Thirty years ago, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Montreal, Marc Fournier stood out among the students in suits and ties who applied for internships in major law firms.
Posted at 8:15 a.m.
He had some dreads, played guitar in a funk rock band and was Vice President of Student Life (aka “VP Party”). It was the bon vivant everyone loved. The heart on the hand, the permanent smile, the contagious laughter. Mr Friendly.
How ironic that my former classmate was revealed to the general public in the unsympathetic role of Yves Jacob, the pet peeve of the investigators of District 31. More than 1.5 million viewers enjoyed hating Jacob while he was on Internal Affairs, before he joined 31 and showed off a more endearing side to his personality.
Marc Fournier was originally to play only a small role in two episodes of the arch-popular soap opera, in November 2016. He was eventually in all the seasons of the daily, until becoming one of the main characters.
“Great things happened this year,” says the 49-year-old actor, whom I meet in a café in Vieux-Longueuil.
And I’m really happy to live it now. It must be incredibly difficult to be thrown into the public eye in your early twenties, when you’re building yourself up.
Marc Fournier
Fournier took a long time to find his way, and even more to come out of anonymity. It wasn’t for lack of talent or interests. “As far back as I can remember – I don’t know if it was conscious or not – I never managed to put myself in a box,” he says. And yet, I am not an eccentric. I am a very ordinary guy. But I was curious about everything. »
In high school as well as in university, he integrated easily into all the groups. This was the case at the Séminaire de Trois-Rivières, where he enjoyed the pastoral committee as well as the theater troupe or the football team. His teammates couldn’t understand what he was doing at the “thiâââtre”, and the girls of his troop couldn’t believe he stood with showerbags.
“And all these beautiful people did not understand that I could have fun in the pastoral room with people dressed in gray turtlenecks! he said laughing. All of this responded to a need I had to explore. I realized that for a long time I was not doing anything deeply. I was doing theatre, but I couldn’t imagine doing school auditions. I was successful in college football, but I didn’t have the size or the speed to play at the college level. And obviously I did not continue in the pastoral! »
And the law? He was interested in politics (he participated in the Youth Parliament). Also, a history teacher from the cégep de Trois-Rivières, Jean-Claude Soulard, encouraged him to study law. “But I never thought about whether I wanted to become a lawyer. I realized this while doing an internship during the Bar. »
He was a legal advisor at Centraide and defended a student who had lost his access to loans and bursaries after having to reduce his workload, because he had discovered that he was HIV-positive. The young intern worked on this case for months, clashing with university and ministry officials. Upon announcing to the student that he had won his case, he learned that he had died just three weeks earlier. “I couldn’t see myself doing that. I think I would have been unhappy. »
He didn’t know, however, what he wanted to do. “I’ve taken many detours in life,” he says. That’s an understatement. After his first year of law school, he went on a road trip to the United States with a friend. “I wasn’t even sure I would come back to finish my baccalaureate. We thought we were going to open a café in Mexico. It was the 1990s! »
Fate willed otherwise. As they joined a caravan of Grateful Dead fans in Montana, Marc’s friend offered to ride with him in a car, rather than the back of the van he was in . “I was well in the box of the pickupwith dogs, guitars, pack bags. I let him go alone in the car. Five minutes later, there was a mishandling by the driver to let a police car pass. My friend, whose name was Marc, is dead. »
Back in Montreal, “probably in post-traumatic shock,” Marc Fournier said he wandered for many weeks in Square Saint-Louis. “I was lost, on the skids. He pulled himself together just in time to resume his studies. Behind the teaser with whom I liked to discuss music and politics, I had not guessed this injury at the time. And he didn’t tell me.
We were the same age, within two weeks, rare law students with long hair. I interviewed him for The Press while we were studying at the École du Barreau. The song Flatter the Buddha of his group Féroce FETA dominated the CISM charts.
With singer Martin Thibault, another former classmate (who made a career in television production), guitarist François “Sunny” Duval and bassist Martin Roy (who became a composer for television and cinema), Féroce FETA was to win the great musical “talent” competition of the time. , the Empire of future stars. “The day after the final, I had a business law exam at the Bar. We celebrated so much that I didn’t perform very well! »
The Féroce FETA guys didn’t become stars. Held hostage in a dispute between two record labels, they were never able to record the album they dreamed of. I lost sight of Marc Fournier, who gave up his musical career after a tour that took his band to the Francos, before moving on to jobs in bars, cafes and restaurants.
At the turn of the 2000s, a friend invited him to play in a play in Trois-Rivières. Thunderbolt. Another actor in the play needed someone to audition for him in front of a casting agent. Fournier offered and, between two scenes, the agent asked him why he hadn’t given him his file. A new career was beginning.
He was 30 years old. He landed small roles, first as an extra in commercials and in Virginia (“I was pretending to eat spaghetti”). Then one day, when he was offered the position of butler in a restaurant, he decided to dive into acting.
“I asked my girlfriend to give me five years, telling her, ‘If it doesn’t work out, I’ll do something else.’ The request has been renewed a few times! he laughs.
In 2012, he thought his acting career was finally taking off, after landing roles in high-profile web series (The Red Queen, Dead Time) and on TV (Trauma, The Whole Truth). I believed him too, after seeing him in one of the leading roles in Simon Galiero’s film, Blinding, presented at the opening of the Festival du nouveau cinema. “I thought maybe it was going to happen. It ended up taking another 10 years! »
The one who describes himself as a “specialist in nothing, but curious all-terrain” has since done all kinds of jobs in order to support his family: cabinetmaker, farm worker, vox pop interviewer for the show Doctors at Radio-Canada, etc. This father of two teenagers also worked as a massage therapist, after training in his girlfriend’s yoga studio in Longueuil.
After more hollow years, District 31, this phenomenal success, seems to have changed his trajectory as an actor. I point out to him that his own progression in the profession is like that of his character in Luc Dionne’s soap opera.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Marc Fournier
“It’s funny you say that. Certainly I saw the parallel between Jacob the fighter, a 5’8″ guy who doesn’t let go, and me, the actor, who saw a great opportunity and was delighted to be in more episodes. I think that’s part of the charm of the character. People didn’t really know him, and then he ended up being in the gang. It attracts a capital of sympathy which is inherent in this project. I was persistent enough to end up with my name in the credits last season, which changed a lot of things. »
What has changed the most, he says, is now feeling more in control and confident on set and in auditions. “I don’t feel like I’m risking my life every time. And it’s sure that it makes it easier to find yourself on great projects”, says the one we saw recently in Happiness with VAT and Black Lake on Club illico.
His law studies, which he does not regret at all, have shaped his way of analyzing characters and scenarios. “The good, the bad, and all the gray areas in between!” he says.
I worked Jacob, even if he was a secondary character, to maximize his role as a mirror of what the gang of District hurt. So that the public can recognize what was crooked. I wasn’t trying to make a hero out of him, but I always liked that guy. Even if he was being hated!
Marc Fournier
His years of “VP Party” are well behind him. This season, when he was offered an almost daily role on District 31, he submitted to an ascetic discipline in order to support the marathon of filming: in bed at 8:30 p.m., up at 4:30 a.m., enough time to do a little exercise before the workday. No alcohol, no tobacco (or related substances).
“When I decided to become an actor, I told myself that I would do it in an Olympian way. I stopped aiming everywhere. I said to myself that it took four years to participate in the Olympic Games, and that it is not at your first Games that you necessarily have a medal. »
His medal is not his new notoriety, but the possibility it offers him to be able to practice his profession more. “I know who I am, even if it’s a constant search. I exist outside of kodak, apart from the interviews. I have a family, a house to renovate, children to raise. This is my life. The rest is a job that I take great pleasure in doing. My goal has never been to make Marc Fournier a public figure! I get all the love I need from my circle of friends. The love of the public is something else. It’s not me he loves; that’s what I give him. »
And those who loved to hate you so much? “It’s not me they hate either!” He bursts into a big laugh. As friendly as 20 years old.