In STATthe patient Mélodie Beaulieu, played by Émilie Lajoie, breathed her last in the arms of her parents, under the gaze, both benevolent and angry, of the oncologist Pascal St-Cyr (Normand D’Amour).
Suffering from a dazzling brain cancer, Mélodie, known as Mélo, has renounced traditional medicine, fucking radiotherapy, and flirted with the quackery of Dr Labrie (François Grisé), specialist in perlimpinpin powders and sweating rituals.
At the same time in Indefensibleactress Émilie Lajoie portrayed Jessica Renaud, a gangster wife who cheated on her husband with the viscous criminal Me Frédéric Legrand (Martin-David Peters), died in nebulous circumstances.
The same actress, in two important roles, which overlap at 7 p.m.
In STATa confused man, played by Xavier Huard, walked through the doors of the emergency room of Saint-Vincent hospital, his chest lacerated and his mind zapped by cocaine.
When he collapsed in the hallway, Emmanuelle St-Cyr (Suzanne Clément) revived him without putting on latex gloves, risking infection, too, with hepatitis C.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Xavier Huard in STAT
At the same time, in Indefensiblethe actor Xavier Huard slipped into the worn clothes of the crank Pascal Giroux, who killed his father with a knife in the face, before pursuing an incestuous relationship with his mother (Marie Michaud).
The same actor, in two different, overlapping roles at 7 p.m.
These duplicates within the two most popular series on the small screen irritate and sow some confusion among viewers. Am I in the right position? Did I miss a piece like poor Mme Panepinto? Hepatitis C patient’s murder trial aborted?
Rest assured, duplication does not please the producers of the two popular daily newspapers of Radio-Canada and TVA either. “We don’t want that, we’re not looking for that,” says the co-producer of STATFabienne Larouche.
Same story with the competitor Indefensible. “At 120 episodes per year, so 240 episodes by compiling the two series, we may be drawing from the same directory of the Union des artistes. The pace is fast, we don’t necessarily have time to check everything, “adds the co-producer ofIndefensibleCharles Lafortune.
Casting director Lucie Robitaille, who distributes the roles of STAT, screams in front of his screen when a duplicate passes before his eyes. “I am the first to be hurt by this, I respect the public too much. We do everything to avoid duplication, we do a colossal job. We check and confirm with the agents, but chance plays tricks on us. Sometimes a small role that was supposed to go away will finally grow in size. It’s going fast and it’s turning very quickly,” notes Lucie Robitaille, who also assembled the cast of Fragments, With a beating heart and Eyes closed.
Responsible for assigning rolesIndefensiblecasting director Mélanie Ranger does not jump for joy either when a Xavier Huard or an Émilie Lajoie appear in two rival soap operas, simultaneously.
It’s a difficult situation. Very often, we discover it, too, by watching the series. But neither can we ask for exclusive contracts from the actors, who already don’t work enough. The pool is not big enough to deprive ourselves of certain actors.
Mélanie Ranger, casting director
For example, when actress Émilie Lajoie landed a supporting role in Indefensiblethe authors did not know what would happen to his Jessica Renaud in the long term.
“And when we accept the roles, we don’t have the dates of the episodes. This is not information that is communicated to us. The duplicates give the false impression that the actors work a lot, which is not necessarily the case. It’s very circumstantial as a profession, ”recalls the agent of actress Émilie Lajoie, Eugénie Gaillard.
STAT and Indefensible provide work for hundreds of actors a year. This high volume of production will inevitably cause further duplication.
On the other hand, there are mixing situations that can easily be circumvented. Take lawyer Léo Macdonald (Sébastien Delorme). When his cop friend Maxime (Mathieu Baron) showed up in Indefensiblewe said to ourselves, OK, it’s a mini-conventum of District 31 with Poupou and Nick Romano, we love flash.
Then, it’s the turn of Peter Miller, in the chic costumes of criminal lawyer Cédric Boileau, to arrive at the Lapointe-Macdonald office, where our good Léo already works and where Maxime often takes coffees. Poupou, Romano and François Labelle, it’s starting to make a lot of old 31 in the same building, right?
Obviously the production ofIndefensible knew that the reconstitution of the Poupou-Romano-Labelle trio would make people talk in Quebec salons. ” In Indefensible, we don’t make Peter Miller play a criminal role. We are completely elsewhere. By the end of the week, viewers will have adopted it, ”says the casting director ofIndefensibleMelanie Ranger.
Warning here. A duplicate is fine. A trio is less digestible, even if it comes from Macdonald (do you catch it?).