Under influences | Marie-Andrée Labbé: from Chambres en ville to STAT

Artists are also the sum of the works that shaped them. Marie-Andrée Labbé, screenwriter of the great TV hit STAT on Radio-Canada (1.5 million viewers daily), talks about those that left their mark on her to our columnist Marc Cassivi, as part of our Under Influences section.

Marc Cassivi: I could start by talking to you about your love for Céline Dion, but I also know that you love TV…

Marie-Andrée Labbé: It was during adolescence that things really clicked for Céline Dion. As a child, I watched a lot of TV. My mother was very admiring. I can’t say that there is Pass-Partout In STATbut somewhere, probably! (Laughs) Pass-Partoutit’s probably my first influence, with Nathalie’s villageof which I was a huge fan. I subscribed to the fanzine and I still have it! I only lived for that. I disguised myself as Mademoiselle Daily bric-a-brac. I was Marie-Thérèse Fortin very early on!

You immersed yourself in a universe…

I was in my parallel world, attracted to a group of characters. That’s what I’ve always loved about TV: the different dynamics between people. It’s sure that it influenced the screenwriter that I am today. What made you crazy about TV as a kid, you can’t detox yourself from it.

You are younger than me, but for my generation, as for yours, which was also not born with the Internet, TV played a big part in childhood and adolescence.

I was going out with friends on Friday evening, I came home to watch The fury and I came out afterwards! I’m not sure I told them… I really felt less alone thanks to TV. It was Véronique Cloutier or Julie Snyder who accompanied me. I don’t think I missed any episodes of the Fist J. I watched this in the morning, before going to school. Without that, I don’t know how I would have gotten through it. I swear to you! I went to bed when I heard the recorder go on – I had a small TV in my room with a video player – and it reassured me to know that the next morning I was going to watch Julie Snyder.

It’s emotion, TV. I’m hypersensitive and I took it very seriously. I like shows that stretch. For me, an hour and a half film is too short! Anatomy of a fallI would have taken 12 episodes! Thelma and LouiseI would have taken five seasons, like Six Feet Underwhich is a perfect series in my opinion.

What you describe, I have the impression that it is also what pleases the public of STAT. It must make you happy to feed that into others?

If little Marie saw that, she would hit something! I owe a lot to those variety shows I watched in my youth. The lengths drive me crazy, like Julie Snyder. I want to entertain like her. The cultivation of varieties nourishes me. It gives a rhythm to what I write.

In fiction, what inspired you at the same time?

Rooms in town ! When I started writing STATI watched episodes of Rooms in town. I was afraid of being influenced by today’s fiction. It brought me back to the kinds of twists and turns it takes to keep an audience in suspense. I had never written a daily and I know that I learn better by seeing. Rather than have it explained to me, I looked Rooms in town. The death of Caroline (Julie Deslauriers) upset me for a long time. It was so unfair! I also looked Watatatow, Caleb’s daughters, Scoop, Never two without you. I was a teenager and it was heavy ! I was watching this with my mother.

I have memories of watching Rooms in town with my former roommate Marie. Has it aged well? Are you looking at this with indulgence today?

I am always forgiving. The irony when I watch TV? It’s no. Never second-rate, it’s not a guilty pleasure. If I like it, I like it. I don’t have to justify myself to anyone who finds this stupid. When I didn’t say that I was coming home to listen The furyit’s not because I was embarrassed, it’s because I wanted to keep it intimate. I didn’t want to explain myself.

It’s certain that TV in the 1990s had a different rhythm! Eight-minute scenes with two characters on a couch, we can’t do that anymore. At the same time, it remains the same exercise. Tell a story, talk to people about themselves, but also show them things they don’t know. There was this in Rooms in town. It develops empathy.

It was also when you were a teenager that Céline came into your life…

I got a kick out of Céline when she hosted ADISQ [en 1998]. It was the host who hooked me before the singer. I already knew her, but when I heard her act, when I felt her vulnerability, when she made me laugh, she got me. And she finished me off by singing If it was enough to love. I watched this gala, in parts, at least 200 times! I bought the albums, I read the bio of Georges-Hébert Germain and I went into a tailspin. For me, it was learning discipline, what it takes to surpass oneself.

You must be the biggest admirer of Celine Dion, the host…

It is more people who have been significant for me than works. I met Tina Fey in 30 Rock and I just wanted to see what she did. I discovered Anne-Marie Cadieux on TV and I went to see all the plays she has performed in since I arrived in Montreal from L’Anse-Saint-Jean, at 17 years old. It’s a work in itself, Anne-Marie Cadieux at the theater! My mother died last year and I went to see Anne-Marie Cadieux alone. It’s something comforting for me, this freedom she has, her way of taking on roles.

Have you ever told Anne-Marie Cadieux how much she means in your life?

No. Never. But Julie Snyder, yes. I need to admire people. It’s a position I like; it is not involving. The only other person I’ve told that I like what she does is Sylvie Moreau. I was really cool on the sitcom Catherine. I recorded all the shows on VHS tapes. Thanks to her, I discovered Post Mortem [de Louis Bélanger] at the cinema.

I met her at a party and thanked her. We chatted and I became his tenant! From 19 to 25 years old, I lived above Sylvie Moreau’s house. And thanks to her, I discovered Marcel Proust, who changed my life. It makes me laugh that it’s thanks to the sitcom Catherine that I discovered In search of lost time ! For me, it’s completely related. A group of characters, whose dynamics and emotions we discover. I come back to it often. For me who loves works that never end, I am spoiled!

You were talking about the death of your mother, who was a big TV fan and who influenced you. Does the fact that she saw you blossom as a screenwriter console you a little for her departure?

Yes. She saw the first season of STAT. In the village, at home, she was talked about it. She didn’t leave the grocery store for another hour! As long as I’m going to do STATit will always be for her. I know that I fell into his tastes when I made STAT. Probably it’s a mix of everything we watched together. She was demanding, but a good audience. She always had relevant comments and she protected me from everything. She would never have made a bad comment about what I do, but she spoke to me less about Without appointment than STATlet’s put it!

When I write plots that may displease, when the story leads me to skin or upset people, I tell myself that my mother will be spared. At least I won’t hurt him about it. With STATit will always be there.

The third season of STAT is presented Monday to Thursday at 7 p.m. on ICI Télé.