Although she is only 20 years old, Jade Charbonneau has a well-rounded CV. This fall, she stars in a movie (The Time Harvester) and a series (Lou and Sophie). We joined her to discuss five roles that have marked her.
New address
PHOTO B. CALMEAU, PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Antoine Pilon, Macha Grenon, Jade Charbonneau and Marguerite Bouchard in New address
This is the series that started it all.
Broadcast on Radio-Canada in 2014 and 2015, this drama by Richard Blaimert (Cerebrum, The ups and downs of Sophie Paquin) portrayed a journalist and single mother with incurable cancer.
Aged 12 at the start of filming, Jade Charbonneau played the role of Romy, one of the children of the main character played by Macha Grenon.
“It opened the door for me very wide,” says the actress. It was so huge for me. At the time, I was super embarrassed and withdrawn. To be in such a big series, it was dizzying. ”
Critics have praised Jade Charbonneau’s performance. The main interested party remembers the good comments, but she also remembers a little girl who understood more or less what she was doing. “I was going with the flow. I knew my text, I did my little business, I listened to Sophie Lorain and Rafaël Ouellet [les réalisateurs], I had fun with the team… But when people said to me: “You made me cry so much”, I found it hard to understand. ”
Premonitions
PHOTO SÉBASTIEN RAYMOND, PROVIDED BY ENCORE TELEVISION
Jade Charbonneau in Premonitions
Before taking roles in The blue Hour, 5e rank and All the life, Jade Charbonneau starred in Premonitions, a supernatural thriller broadcast on addikTV in 2016. Also starring Pascale Bussières, Sophie Desmarais and Mikhaïl Ahooja, the series only aired for one season, but Jade Charbonneau remembers the fun she had to play Félicia, a teenage girl with magical powers. “It was deeply fun! she exclaims. It was fun to do intense looks, to play with blood, to do things that we are not used to doing as an actor… I would have played in there for years. It was so over the top! ”
Jade Charbonneau also welcomes the management of Charles-Olivier Michaud (Boomerang, Neither do I), director and co-author of Premonitions. “It was a great meeting. He really gave me confidence. I needed it, because I was a relatively shy child. ”
Family councils
PHOTO PROVIDED BY TELE-QUÉBEC
Jade Charbonneau in Family councils
Jade Charbonneau has joined the distribution of Family councils on Télé-Québec in 2018. For two seasons, she slipped into the skin of Gabrielle, an independent girl who abandons her friends, her teachers and her old school to finish high school with Clovis (Sam-Éloi Girard).
” It’s with Family councils that I began to understand what I was doing as an actress, reveals Jade Charbonneau. When I saw how the children looked at me when they recognized me on the street, at the dairy or whatever, I realized that I was part of their life. I put myself in their shoes. I remembered how much I was a groupie of shows like Kaboum Where Tactik when I was their age. When I realized that maybe it was me they were looking at with stars in their eyes, I really got hold of it.
“It’s fun to get great feedback from an adult, but there’s something special about a kid. They are so pure and unfiltered… It hits me even more, I think. ”
The Time Harvester
PHOTO FROM THE FILM THE TIME HARVESTER
Jade Charbonneau in The Time Harvester
For the past few weeks, Jade Charbonneau has dominated the distribution of The Time Harvester, the new film by Francis Leclerc (A summer without a point or a sure hit) inspired by the world of Fred Pellerin. She camps there Bernadette, grandmother of the storyteller, who claims to have driven Death from the village of Saint-Élie-de-Caxton in 1927.
A big fan of the author, the actress claims to have fulfilled a childhood dream by landing the first role in the feature film.
“When I was younger I watched movies like Babine and Esimésac with stars in her eyes, she says. Fred Pellerin’s universe is funny, it’s poetic, it’s fantastic, it’s beautiful… No one else writes like him. ”
The shooting of The Time Harvester, which brought together actors like Marc Messier, Céline Bonnier, Roy Dupuis, Geneviève Schmidt and Émile Proulx-Cloutier, fulfilled the expectations of Jade Charbonneau. The adventure, which spanned 10 months, however presented its share of challenges.
“It was difficult to keep the character throughout the year. Every time we started spinning again I felt like I had to go back into slippers that were a little dustier. ”
Lou and Sophie
PHOTO EVE B. LAVOIE, PROVIDED BY THE PRODUCTION
Zeneb Blanchet and Jade Charbonneau in Lou and Sophie
Written by Yannick Éthier (The cottage, The academy), this new series from ICI Tou.tv Extra depicts the coming of age of teenage girls who have just finished high school. Jade Charbonneau defends the role of Louise, alias Lou, a 17-year-old rebel who has an almost fusional relationship with Sophie, her best friend (Zeneb Blanchet).
“When I was auditioned, I didn’t have a lot of information. All I knew was she was a completely jaded teenager imploding. It spoke to me a lot, because it reminded me of my teenage years. If I had seen such an obnoxious teenage girl on TV, I would have felt less alone. ”
Described as a fiction for “young adults”, Lou and Sophie could also hook an older audience, believes the actress. “Our adventures are wacky on one side, but still heavy on the other. ”