Reactions multiplied on Monday following the death of Michel Côté. Everyone praised the great talent that he was, but also praised the personal qualities of the man, who had known how to keep both feet on the ground, despite one of the most prolific careers in Quebec cinema. .
“He was an exceptional being, who brought good humor to a set. He always had a smile. We felt in him the desire to live in the present moment”, testifies the director Érik Canuel, to whom we owe The last tunnelin which Michel Côté co-starred with Jean Lapointe in 2004.
Érik Canuel has an imperishable memory of having been able to direct these two pillars of Quebec cinema who left us a few months apart. The director does not hesitate to speak of Michel Côté as one of the most talented actors of his generation.
“He had a great palette, second comedian Pierre-Luc Brillant, who played one of his sons in the unforgettable CRAZY by Jean-Marc Vallee. “His talent was that even in his most comical roles, he knew how to go beyond caricature and be touching. He managed to give a humanity to his characters. The best example of this is Cruising Bar, where you can feel all the sadness of his characters. Conversely, in his most dramatic roles, as in CRAZY, he also always managed to keep a bonhomie. It’s a rare talent to be able to do that,” he says.
A bonhomie that was not so far from the Michel Côté of everyday life. Pierre-Luc Brillant says that the atmosphere on the set of CRAZY could sometimes be heavy, but he remembers that Michel Côté always had the right word to lighten the atmosphere. ” Jean Marc [Vallée], he was someone who could have a lot of character. But Michel always managed to defuse what could look like the start of a conflict with a joke. […] He worked seriously, but he didn’t take himself seriously, and that was a school for me. It’s someone who could make a joke thirty seconds before shooting a terribly dramatic scene, ”notes Pierre-Luc Brillant, who had also played with Michel Côté in the comedy Life after love.
Respect
Louis-José Houde was also marked by the great humility of Michel Côté, yet one of the most famous and admired actors in Quebec. The comedian could not have hoped for a better playing partner for his first major film role in the comedy by Émile Gaudreault From father to copreleased in 2009.
“He was a proud gentleman, and you could feel it right away when he walked into a room. He commanded respect, but he was also very respectful of everyone in return, regardless of our place in the hierarchy. It wasn’t a big show business ego at all! He was so warm to me. I was very stressed to make this film, but it immediately put me at ease. During the photo session, he felt that I was tense, and he took me on his knees. There are pictures of it. We laughed a lot, ”recalls Louis-José Houde, with a mixture of sadness and a smile in his voice.
The comedian had found his friend for From father to cop 2, which premiered in 2017. This was Michel Côté’s last role. Retired since, he announced last year to withdraw from public life for health reasons. Suffering from bone marrow cancer, he died on Monday. He was to be decorated with the National Order of Quebec in a few weeks, Prime Minister François Legault said on social networks, paying tribute to him in turn.