On board the car, in the direction of the offices of The Press, the girlfriend of Guy A. Lepage, Mélanie Campeau, offered her lover one piece of advice: “You have the right to say whatever you want, han, but be nice. »
” She often tells me that,” says Guy A. Lepage. Because Madame does not find her husband nice? Rather because he doesn’t feel obligated to be at all, although usually he is. “I don’t find that to be a fault. Because if I give you a compliment, it’s a real compliment. I am not a stubborn. If I’m nice to you, it’s because I think you’re nice and you deserve it. »
This is one of the many reasons why Guy A. Lepage is the ideal guest for a long interview of the kind he agreed to grant me. In other words: his wardrobe contains very few pairs of white gloves. But that doesn’t mean RBO’s proverbial fine pitch isn’t elegant.
Throughout the promotional tour preceding the return to the air ofA boy a girl, last March, its creator made it a point of honor to specify that it was the day after an interview he granted me about the 25th anniversary of the legendary series that the idea of a sequel came to him, which he would not have needed to point out at all. Disappointment: the author however confirmed to me that my essential contribution would not be rewarded with a cheque.
Guy A. Lepage therefore has an uncompromising relationship with the truth, not tolerating white lies or unnecessarily euphemizing formulations. It happens that the host of Everybody talks about it frankly confesses to the politicians he hosts on Sunday evening that he would not vote for them under any pretext, “zero fucking chance”.
“And I think they appreciate that,” he adds.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Guy A.Lepage
They know that if they receive a blow from Jarnac during an interview, it’s their fault, it’s not me who brought out a bad case. We had to talk about that because that’s the subject. I do it with people I respect as much as with people I respect less.
Guy A. Lepage, about the politicians he receives at Everybody talks about it
Borrowed time
“I’ve been saying for almost 20 years that I live on borrowed time,” says Guy A. Lepage. At 43, the comedian receives two major awards, including a grand prize from the Academy, Gemini, the kind of reward crowning the end of a trajectory. Powerful vertigo. The comedian thinks for a moment to draw a line under his career, until he emerges from his torpor. Detail that is not one: at 40, his mother was struck by a fatal aneurysm.
“The day before, she, no more than me, didn’t know it was going to happen,” he recalls. Do this, it gives you an urgency to do things and try things out. ‘Cause you tell yourself, I don’t know [ce que l’avenir me réserve]. Sometimes I meet people who say: “Ah, I am 30 years old, I would like to retire at 55.” Hey, man, ostie, if you can travel and stuff, take advantage of it, because you don’t really know what’s going to happen at 55. »
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, THE PRESS
Guy A. Lepage, interview with our journalist
Guy A. Lepage, who turns 63 in August, will pilot the 19e season of Everybody talks about it (TLMEP), a contract that we had to convince him to accept, but that he intends to leave without hanging on, he promises, “as soon as I no longer have the taste, as soon as the employer no longer has the taste or as soon as the public no longer has the taste”.
He is not unaware of being one of the “two or three most privileged members of the Union des artistes”. “All my life, I’ve done just the projects I wanted, the way I wanted, with almost no hassle. »
We do not change
If he had to leave TLMEP, Guy A. Lepage could devote himself entirely to his duties as president of the Clique du Plateau, this (obviously) fictitious small group with which his critics associate him, who held him responsible for all the ills of the world on Twitter, a social network that he deserted in April. “I just want to clarify one thing, he says, more amused than annoyed. Almost all the decisions that have been made on the Plateau for 20 years, I am against. »
Being called a bobo also amuses him infinitely, because in his head, Guy A. Lepage has never ceased to be this guy from Hochelaga-Maisonneuve whose family moved 19 times when he was a child.
I’m 62, I’ve owned it since I was 24, and I still tiptoe down the steps so as not to disturb the downstairs tenant, whom I don’t have. […] We are where we come from.
Guy A.Lepage
And if he likes to proclaim that he is an upstart, a loaded word to say the least, it is simply because he is. “What is an upstart? “, he asks. “He is someone who came out of one environment to reach the next. That’s just it, an upstart. »
Would Guy A. Lepage like to add something to this interview, which would remain just between him and me? “In my opinion, my three most beautiful projects are my children,” he said in a flight over his role as a father, which almost brought a tear to your journalist. “And that should be it for everyone. »
Three quotes from our interview
About his relationship with Sylvie Léonard
“When we started shooting the new A boy a girl, I said to my girlfriend, Mélanie Campeau, who is a producer: “Sylvie, she’s my girlfriend from 9 to 5. You’ll see, it’s special.” When we watch something, she comes and sits on top of me. We touch each other. We never say to ourselves: “There at such a time, I will put my hand on your hips.” It’s natural. […] She’s the queen on set, I want everyone to be nice to her and take care of her, because when she’s happy, she’s spectacularly good, while when she’s unhappy, she’s just very , very good. »
About the preparation of politicians participating in TLMEP
“Now, when they have touchy subjects, they get briefed by their team. One day, a minister forgot his or her pre-briefing document.Everybody talks about it. I think there were 48 pages and besides, there were plenty of questions in there that were far too technical that we would never have asked. »
About power
“You have to use power, you don’t have to abuse it. It must be of some use. But you don’t use that to settle accounts, you don’t use that to be capricious. Me, when people do that around me, it irritates me deeply, and I’m always the first to tell them to stop it immediately. »