the first and third seasons of the series District 31, in which he played the role of biker Donald Welsh. Then, more news of the one that all of Quebec adopted when he interpreted Hercule Bellehumeur in Virginia at the beginning of the 2000’s.
Cursed-Happiness
“There were no more roles or offers at a time when I really wanted to play, says the actor who was then 48 years old. The phone didn’t ring and I got tired of always being on hold. My wife, Marie, and I decided to open a café, Café Maudit Bonheur, on Bélanger Street in Montreal. »
Since his café was born during the pandemic, the owner does not really have a comparison with the pre-crisis period. Officially considered a grocery store, the establishment is normally open for “take-out” meals. Still, he misses his loyal and curious customers since he had to remove the tables and chairs from the ten places in his dining room, restrictions oblige. He says he is looking forward to the reopening.
If opening a café was a dream he had cherished for a long time, the artist admits that it was also out of the need to make money to support his family (he is the father of three boys) that he launched into this restoration project and that he left the gaming world, which he loved so much.
“I’m not someone who waits, but the game is like a spell, you have no choice, you were born an actor, he explains. There absolutely had to be a salary coming in. We agree, with coffee currently, we don’t make money, but everything is paid for. »
When he opened his Maudit Bonheur, Martin Larocque gave up everything. He left his agency and proclaimed loud and clear that he was stopping everything, that his thirty-year rich acting career was behind him. It must be said that turning fifty gave a shock to someone who has done a thousand jobs (he founded a publishing house, delivered hundreds of conferences, wrote four books, etc.).
“I created an annual salary for myself this way, because when you’re self-employed, you don’t have unemployment or benefits,” adds the now 52-year-old.
Be seen to be recognized
He claims to be very happy in his café, which has become a warm landmark for people in the neighborhood between two waves of the pandemic.
“But it’s a lot, a lot of work,” he says. I thought I was working hard with Ms. Denise Filiatrault, but that was nothing compared to the long hours spent at the café,” he adds, laughing.
The actor, who explains that he needed to get out of the middle to watch it from afar, sometimes receives visits from people from the industry at his cafe. Some have even gently thought of him again for small roles (we saw him make an appearance in The beautiful discomforts and we will see it in François Bouvier’s film the cobbler and Bungalow, by Lawrence Cote-Collins).
“I want to do theater again, to come back to the sets, even if I know that it will still be conditional on the possibility of doing it, that it is not only in my hands, he says. Playing is my balance, it’s what recharges my battery. It is an essential need. »