What inspires us | In search of freedom with Anne-Marie Cadieux

All summer long, our columnists go to meet personalities who inspire them. To discuss what, in life, motivates us, gives us wings, pushes us to create or act. During a meeting in the gardens of Usine C, Nathalie Collard talks with actress Anne-Marie Cadieux.

Every time I see Anne-Marie Cadieux on stage, in the cinema or on TV, every time I hear her in an interview, the first word that invariably comes to mind is “freedom”.

This woman has always seemed free to me in her way of creating, of expressing herself, of being.

When I tell her about this feeling, she seems delighted.

“It touches me that you tell me this, because, for me, it is a constant quest.”

The actress had arranged to meet me in the garden of Usine C, at the foot of the chimney of the former Raymond factory, in the heart of Centre-Sud, in Montreal. This theatre is a bit like her second home these days. Anne-Marie Cadieux graced the boards there earlier this year in the role of Sylvie, a striking character in the stage adaptation of Vernon Subutexdirected by Angela Konrad. And it was in this same theatre that the day before, still with Konrad, she began working on the text sad tiger by Neige Sinno, which she will read as part of the International Literature Festival next September.

The fact that Usine C was designed by Quebec “starchitects” (Saucier+Perrotte) does not displease Anne-Marie Cadieux, who is interested in everything related to architecture, development and urban planning.

So it is in this haven of greenery, where the song of the birds covers the noise of the city and where the cool shade of the trees makes us forget the crushing heat, that we meet for the first time.

It’s intimidating to tell someone you don’t know that she inspires you, but the conversation with Anne-Marie Cadieux is immediately easy and friendly. It must be said that the theme of freedom inspires us both.

I, who only know the theatre from the point of view of a spectator, believed that the actors were in a relationship of obedience to the directors. Can one be completely free when one exists in the vision of another, whether he is a director or a producer? “The director is an advent of the 20th century^e century, says Anne-Marie Cadieux. I think that the actor has free will, that he can refuse things. It is certain that you do not want to be an obstacle to someone’s vision. There is a kind of submission of the interpreter, it is true, but there is still what you bring, your vision of the thing, and sometimes, you can disagree with the director. It happened to me. Freedom is also choosing the people you work with… and opening yourself up to interesting people [rires]. »

In this profession where we “exist” thanks to the famous desire of the other, whether they are filmmakers or playwrights, Anne-Marie Cadieux believes that saying “no” is also a form of freedom. “The first time I said no, I thought I was going to collapse, that I would no longer have a career,” she remembers. “But you have the choice to say no even when you have no money. You have the choice to say: this is not like me and it is not a good idea for me to do it.”

Let things come

I discovered while talking with Anne-Marie Cadieux that this quest for freedom goes well beyond the choice of a role or a project. It is a quest that is part of the actress’ artistic approach, in the search for an inner state that allows one to welcome a role, to develop it, to embody it. The very down-to-earth girl that I am is fascinated by this work that seems a little esoteric to me.

“When you’re an actor, things don’t necessarily happen on a cerebral level,” Anne-Marie Cadieux explains to me, while at the same time (I swear!) a cat wearing a bow tie crosses the garden!

“It happens elsewhere, at the unconscious level,” she continues.

“I try things out physically, I build something. Basically, it’s very artisanal. You have to be patient. I put everything in place, but I don’t want to decide everything, I want to be surprised. I want something to happen, something to surprise me, as if the character were taking shape without my knowing it. At first, it’s vast, then it narrows, like in a funnel.”

The actress points out that not all actors have the same approach. “You work, but then you rub shoulders with others, and things emerge from this contact, with the other actors and the director. It still fascinates me over time. It’s really a construction. We all create it together, everyone has to arrive at the same time, but we don’t know what will emerge. It’s like a miracle…”

Free as Mitchell

Last year I attended a performance of the show The Riopelle project by Robert Lepage. Anne-Marie Cadieux played the American painter Joan Mitchell, who was the Quebec artist’s partner for over 20 years. I love Mitchell. I’ve seen many exhibitions of her work over the years and I’ve watched several interviews with her. Anne-Marie Cadieux’s acting literally blew me away. She was the only one you could see on the stage at the Jean-Duceppe Theatre. She WAS Joan Mitchell. Looking back, how does she view this experience? “It wasn’t difficult to play her,” says the actress, “because even though she was far away from me, she was very close at the same time. She was free! I liked playing this woman who wasn’t into seduction, who didn’t care about her image, and as a result, it makes her super modern. For a woman, it’s liberating.”

Throughout her career, Anne-Marie Cadieux always enjoyed playing larger-than-life female characters like Sarah Bernhardt or Queen Elizabeth I. Joan Mitchell, who devoted her life to art, is part of this lineage. “She was uncompromising,” notes the actress. “Brilliant, erudite, with a killer temperament and a very incisive sense of humor. She was a modern woman who lived in a modern way. She said: ‘I don’t want to be told what to think, what to see. I’m interested in politics.’”

Anne-Marie Cadieux explains to me that she tries to choose female characters who go beyond the simple function (a mother, a sister, etc.). The actress says she wants to embody women who are sexual, political beings.

” In Vernon Subutex Virginie Despentes, for example, has a point of view on society, women, the street, neoliberalism, she observes. It’s fun to have to defend something like that even if it’s neurotic and violent.”

Beyond the cliché of “the role that transforms the actress”, it is the works she takes on that create something a little mysterious in her, Anne-Marie Cadieux tells me. “Reading the work, meeting people, a way of relating to the world… Each time, it is the whole experience that transforms me.”

And what about fear in all this? Because there is no freedom without a certain vertigo. Once again, Anne-Marie Cadieux surprises me by admitting that fear is part of her daily life as an actress.

“I’m definitely scared,” she says. “It’s still a mystery to go on stage. Going in front of the audience is a very strong feeling, it’s something violent. Every time, I tell myself that I won’t be able to do it. It’s a cliché to say it, but you’re on a tightrope. You don’t know what’s going to happen. Will your emotions, your body, be there? Will I be there? There’s a lot of interference when you go on stage, you have to remove a lot of it to be in the present moment, to be in a kind of trance state while being in reality. So just before going on stage, I talk to myself. I say words to myself, mantras: “openness,” “relaxation,” “pleasure” and… “freedom”…”