Who am I ?
In search of becoming more and more freely who I am; the process of a lifetime, as we must deprogram ourselves from “everything that we have been told to be and that we are not,” my psychologist would say.
Are we free?
We are born with a brain, governed by hormones, which moves a body within a family, which is rooted in a society, a country, a very specific hemisphere. All added to previous events, intergenerational trauma and chance; we are thus caught in a large chain of causes and effects within which we have the freedom to choose, or not, to make a third coffee in the morning – or to try to answer question 1.
What do you remember from your education?
My father always told me: “The Chabots, we are hard workers!” » Coming from a hyperactive 60-year-old heart transplant recipient who still works 70 hours a week, the bar is high. When I want to complain about my fatigue, I think of him and I reassure myself. A little vitamin C, a third coffee, and presto! we left again.
A thinker/philosopher who has been with you for a long time?
Alejandro Jodorowsky. Through directing actors, he realized that certain characters could have an effect on the performer – a healing effect. Alongside his work as a director, he developed psychomagic therapy. The idea is to offer his patients theatrical acts, close to the initiation rite, to heal in real life. I like the idea of creating a ceremonial, a symbolic gesture for walking. Until recently, he read tarot and prescribed psychomagic acts in a Paris café… His book Mu, the master and the magicians continues to inspire me.
The most surprising thing you’ve done for love?
A child.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Catherine Chabot
Your demon?
Performance anxiety. Because of a lack of confidence, I have been my own enemy. I often harmed myself. It took me a long time to internalize the notion of “being enough”. I felt sick before my acting lessons in the first year of the Conservatory, to name just that. Since childhood I have been a magic bag girl. To overcome this demon, Jodorowsky would surely suggest that I cross the city, flaming naked, shouting: “This is who I am!” “. To meditate.
The perfect place (or state of mind)?
The horizon. When you look at it, the future becomes clear. I could spend hours looking at the sea, the river, a river. My favorite part of traveling is finding a waterhole and fixing my eyes on its junction with the sky. Everything becomes clearer, or a little less blurry.
What annoys you in life?
Indignation is my driving force. She pushes me to write, above all. I’m often gnawing on a bone. These days, I’m angry because my neighbor across the street pays $1,075 a month for a three and a half in a semi-basement – cockroaches included – in which she keeps her three grandchildren, five days a day. week. That makes me angry!
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Catherine Chabot on the red carpet of the film adapted from her play Lines of flight
What makes you most proud of your career?
When future performers take a scene from one of my plays for their drama school entrance auditions. Knowing that their dream is based on my words, my dialogues, moves me to the highest degree. In the field of love is often chosen, love is a philosophical subject, therefore tailor-made for young actors in search of the absolute.
A beautiful death, according to you, is…
An accidental death, without suffering. My deepest fear would be having to plan the date and time. In the room Blank slate, in which I played, the characters accompany a friend in death. At each performance, I cried my eyes out… and not only because it was part of the production. The idea of death terrifies me, but above all, it invades me with an acute feeling of nostalgia, of regret. But as one of the characters says: “What hurts the most is the awareness of your life, but when you’re dead, you’re dead. »
Finish the sentence: if God exists…
…if I rely on the news these days, it is impossible for me to believe it.