Posted yesterday at 7:00 a.m.
The two productions in which he is showcasing his talent these days could not be more different in tone. In the series larry, Benoît Gouin lends his features to a fallen policeman, who is conducting a personal investigation following a shooting that injured his wife for life. The man is taciturn, unfriendly, and often finds a way to make the worst possible decisions.
In The cheaters, a scathing and cynical comedy set on a golf course, the actor slips into the shoes of a psychiatrist whose peace of mind will be turned upside down by the arrival of a stranger with the gift of scratching wherever it is. wrong. In both cases, Benoît Gouin has the ability to hide behind the character he embodies. Even if he has to his credit about sixty plays, about forty television dramas and about twenty films, he is one of those actors who does not really have a fixed image with the public. . Hear by this that he can easily blend into any universe.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
“I believe in the mystery of the actor, he explains during an interview granted to The Press. I don’t have the reflex to exploit niches where I would be visible other than through a character. My nature is thus made. I prefer to keep a little perspective and I’m happy like that! »
The realization of a fantasy
At the age of 61, the man who first practiced his art by playing collective creations in Quebec City directed by Robert Lepage – then a complete stranger – holds for the first time in his career the main role of a heavy series. Written by Stéphane Bourguignon, larry is produced by Patrice Sauvé, with whom Benoît Gouin has often collaborated since life, life.
“When the character you play is present in almost every scene, you know that your performance will determine the quality of the series. It’s a big challenge to interpret an unlikable character and make people want to follow him anyway. Playing a police officer who leads investigations, in a story where there is a lot of action, was also part of my fantasies. There is nothing one-dimensional in Stéphane Bourguignon’s writing. »
As to Cheaters, the actor was convinced by the quality of the script. That he liked so much that he wanted to organize himself so that the shooting of Louis Godbout’s film did not conflict with that of the last season of the soap opera The blue Hourthen on pandemic hiatus.
“In fact, I had a bit the same impression as reading the screenplay of Quebec-Montreal, he confides. The dialogues are strong and funny enough to ensure that there is no need to insist or play big. Louis loves cynicism to the extreme and it’s true that there aren’t that many works that exploit the niche of black comedy in Quebec. Louis, of whom I had seen and loved Mount Foster, is an extremely bright guy. »
From Quebec to Montreal
Before arriving on the set of Quebec-Montreal, the first feature film in which he shot, Benoît Gouin already had several years of experience on stage. He, who abandoned his medical studies after three years to enroll at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec, quickly founded a theatrical company there – Level Parking – in the company of fellow actors.
“It corresponded to the advent of improvisation too,” he explains. I also participated in the founding of the University Improv League, a bit like the first baby of the LNI, in the early 1980s.
Even if Benoît Gouin had won a Gémeaux citation as soon as he arrived in Montreal, thanks to his performance in The trapan episode of the series never without love (written by Janette Bertrand), things changed for him in 2002. That year, a man named Michel Gauvin – Mike Gauvinencountered on Highway 20 between Quebec and Montreal in Ricardo Trogi’s film, practically overnight became an icon in the collective Quebec imagination.
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
“Perhaps this will be my little legacy to Quebec culture: here lies Mike Gauvin, he said, laughing. For me, Quebec-Montreal was a very important calling card. A director friend also told me that at the time, my name had come out in a meeting for auditions, but that one of the producers had no idea who Benoît Gouin was. It was only when he was told Michel Gauvin – Mike Gauvin that he lit! Even today, not a week goes by without someone talking to me about it. It delights me because it indicates that people have appreciated my work! »
Another look
After having chained the roles without respite for more than three decades, Benoît Gouin believes that he now benefits from the strength of age.
I have the impression that the weight of the years allows me to know immediately where to go to reach certain areas. As an actor, I approach characters with a view of things and the world that changes over time. I am very different today from the actor I was when I was 30.
Benoit Gouin
“As you age, you strip your game more. Life experience also comes into play. The arrogance of youth is gone and we realize that, as Jean Gabin said with his “I know that we never know”, it is true that in the end we don’t know much. The truth finds its way in the simple welcoming of what happens, in our capacity for wonder in the face of life. At 60, you touch things that you can’t touch at 20 because the understanding of human relationships is completely different. »
The cheaters hits theaters August 12. The 10 episodes of the series larry are currently offered on Tou.tv Extra.