Like viewers, the actors of District 31 also had to say goodbye to the entire team at the popular police station they had worked with for six years. Caught between the nostalgia for their character and the excitement aroused by new projects, four of them confided in the To have to on the end of this adventure and on those which await them.
“My last scene was extremely difficult to play. When I sat down, I looked for a moment at my trinkets on the desk, the plate with my name, I realized that I had to create my last memories there, quickly, ”, breathes Gildor Roy. , who played Commander Daniel Chiasson.
Saying goodbye to his character was not a piece of cake, he says, admitting to having quickly left the set after the final clap, last March, to “shed a few tears in [son] corner “. “I’ve been doing this job for a long time, I know that every project has an end. But each time, it’s still just as difficult, he admits. It’s that we leave a small family too. We always tell ourselves that we will see each other again, remain friends for life, but that’s never really what happens, unfortunately. »
For the 61-year-old actor, playing the good Commander Chiasson was an “incredible experience” which allowed him to rediscover a taste for his profession. Before embarking on the production, Gildor Roy thought of ending his career. “Daniel Chiasson reminded me how much I love acting, I love being an actor! he exclaims.
His character in District 31, he would have liked to bring it to the screen for a few more years. However, he considers it appropriate to stop the series now, rather than waiting for viewers to tire of it.
Cynthia Wu-Maheux would also have returned for a few years in the role of analyst Da-Xia Bernard, present in the police soap opera since the first season. She remembers having a hard time not cracking while shooting her last scene in Commander Chiasson’s office. “Da-Xia thanks the commander and says goodbye. But, in fact, it was Cynthia bidding farewell to Gildor. I had the motton, hands shaking. »
Since then, she says she has experienced a form of mourning. Every day, she fought against this simple reflex to open her computer to read and learn her texts. “I felt like I was dizzy,” she confides. I wanted to continue to occupy my days, to run everywhere, to throw myself into a thousand projects. But part of me felt like I needed to land before diving back into work. This calmer period has been good. »
For his part, since he had already announced that the sixth season of District 31 would be his last, Vincent-Guillaume Otis – aka detective sergeant Patrick Bissonnette – turned the page more easily than some of his colleagues. But if his “artistic mourning” is done for a long time, the “mourning of the team”, he has barely started, he admits in an interview, his voice strangled by emotion just talking about it. “Six years is a long time, six years!” It’s the end of a big and beautiful family, that’s the most difficult thing. »
He says he learned a lot professionally playing Patrick Bissonnette. “To shoot a daily is to play your character permanently, especially since I had the most scenes, around 650. It’s rare in a career to have the chance to play so much”, he believes. .
A professional springboard
One thing is certain, the popular Canadian radio detective series will have propelled the careers of its actors, who have for the most part already immersed themselves in new projects.
“I didn’t even have time to feel a void. I stopped filming on March 22 and, the next day, I received my texts for [le téléroman] Hotelon TVA, in September,” says Jeff Boudreault, who played journalist Jean Brière.
Gildor Roy also barely had time to breathe after filming the series, since he continued with the preparation of the talk show Tower, which he will take over the reins this fall at TVA, succeeding Patrick Huard. The actor is also toying with the idea of resuming his musical career.
“It is sure that we have all gained notoriety, believes Vincent-Guillaume Otis. Before District 31, people knew more about the characters that I played than the actor that I am. Now it’s the other way around. “Proof of this is: some followers of the series told him that they went to see his new film. Norburg — in theaters this week — because they wanted to follow his journey after discovering him in District 31. We will also find Vincent-Guillaume Otis this fall on the boards of the Green Curtain, in the play by Florian Zeller The son.
Cynthia Wu-Maheux will play for her part in the play The dreamer in his bathat the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde, in 2023. Another theatrical project awaits her, but she could not give more details for the moment.