Roger La Rue | Background actor

In nearly 40 years of career, the actor Roger La Rue has made his mark through a hundred characters he has defended in the theater (especially), in cinema and on television. On the eve of the creation of Rita in the desert, at the Quat’Sous, Press wanted to learn more about this very discreet actor… and much loved. Portrait.

Luc Boulanger
Press

Years ago, in a restaurant, following a show, Roger La Rue was eating with Denise Filiatrault, when suddenly a famous actor came to greet them at the table …

“Denise, have you seen Roger play at Duceppe’s?” He’s really good!

– Yeah, he’s good at it, but he doesn’t know how to sell himself, the little one, ”replied tit for tat the director, with her legendary frankness.

Thirty years later, Roger La Rue reminds us of this anecdote by saying that Denise was right: “There is work, talent, but this job is also a matter of confidence, of self-esteem, therefore of to be able to “sell” oneself (I don’t like that word, but I can’t find another one). ”

Roger La Rue is a rough diamond in the flashy world of showbiz in Quebec. While most of his comrades are talkative, extroverted, in interviews, the actor takes long pauses, hesitates, weighs and weighs every word in his head. He seems to be walking in silence, like a character from Beckett, one of his favorite authors by the way.

Crossroad

Roger La Rue is a fundamental player. He has played in classics, side creations, summer theater. Rita in the desert, the new piece by Isabelle Leblanc [qui a travaillé 20 ans avec Wajdi Mouawad et cofondé avec lui le Théâtre Ô Parleur], will be the 98^e theatrical production in the career of La Rue. It will be showing next Tuesday at the Théâtre de Quat’Sous, in co-production with Opsis and the Théâtre national de la Colline. The show will be presented later in Paris, in November 2022.

The actor plays a sports journalist alongside Alexandrine Agostini, who plays a woman who takes part in a car rally in the Gobi desert. “They are resistant characters, in the sense of resilience, but they have internal conflicts, difficulty with the adult world. So they try to change their fate […] Isabelle’s text is mysterious, intriguing. ”

For Roger La Rue, “an actor who does not play is not an actor”. “I would have liked people to think of me more often for leading roles, series… But I have no regrets. I learned a lot while playing on tour with Janine Sutto, twenty years ago. Janine could do Symphorian during the day, then go play in the evening in a Claudel at the TNM. Everything can help us in this business. We accumulate experience every time. ”

It is sometimes said that we must dissociate the man from the artist… Not in the eyes of Roger La Rue. “I always wanted to be a better human being to become a better actor,” he says. It is a constant work on oneself. You can always change your story in life. ”

“He is a formidable performer who is totally at the service of the work and the vision of the director,” adds Michel Poirier, who has directed him a few times in the theater. He’s always up for it. And I’m not telling you how funny he is! ”

Anne-Marie Cadieux abounds: “Roger is a real deadpan, with a delirious humor. The actress believes that things are going very well for her friend who, at 62, is going through a “very good professional period”.

The theater that saves life …

His path has not always been a rose garden. “Roger is a wounded animal who used his wound to refine his art. And become a great performer, ”says Dominic Champagne.

“Roger is a precious, exquisite being,” adds Anne-Marie Cadieux. He is very sensitive. He is able to expose himself while playing, which is not given to everyone. He delivers a part of him through each of his characters. ”

Born in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in 1959, Roger La Rue is the third child in a family of four boys. “I come from a united and happy family,” he says. [Son père est décédé il y a 20 ans ; sa mère vient d’avoir 97 ans !] Still, like everyone else, I have a darker story. As a child, I was very intimidated, ridiculed by the other students. I didn’t have any friends, I was always alone at school. Alas, this old feeling of rejection, the adult carried it with him for a long time. I suffered from it for a long time. ”

The actor tells us that his parents were subscribers to TNM. “When I was 14, they gave me a TNM membership as a gift, which they renewed on each birthday. ”

Play it again, Sam!

We can also see La Rue every week on the small screen in the soap opera 5^e rank. He plays Sam, a gay fan of line dancing, western shirts, dressed as a cowboy. In a relationship with Joe for 30 years (Michel Laperrière), Sam hopes to win the race for mayor of Valmont, despite the prejudices of some citizens.

Times and customs have changed. But in his eyes, a human being is not defined only by his sexual identity. “In addition to his sexuality, a human (like a character) is defined by his character, his qualities, his faults, his profession, his environment, etc. Michael [Laperrière] is straight, and I find him perfect in the role of my boyfriend. ”

Although he approves of his community’s fight for equality, the actor deplores the fact of compartmentalizing the actors in boxes. “Me, what I like the most in this job is first of all the game, the mask that an actor puts on to become another. It’s wonderful when you see Christian Bégin transforming to play a transsexual; or a small, effeminate actor, to make a trucker… This profession also serves to get out of our lives, to change our history. ”

Rita in the desert, text and staging by Isabelle Leblanc, is presented at Quat’Sous in Montreal, from November 16 to December 4.

Visit the Quat’Sous website

5^e rank, one soap opera by Sylvie Lussier and Pierre Poirier, is presented Tuesday at 9 p.m. on ICI Radio-Canada Télé.