Every Tuesday evening on ICI Télé, Lé Aubin plays Lucas Arditti, a teenager officially named Lisa, who falls “pregnant” while he is undergoing a sex change process. Last month, more than 1,100,000 viewers attended her entry into Marie-Labrecque School, an establishment which welcomes girls aged 12 to 20 who wish to continue their pregnancy or who have given birth.
This week, the public will meet his parents, played by Sophie Paradis and Mathieu Baron, and will understand at the same time why Lucas had to leave the family home.
PHOTO MARLÈNE GÉLINEAU-PAYETTE, PROVIDED BY HERE TV
Marie-Ève Beauregard (Laura) and Lé Aubin (Lucas) in All the life
“Lucas is a multidimensional character,” emphasizes Lé Aubin. He is someone who has probably done a lot of soul searching, but who has also accumulated a lot of anger, a lot of frustrations. He is tired of constantly having to justify himself. ”
It’s only a beginning
Originally from Montreal, Lé Aubin moved to Quebec City in 2012 to take interpretation training. Since that time, he has been making many trips back and forth between the two cities. We met him as he was passing through Montreal, the day after a day of filming All the life.
In an interview at Villeray Park, the actor spoke with great generosity – and eloquence – on a host of subjects, including the importance of showing diversity on the small screen.
Aubin applauds the arrival of a character like Lucas in a popular series like All the life, written by Danielle Trottier (Unit 9). But the game is far from won.
“I think we are on the right track. We put the effort. I feel that there is a lot of goodwill, a lot of benevolence, but I also think that it is small steps. You can’t sit down on it and say, “There you go! We have represented diversity on television. ” Everything is not settled. ”
Lé Aubin also believes that in 2021, we must recruit queer actors to defend queer characters, just to stop perpetuating certain clichés.
There are several marginalized communities who insist on saying that they feel poorly represented in the media. I think we have to give them a place so that they can express themselves and give their perspective. It would allow us to take a real path.
Lé Aubin
“Being poorly represented is sometimes violent,” adds the actor. I think of trans people who, for years, every time they saw themselves on the screen, it was either to make them laugh or to make the other vomit who finds out that they are trans. I’m not saying that a cisgender person who plays a trans person is necessarily going to perpetuate these stereotypes, but it is important that we break this pattern and make a real place for them, because they have been marginalized for too long and invisible. Once there is a balance, we can think about it differently. But for now, there is a need to see and hear from these people. ”
The importance of models
Lé Aubin understands the importance of representing diversity on screen, whether cultural, sexual or otherwise. His career bears witness to this. The first time he really felt challenged while watching television, it was in 2016, when he discovered the American series. Shameless, in which trans actor Elliot Fletcher played Trevor, a social worker at the local LGBTQ + center.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SHOWTIME
Elliot Fletcher (Trevor) and Cameron Monaghan (Ian) in Shameless
“This is the first time that I did: ‘Ah yes, ok … There is all that is possible …’ For me, it opened doors, it broke down barriers. ”
“Before, I saw life in a very binary way, continues Aubin. I had been socialized as a woman. In my head, I had not yet started to deconstruct the genre. For me, a transition meant becoming a man in whatever you think of a man. Seeing Elliot Fletcher, a charismatic human, someone who looks like me, that was the trigger. It made me discover lots of other trans and non-binary artists. It made me realize that there was a whole spectrum, that I had the right to be what I wanted, to be where I wanted, and to let things flow. ”
At the theatre
Actor, author, assistant director and teacher, Lé Aubin is also the co-founder, with Gabriel Cloutier-Tremblay, his artistic ally since their graduation from the Conservatory, of a theater company called Kill your fear. He tries to produce and write texts with a form of political significance, in order to use his platform in a good way.
In the spring, he will tread the boards of the Théâtre La Bordée in Quebec City in an updated version of Made in Beautiful (La belle province), directed by Olivier Arteau.
While waiting for the premiere, we can expect his character in All the life continues to fuel conversations, something he takes a positive view.
“Fiction is written so that we get attached to the characters, so that we can experience full of emotions through them,” summarizes Lé Aubin. If a lot of people get attached to Lucas’ character, it can build empathy. And that may just help. Because when you’ve never known trans or non-binary people, when you never hear from them, when you’re not exposed to this reality, it’s easy to say that there is no has none, problems. I can hardly blame people who think like this. But when you know they exist, you can no longer ignore them. ”
HERE TV broadcasts All the life Tuesdays at 8 p.m.