It’s finally time to return to Walton with Léo, Cindy, Chabot and the employees of Dubeau Gâteaux. After a pandemic delay that delayed filming for a year, the third season of Fabien Cloutier’s fine comedy, Leo, has been broadcast since Wednesday.
There is a lot of tenderness in Leo. Respect, gentleness and love too. Because beyond the frankly funny comedy, Fabien Cloutier and his team of authors, made up of Steve Laplante, Erika Soucy and Sonia Cordeau, navigate brilliantly in each episode between laughter and emotion.
“This line between the two is so fun, and so thin,” says Fabien Cloutier. Laughing after going through a little oops shaking a little in the stomach is a big step inside the body. I have always liked this passage between the two. ”
The strength of Leois that we can talk about cow dung and Alzheimer’s with, say, the same seriousness. At the other end of the line, Fabien Cloutier laughs and nods. “Of course you have to do it with the same sensitivity, and the same freedom. Guys are talking about cow’s meat, we do it completely. But if we talk about Alzheimer’s, we go there too. ”
Dramatic comedy, funny series, the author is not sure how to qualify Leo. What he does know, however, is that he does not put up any barriers.
Me, I write a comedy which allows itself to go in all directions, and which trusts people. And since we have had it both ways since the first season, they accept it.
Fabien Cloutier
We laugh there, but it is not “100% thigh high” as a sitcom would be, and it addresses more serious subjects without being “in the immense drama”. The hard part is keeping the balance between the two, and the challenge is to “bring things to life” for the characters, not just touch them.
“In season 3, the friendship between Chabot [Steve Laplante] and Leo will be put to the test. Well we went there, in the discomfort of seeing two chums in the cold. It’s not just a scene, and after that, it’s already happened. We made sure everyone couldn’t wait for them to start talking to each other again. ”
All angles
The third season begins with the wedding of Léo and Cindy (Marie-Laurence Moreau), but the second episode immediately transports us a year later. Baby Paul is born and Leo has to go back to work after his paternity leave. But the heart is not there.
“Leo thinks a lot, but he quickly puts things into action. In this series, if people are not well, they say so. They cry, bicker, act and react, but affection is never far away and solidarity is there. In this era where yelling at each other on social networks has become a habit, this ambient empathy is heartwarming.
“We realize that there is a potential for tenderness in each character,” said Fabien Cloutier, who likes to show all angles of each, and not just their bad sides. He concedes that some times “we start from afar”, as with Pouliot (Hubert Proulx), bum to hysterical laughter, but he trusts the intelligence of the spectators.
“Yes he did bad business, yes he says terrible things. But no matter how much you show someone who has flaws, he’s not just that. This is where in writing, we have fun. ”
Less frontal
Fabien Cloutier became known on stage for his corrosive humor and his relentless gaze. He admits that in Leo, he wanted more nuances, especially since the TV requires to be “more seated, more able to justify” his choices, his angles, his language.
“But maybe on stage, next time, it will also be softer. I realized over time that with some subjects I didn’t need to stir so much to be useful. ”
The author believes today that he can move “the big boat of society” without creating a storm, but by going there quietly, by putting “his finger in the right place”.
When I started writing theater, it was very in your face, very frontal. Maybe here we are somewhere else, and it’s okay that that has changed. I don’t question anything I wrote! But I think it’s healthy, at 45, to approach things differently than at 25. If I was still upset like at 25, that would mean that I didn’t do anything either. not.
Fabien Cloutier
After doing a lot of TV in recent years – his most recent tour ended four years ago – Fabien Cloutier has started writing again for a solo show that he would like to present in 2023. “I feel ready to face that again, to rearrange my little cage. “And trying to find” how we can be funny and useful in 2023 “.
In the meantime, Leo and his gang still have some adventures to go through. The fourth season has already been shot – “I’m starting to get edited episodes, I think it’s going to be my favorite” – and a fifth is on the menu. But he thinks that afterwards, he will have toured this universe. What does he wish for his character for the future?
“At the start of the series, I told myself that the day Leo had a blonde, a baby, and was having a barbecue with his happy world around him, it would be over. You know, on a plane when you get off and see all the little pieces of land, there is some, happiness, in that, real life experiences. Us, we put the camera on a family. When Leo is going to feel good and wants to get up every day, he will have succeeded. ”
Leo, at TVA on Wednesdays and in bursts on Club illico