Laurence Leboeuf resumed her role as a medical resident dedicated entirely to her work in the second season of the English-language series “Transplant”, shot in Montreal.
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The actress plays a Quebecer who works at York Memorial Hospital in Toronto, where she rubs shoulders with Dr. Bashir Hamed (Hamza Haq), a Syrian who has found refuge in Canada.
As in any self-respecting sequel, we work to develop the characters. Magalie “Mags” Leblanc, played by the actress, is no exception to the rule. This desire to deepen the protagonists allows French to resonate in the original version shot in the borough of LaSalle. The arrival of Mags’ sister, played by Mylène Mackay, is no stranger to this presence of the language of Molière.
“It’s really ‘fun’, we speak French together and in English too. We discover the French-speaking side of my character. It was great scenes with Mylène, it was really fun to shoot with her,” said Laurence Leboeuf in an interview with the QMI Agency.
“It is the only member of my family that we discover for the moment. In season 2, we went into that more. Season 1, I think I said two sentences in French with a patient. But there, it’s more in relation to my personal life, so I’m lucky that we exploit this side of my character, “said the actress, who is nominated for the Canadian Screen Awards for the most recent episodes.
Laurence Leboeuf is mobilized from March to October by “Transplant”, the second season of which has been broadcast since January on CTV and since Sunday on NBC, in the United States.
It is doubled in the French version, as is the case for the second version which lands on Noovo this Tuesday, at 8 p.m. In the 13 new episodes, we find other Quebecers, including Ellen David, Juliette Gosselin, Ayisha Issa, Charlotte Legault and Sophie Nélisse. Daniel “Podz” Grou and Chloé Robichaud also directed episodes.
In search of balance
Mags remains in “ultimate quest for balance” between her personal life and work, the latter continuing to take all the place in season 2. She must also deal with a new boss.
For Laurence Leboeuf, the challenge of the first season, that of being in full control with his lines in English and with medical jargon, remained intact due to the long delay, pandemic obliges, between the filming of the first two seasons.
The actors of “Transplant”, however, have the luxury of rehearsing a lot, unlike what is done for Quebec fiction. And “it’s very different to shoot six pages a day instead of 40,” she said. They even have “bootcamp” type weekends to exercise and chat with medical professionals.
Total awe
Would she do this job after discovering the underside? “It takes so much composure, protection to be able to be the best doctor, not to get too emotional too, to be able to have compassion, but to be very rational and to have a distance, because you lose patients. I don’t know if I would be strong enough. […] I admire them so much, it’s wonderful a human being who saves another.
The best of two worlds
The actress is happy to be able to shine internationally without having to leave Montreal.
“It’s the best of both worlds. I’m at home with my family and my friends, I’m shooting with directors that I admire and with whom I was looking forward to working with, with a team from Quebec that I know well, I really have the best of both worlds instead having to go to Toronto to shoot,” she said.
Laurence Leboeuf’s break ends shortly. On March 21, the actors and artisans of “Transplant” will meet to bring the intrigues of the third season to life.