Since he turned in the film Arsenault & Sons, Pierre-Paul Alain multiplies roles on television. This winter, we can see it in particular in With beating heart. It is in a way a return for the actor who was at the bedside of his mother, the one who accompanied him in so many auditions by coach between Quebec and Montreal.
Pierre-Paul Alain will always remember Rafaël Ouellet’s call. When he saw the director’s name on his phone, he left the premises of the vaccine company where he worked to answer and learned that he had landed the role of Anthony’s ‘mad dog’ in the film. Arsenault & Sons. “And who did I not find as a grandfather? Julian Poulin. I started with him and came back with him, says the 34-year-old actor. It was Julien Poulin who really gave me my chance at 16. »
After years of auditions, Pierre-Paul Alain landed in Bob Gratton: my life, my life his first big role on television, in 2007. It lasted three seasons, four less than the soap opera Destinies in which he played from the age of 18 to 25.
Subsequently, the actor notably had roles in Fear of heights and All the truth. But the years that followed were difficult. If he continued to audition, he was above all with his mother who died of a rare neurodegenerative disease. It is not to mention that his father and his sister had cancers. The treatments were conclusive, but his father is now confused by Alzheimer’s. “Being a caregiver to my mother does not deserve bravo. That’s what I had to do. Otherwise, I would have had regrets. »
His mother is the first to have believed in his acting skills when he was 9 years old. “With her, there was no limit, even if we were a modest family. »
His debut at 9 years old
Pierre-Paul Alain was not a “child of TV”, he underlines.
The one who grew up in Notre-Dame-des-Laurentides was one of the youngest children in Quebec to have a black belt in karate, which earned him an appearance on the Radio-Canada show Tonight magazine. “They followed me to competitions and I had an interview live with Bruno Pelletier who is also a black belt,” he says. It was my first television experience. My mother saw me as happy as ever. »
So much so that she and her son had to make 100 trips between Quebec and Montreal for years so that the child could audition and realize his dream of becoming an actor.
Pierre-Paul Alain finally obtained small roles, in particular in Three times nothing, before being chosen by Julien Poulin. He hears as if it were yesterday the latter throw at him in the second round of auditions: “We had to pick you up in Quebec. »
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
Pierre-Paul Alain
Arsenault & Sons
Almost 18 years later, Pierre-Paul Alain was very happy to find Julien Poulin on the set ofArsenault & Sons. At the start of filming, it was even a reassuring presence since his character had to arrive at a family meal and contaminate the atmosphere there.
Who was sitting around the table? Luc Picard, Guillaume Cyr, Karine Vanasse and Micheline Lanctôt. “A little intimidating,” argues Pierre-Paul Alain.
Then Julien Poulin launched on the set: “He comes from the good school, him! »
His protege was delighted with his experience on the set of Rafaël Ouellet. Especially since he had considered giving up the job and was working as a team leader in the GSK company in the production of vaccines. A job he returned to after filmingArsenault & Sons. “Then when the trailer came out, the phone started ringing. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Pierre-Paul Alain on the set ofArsenault & Sons
This is how Pierre-Paul Alain has landed several roles in series since the fall: a physiotherapist in Turn: Double faulta bartender in Before the crash or even a future gay father in guys 3. Roles that take him out of his “frame” bad-ass “, underlines the one that we will also see in Bombs.
In Anna and Arnaudhe played shooter Miguel Jutras-Fernandez, while in With beating heart, he plays Yoan Bilodeau, the man who at the start of the series violently beats his wife. “It was a lot of preparation, because it is a character very far from me. I’m a very calm person,” says Pierre-Paul Alain, who of course anticipated the public’s reaction.
The actor has done a lot of research to understand the experiences of violent men and those who go to prison.
There are vulnerable men like Yoan’s character who don’t understand how they got there.
Pierre-Paul Alain
To prevent domestic violence, you have to understand it, he argues. Which resonates with what Roy Dupuis confided on the set of Everybody talks about it talking about his abusive father.
Pierre-Paul Alain also praises the “presence” of Roy Dupuis and he underlines how rich shooting in a former prison in Sorel under the direction of Jean-Philippe Duval was for an actor.
PHOTO ERIC MYRE, PROVIDED BY AETIOS PRODUCTIONS
Pierre-Paul Alain in With beating heart
Various roles
Pierre-Paul Alain of course wants the current momentum to continue. “I would like to play, I don’t know, me… a businessman, well. »
He also thanks his mother for giving him good hair advice to get more varied roles. “My mother, who was very fond of Rafael Nadal, always told me: let your hair grow. you look a bit like him […] I think it gives me more character. »
His mother is no more, but she still guides him whose quiet strength radiates the room where he finds himself. “I wish she was here to see what’s happening to me, but I feel like she’s never far away. »