You have to talk with foreign tourists and immigrants to realize that, if certain things are obvious here, this obviousness is not entirely so for everyone. For example, behind the clichés surrounding the great Canadian spaces hide cultural phenomena that many consider banal, life in a cottage for example. In developing and overpopulated countries, we start by dreaming of housing, not of vacations in a log house.
All the comedy characters The Lake possess this luxury, display it without embarrassment, proud owners of residences, some of which have nothing to envy to the opulence of suburban castles. But in the midst of this lush nature and facing a beautiful tranquil lake, a typically Canadian microcosm seems impervious to the calm calls of the forest. Here, non-binary children rub shoulders with gays fond of television references, first-class manipulators, all in a multiethnic and multicultural mosaic that would have made Pierre Elliott Trudeau dream.
Julian Doucet, screenwriter and designer of this comedy produced for Amazon studios, does not hide it: he was trying to dynamite “this tradition firmly rooted in the Canadian imagination”. The man who also has a long track record as an actor wanted to question this culture by parachuting into it characters who are very far from it, from visible and sexual minorities, thus offering a striking contrast “with this idea that being close to a lake is, in a way, withdrawing from the world”. In The Lake, it seems impossible to escape it.
I had a lot of freedom, but people at Amazon kept coming back with the word “grounded” — it absolutely drove me crazy! In fact, they wanted it to be rooted in a certain realism, whereas I love to push the limits and instill ridicule.
At the end of the line, in an airport waiting room a few hours before the presentation of the series at the end of the Inside Out festival in Toronto, Julian Doucet seems to see this project as a nice stroke of luck. Established in Los Angeles before the pandemic, this perfectly bilingual creator, originally from Ottawa, returned to live in Montreal, where he partly designed The Lakerefining this idea that Amazon found particularly attractive, in line with its desire, just like at Netflix, to produce in territories other than the United States.
“Instilling Ridiculousness”
“I had a lot of freedom, but people at Amazon often came back with the word ‘grounded— that was driving me absolutely crazy! In fact, they wanted it to be rooted in a certain realism, whereas I love to push the limits and instill ridicule. » The Lake is not lacking, generated in good part by Justin (Jordan Gavaris), thirty-year-old back from Australia, freshly separated after a long relationship with his partner, eager to reconnect with his biological daughter, Billie (Madison Shamoun), that he once gave up for adoption.
Here they are reunited in the idyllic corner of the childhood of this flamboyant man, a stone’s throw from the family chalet where Maisy-May (Julia Stiles), Justin’s half-sister, suave and charming, at least on the surface, resides. Many issues revolve around the true belonging of this residence – the stories of heritage are multiple – but above all they reveal more complex interpersonal dynamics. Billie worries about being the black person around, but she quickly realizes that her difference is just one of many.
In fact, we sometimes have the impression of being in a multi-ethnic neighborhood – or bobo! — from Toronto rather than North Bay, where the series was entirely shot in the summer of 2021. Because not only does Maisy-May share her life with Victor (Terry Chen), a man of Asian origin, but one of their two mixed-race children, Opal (Declan Whaley), refuses all labels, dresses as she pleases, and has nothing to envy to Margie Gillis when it comes time to prepare a dance number for the annual amateur show of the local community. “Opal represents the future,” says Julian Doucet. He does not identify with a gender, but with cultural icons, and his parents accept him as such. Moreover, we see more and more parents like these. »
Alongside these rebellious spirits, others represent the more traditional fringe of this altogether conservative milieu, pure maple syrup Canadians who do not always shine with their insight, figures forged by Doucet and his screenwriters “with humor and love, without ridiculing them… but a little all the same! »
The one whose voice can be heard in both official languages if you take the OC Transpo buses and trains in Ottawa (“It’s my biggest audience!”) chose the script some time ago a decade after a rich career on stage, also as a playwright. “At the Stratford Festival, I was taking part in a workshop on one of my plays and an actress said to me, afraid of offending me: ‘Your writing is very reminiscent of television.’ This was far from an insult, and instead prompted him to enroll at the Canadian Film Center in 2010.
“The television landscape has changed a lot, and I love working as a team. When I write, I embody all the characters, and my theatrical experience helps me a lot to find the right rhythm for each one. As I liked less and less to be seen as an actor, the fact that no one is watching me suits me perfectly. And, he said in a great outburst of ritual, I consider myself excellent! »