Xavier Dolan | Ouvre ton jeu avec Marie-Claude Barrette — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:00Hello everyone. Welcome to Ouvre ton
- 0:02jeu in the studio. And if I say in the
- 0:05studio, it’s because the last Ouvre
- 0:08ton jeu on stage will take place on
- 0:11December 7th at the Octave Crémazie
- 0:14hall in Quebec City, and the guest is
- 0:17Mathieu Dufour. Mathieu has already
- 0:20been on Ouvre ton jeu in the studio,
- 0:22and when he saw that we were doing it
- 0:23on stage, he told me, "No, I want to do
- 0:25it on stage too." Actually, there are
- 0:28other guests who want to come back a
- 0:30second time. Obviously, for a second
- 0:31time, it's fun to do it on stage, as we
- 0:33also did with Janette Bertrand. There
- 0:35are tickets left; it's only on December
- 0:387th. But if you want to make sure you
- 0:40get a good seat, you can buy your
- 0:41tickets now at ouvretonjeusurscene.ca.
- 0:45And I can tell you that when we do it
- 0:46this way, well, first of all, I meet
- 0:48all the Marie Club members. We hold a
- 0:50VIP cocktail hour with the members from
- 0:531:00 PM to 2:00 PM. After that, the
- 0:57Ouvre ton jeu on stage is at 3:00 PM,
- 0:58and for roughly the first 20 to 25
- 1:00minutes, I draw people's names. You put
- 1:03your name in a box, and if I draw you,
- 1:05you come up on stage, you choose an
- 1:08Ouvre ton jeu level, and you answer one
- 1:10of the questions, which leads to
- 1:12incredible moments. So, it makes it
- 1:16interactive with you, the audience, and
- 1:19I just love doing it this way.
- 1:22There’s a kind of improvisation to it
- 1:24, but at the same time, it’s based on
- 1:26the story of the person in front of me.
- 1:28And sometimes, there are even standing
- 1:30ovations following the "Ouvre ton jeu"
- 1:32of certain people who agree to come up
- 1:34on stage. And what's more, there’s
- 1:38another box where you can write
- 1:39questions for the guest—in this case,
- 1:41for Mathieu Dufour—and there’s a
- 1:43blue level on stage, and that level
- 1:45consists of the five questions that
- 1:47Mathieu draws. He chooses one, and so
- 1:51it’s the audience and intimacy level.
- 1:56These are different "Ouvre ton jeu"
- 1:58sessions, but it’s nice to have
- 1:59special editions too. So, I hope that
- 2:02those of you in the greater Quebec City
- 2:04area will feel like coming to see us.
- 2:06And besides, it's a very large hall, I
- 2:08really like the Octave Crémazie hall.
- 2:10So, I would love for it to be full. So,
- 2:13come, maybe bring some friends along. I
- 2:16think you’re going to have a lovely
- 2:17afternoon. It's a Sunday at 3:00 p.m.
- 2:20It ends around 5:30 p.m., then we leave
- 2:21, and I don't know, every time people
- 2:23stay for a long time to meet us
- 2:25afterwards, and it's always such
- 2:26beautiful moments. So there you go, I
- 2:29wanted to talk about that. Obviously
- 2:32our partner Karine Joncas, you know
- 2:34Karine has been a partner since the
- 2:36very beginning of the podcast, and what
- 2:38I admire about Karine Joncas is that
- 2:40she's a businesswoman who runs a
- 2:42company with her husband, and it's
- 2:44truly a completely Quebec-based family
- 2:46business. And when I say that, it's
- 2:51them: they are certified "made in
- 2:53Quebec" because from the ideation to
- 2:56the design of the little jar, the box,
- 2:59and the final product, everything is
- 3:02now made in Quebec. And I think we must
- 3:05highlight this effort to keep people
- 3:07working in Quebec and to have products
- 3:10that are entirely from Quebec. So
- 3:13Karine is present in 1,000 points of
- 3:15sale, so she's easy to find. And if you
- 3:18go to her website, well, she offers 15%
- 3:21off, and the promo code is Ouvre ton
- 3:23jeu 15. And Rose des Compagnons too,
- 3:26they have several boutiques across
- 3:28Quebec. You can obviously go there in
- 3:31person, but if you prefer to head to
- 3:34their website to make purchases, well,
- 3:37the promo code is ROSE 15 for 15%off.
- 3:41Opto-Réseau, as a reminder, is 86
- 3:43clinics owned by independent owners
- 3:46across Quebec. So it's always good to
- 3:50go and get an eye exam. And, as I was
- 3:53saying the other day, I find it
- 3:55interesting to mention that they have
- 3:58lenses that can help you if you play
- 4:00pickleball and perhaps your vision is
- 4:02an issue and you don't dare wear your
- 4:05frames; well, they have contact lenses
- 4:07suitable for you. That's what I was
- 4:09told the other day. I'm sharing this in
- 4:11a really personal way because they told
- 4:13me about it the other day. I have so
- 4:15many people in my circle of friends who
- 4:17have taken up pickleball. I think to
- 4:19myself, well, maybe it's an issue for
- 4:21many and I don't know it. So I wanted
- 4:24to spread the good news. We also have
- 4:28Spaa Eastman, which is a partner of
- 4:30Ouvre ton jeu. The Spa I would say is
- 4:35iconic among spas in Quebec. It was one
- 4:37of the first. They have been around. I
- 4:40have the date somewhere, just a moment,
- 4:41because I didn't think it had been that
- 4:43long. They were founded in 1977. So, I
- 4:49can't believe they've been around for
- 4:50that long. I go there on a regular
- 4:53basis because they have great tonic
- 4:55cuisine. So for those who have
- 4:58intolerances or whatever, it's
- 5:00something that is very, very good for
- 5:02your health. You eat very well, by the
- 5:04way. There's a wonderful wine cellar
- 5:06too when you visit that place. But
- 5:08what’s special is that you can stay
- 5:10there. They really have uh incredible
- 5:13cabins in the heart of nature. And so
- 5:17you can stay for a few days, have a
- 5:19wellness retreat. Uh here are my
- 5:22colleagues who are so valuable for
- 5:24every recording. Caroline Dion on
- 5:26coordination, Jérémie Boucher for
- 5:28social media, Elisabeth Lemieux for
- 5:30online posting, Jonathan Fréchette for
- 5:32digital creation, and Maël Le Devin
- 5:35for filming. Today is a big day because
- 5:39, actually, I’ve already done the
- 5:41recording—we didn't have time to do
- 5:43the intro before, but that’s okay
- 5:45because it lets me tell you about it
- 5:47since I finished it earlier. Uh I’m
- 5:52hosting someone I’ve been looking
- 5:54forward to interviewing for over 15
- 5:56years, and in every interview I’ve
- 5:58done, people would ask me, "Who do you
- 6:00dream of interviewing?" And I would
- 6:03systematically answer his name. It’s
- 6:05Xavier Dolan. Uh he’s someone who
- 6:08impressed me early in his career when
- 6:10he—when I saw the film "I Killed My
- 6:13Mother." I wanted to know who wrote
- 6:15that. How could a young man already
- 6:17have those reflections, have such
- 6:19perspective on what he might have lived
- 6:21through? I had the feeling there was
- 6:24something autobiographical in that film
- 6:26, and I always wanted to have him on,
- 6:28but for all sorts of reasons, it didn't
- 6:30work out. And now uh he came today to
- 6:34do "Ouvre ton jeu." It’s a—for me,
- 6:38there are moments like this that are
- 6:40exciting. It’s like making a wish
- 6:43come true, but doing it professionally,
- 6:45and I’m always happy to host everyone
- 6:47who sits in front of me. But him, let's
- 6:51say, he made me wait, and I think it
- 6:54was worth it to wait this long to have
- 6:56him on. Uh I—you will see, right,
- 7:00he’s someone real, authentic, who has
- 7:02great passion. He’s someone who has a
- 7:07bit of rebellion inside him, but he was
- 7:09so generous with "Ouvre ton jeu," he
- 7:12really came to do it. He wanted to be
- 7:15there, and I am thrilled about it. I am
- 7:18so happy to have had him on. So, I
- 7:20can't wait to present this to you. So,
- 7:23let's get right to it and welcome
- 7:25Xavier Dolan. Were you ever a child?
- 7:29Not for long. Uh, not for long. It's
- 7:35it's between the ages of 1 and 4 or 5.
- 7:43And then afterwards, it was a mix of
- 7:48all kinds of eras, all kinds of
- 7:50backgrounds, environments. But I think
- 7:56we left the territory of childhood
- 7:58behind. "Ouvre ton jeu" is presented by
- 8:09Karine Joncas, the reference in
- 8:10skincare, available in nearly 1,000
- 8:13pharmacies in Quebec, and by Le
- 8:15Marieclob, a space dedicated to
- 8:17well-being where you can find over a
- 8:19hundred masterclasses led by experts,
- 8:21available on mariecloude.com. The board
- 8:26games "Ouvre ton jeu" original and the
- 8:28couple edition are available everywhere
- 8:31in Quebec and on Randolph.ca. We're
- 8:35good.
- 8:36Everything is great. We can say you
- 8:38aren't an amputee, it's up to you.
- 8:39Yeah, perfect. Well, I'm not an amputee
- 8:42.
- 8:42Big news.
- 8:43No, but I'd like to start with that. I
- 8:46I like to put a foot under my my butt,
- 8:48the left one, the right one, it doesn't
- 8:50matter. But I don't know, that's just
- 8:53how it is. Even if I put my leg on the
- 8:56floor, it would definitely end up back
- 8:59under my my my my butt.
- 9:01That's a lovely introduction to our
- 9:03meeting. But hi Xavier Dolan. Hi.
- 9:07Uh, I said it right from the start in
- 9:09the opening, though you weren't there
- 9:10for the opening, but I was saying how
- 9:11much I was waiting for you. Like Daniel
- 9:14Bélanger in his song. I was waiting
- 9:16for you, and for years, honestly. So to
- 9:20have you here, I see it as a great
- 9:22privilege, a great privilege also to do
- 9:24this job, to be an interviewer and to
- 9:27have the honor of meeting someone like
- 9:29you. Well, that's extremely flattering
- 9:33and I'm very happy to be here. And, uh,
- 9:36like I told you earlier when we were
- 9:38when we were talking, uh, when I
- 9:39arrived, I like the game, I I play it,
- 9:41I'm not sure if I'm playing it
- 9:43correctly, but I play with a friend who
- 9:45who gave it to me, so, uh, there you go
- 9:47, I'm looking forward to understanding
- 9:50lots of little nuances.
- 9:51Yeah, and you know, for me, rules are
- 9:53always, it's good to know the rules so
- 9:55we can break them.
- 9:56Exactly. I always like to know what the
- 9:58convention is, so if I don't want to
- 10:00follow it, I won't be ignorant. I'll
- 10:01have done it, I'll have done it on
- 10:03purpose.
- 10:03But that's it. So I had, in order to
- 10:04break them better, I broke them before
- 10:06I knew them. So let's invert the the
- 10:08But you didn't see what's written. Tell
- 10:10me, how are you doing? Very well, very,
- 10:13very well. Uh, I don't know if this is
- 10:16coming through. What’s the what’s
- 10:18the what’s the timeframe between now
- 10:20and I have to act as if, uh, I’m 37
- 10:22now, and it’s going to be, like, in
- 10:24two or three weeks, something like that
- 10:26, let’s say three weeks. Look,
- 10:28what’s keeping me busy right now is
- 10:30that I’m I’m shooting a commercial
- 10:32that’s taking up all my time and
- 10:34energy, but it’s very positive. But
- 10:37otherwise, outside of that, because you
- 10:40know, that’s the thing: I can go
- 10:42months, a year, a year and a half
- 10:44without working, and then, suddenly,
- 10:46poof, something comes in, and it’s
- 10:48extremely demanding and energy-draining
- 10:51, whereas before I was, I was just kind
- 10:53of slacking off, just waiting around
- 10:55playing Alto’s Odyssey on my phone in
- 10:58my living room for something to happen.
- 11:01And so, yeah, that’s it, but
- 11:03otherwise, apart from this little gig
- 11:05that’s pretty intense. Uh, things are
- 11:08going great. Uh, the the mental, the
- 11:12physical, all of that.
- 11:15Are you are you often in that state?
- 11:19Uh, it had been a long time since I had
- 11:21been. Yeah.
- 11:23What were you missing?
- 11:27Uh serenity. Serenity. serenity uh the
- 11:39the I’m trying to find the word, a
- 11:44hygiene a mental and physical hygiene.
- 11:47I can’t say that I I wasn’t washing
- 11:49myself. No, but ever since I started
- 11:52taking showers, things are going so
- 11:53much better now. I discovered a whole a
- 11:57world of No, no, but uh a lifestyle and
- 12:00and habits, you know, like sports, like
- 12:03the gym,
- 12:06Reconnecting with people to talk to
- 12:08like my therapist, like my you know,
- 12:11it’s...it makes me...it makes me very
- 12:13happy and it allows me to...to confide
- 12:15in someone and to...to keep a kind of
- 12:17journal, in a way, of where I’m at,
- 12:19what I need, and what I don’t need
- 12:22anymore, too. A lot of things have
- 12:25happened. Did you feel like you needed
- 12:27to let the dust settle to actually see
- 12:29clearly?
- 12:30But it’s because there’s a lot of
- 12:32there’s a lot of there’s a lot of
- 12:34settling. There has been a lot of dust
- 12:35settling, you know. It’s like it’s
- 12:38been a long time now. I feel like I've
- 12:40been fighting against various things
- 12:42for several years, and for several
- 12:43years, I've had to let the dust settle.
- 12:46It's like it keeps coming back all the
- 12:47time. There's always something, but as
- 12:49soon as you move, you stir up a lot of
- 12:50things, basically.
- 12:52Because you are reactive, you provoke
- 12:53—you provoke without meaning to. And
- 12:55I appreciate that about you a lot. You
- 12:59know, there are people we might
- 13:00consider rebels, but they do it
- 13:02intentionally.
- 13:04They act—they aren't actually rebels.
- 13:06It's that they are performing rebellion
- 13:08.
- 13:09Exactly. You, I get the impression that
- 13:11...I don't know if we can say rebel, I
- 13:13find that a bit strong, but still,
- 13:14there's something there. I think we can
- 13:16see you that way, we can say that. You
- 13:18aren't...You recognize yourself in that
- 13:19, but it's embodied, it's who you are
- 13:21deeply, and on your own, you're not
- 13:23like that. It's when you're in contact
- 13:25with others that it causes a reaction.
- 13:28Yeah, but that's just it, there's no
- 13:30intention. I don't—I don't need to
- 13:33get a reaction. I don't need to provoke
- 13:35. I don't think about it. It's not
- 13:37strategic. It's not part of an image or
- 13:40career strategy, you know. I just want
- 13:43to talk about what moves me. I want to
- 13:48defend the causes I care about, expose
- 13:50the problems that enrage me, and then
- 13:53...fix some things, expose others. But
- 14:01it's not for show, you know. It's an
- 14:03instinct, it's a need. So, yes, I am a
- 14:08reactive person, I am a hot-blooded
- 14:11person because everything I do in life,
- 14:14I do it wholeheartedly, lovingly,
- 14:16ardently, and...excessively. So, it's a
- 14:23bit of the...it's a bit the story of my
- 14:29life, learning to tame those instincts,
- 14:33those passions, to pick my moments—
- 14:36you know, to sometimes roar, and other
- 14:40times to keep quiet. It's very
- 14:45difficult. And...when you're a public
- 14:49figure, well...there are an enormous
- 14:53amount of things you don't control. So
- 14:57you are reacting to things you didn't
- 14:59choose and at times you didn't choose.
- 15:04So, let's just say we don't exercise a
- 15:08lot of control. Yes. On, uh, on, on our
- 15:13lives necessarily, and then on, uh, on
- 15:15the, the, the moment of reaction, the
- 15:18reaction time, the, the, you know,
- 15:20people who don't have to deal with,
- 15:22with a public image or with, you know,
- 15:25who have complete privacy, they can do
- 15:27whatever they want, you know, no one
- 15:30will ever know. And uh they don't have
- 15:33to they don't have to account, sorry uh
- 15:35to anyone, they're not accountable.
- 15:37No.
- 15:37But at the same time, uh, what I'm
- 15:39hearing right now is that you've
- 15:41established a routine and you control
- 15:43that routine.
- 15:44Exactly. But that's it, when talking
- 15:48about control, it's about accepting
- 15:50exactly what I control and what
- 15:53and what I don't control.
- 15:54But you have to have some control to
- 15:55start with. So you've sort of regained
- 15:57control over your daily life, in any
- 15:58case. And and over my daily life, and
- 16:01specifically in the acceptance of...
- 16:05sometimes I realize that I've, well not
- 16:08sometimes, I realize that I've long
- 16:10been in a fight against problems and
- 16:13that, in adversity, I wanted to find
- 16:15someone to blame or or I was just
- 16:18pissed off that something wasn't
- 16:20working: "Dammit, why isn't this
- 16:22working? It should." And I realize to
- 16:26what extent...Uh,
- 16:30you spent to what extent Yes. To what
- 16:32extent you spent you spent so much
- 16:33energy on that.
- 16:34Yeah. Yeah. Whereas I could have
- 16:37invested that energy into resolving
- 16:40those problems. And finally, well, and
- 16:42it can be big problems just as much as
- 16:43small problems, you know. On a film set
- 16:45, for example, you always have little
- 16:48things that, that...And at some point,
- 16:50well, we can fret and, and uh, uh, get
- 16:57annoyed and, and be pissed off, but
- 16:58there's nothing more effective,
- 17:00honestly, than finding a solution and
- 17:01not being in reaction mode, being in
- 17:03resolution mode, you know.
- 17:05Are you ready to open up your game? Are
- 17:06you ready to
- 17:08I've been here for an hour and I
- 17:09started that sentence. There we go. So,
- 17:11the green level is, excuse me, general
- 17:15questions. Yellow level, those are more
- 17:17specific questions. Red level, those
- 17:19are personal questions. The question
- 17:21for the Patreon level is the space
- 17:22question. The level is intimate and
- 17:25sexual company. And the Optoro question
- 17:29is the one The one that always is the
- 17:35last question and we always leave on a
- 17:37good note with that one. And do you
- 17:39have your Joker? So if at any point you
- 17:42just
- 17:42yes, you only have one. So you know, if
- 17:44you don't want to answer anymore, you
- 17:45want to move on. As soon as you play it
- 17:47, I'll move on to another call, another
- 17:49question.
- 17:50So you can shuffle them on the table,
- 17:51these cards are actually quite big.
- 17:53You're going to give me five.
- 17:55Uh
- 17:55have you ever
- 17:56five? I'll give you five in total.
- 17:58Yeah. Have you ever had your cards read
- 18:00or
- 18:01Oh yes
- 18:01yeah.
- 18:02Do you go regularly or
- 18:03I don't go? Someone did it for me
- 18:06recently. a massage therapist, it was
- 18:09it was great. And well, it was tarot
- 18:12and uh it was impressive how much there
- 18:15was an alignment, not an alignment of "
- 18:17Oh, I want this to be true" and then it
- 18:20works, no, it was really
- 18:23stunning how much
- 18:25it worked, you know.
- 18:26Okay, you're going to give me that.
- 18:28I've shuffled that. But do you want me
- 18:29to shuffle all the piles
- 18:30later? Yeah. One at a time.
- 18:32Okay. Now I'll give you
- 18:34f
- 18:35green ones.
- 18:36Green five green ones.
- 18:42Wait, wait. Okay. Those two.
- 18:44Yeah, there aren't that many, right?
- 18:48There are only three left.
- 18:49Well, there you go. So, I'm going to
- 18:50read them to you.
- 18:51I'll put this here.
- 18:52You can put them over there, we won't
- 18:53need them anymore.
- 18:54You're going to I'm going to read them
- 18:54to you. You'll choose one that you'll
- 18:56answer and then I'll choose one that
- 18:58you'll have to answer.
- 18:59Okay.
- 19:00We'll answer two questions from this
- 19:01set. How much importance do you place
- 19:02on the opinions of others? What role
- 19:04does friendship play in your life? What
- 19:07is your worst flaw? How do you react to
- 19:10authority? What are you most often
- 19:13criticized for? Hm
- 19:17hm. You're the one who prepared all
- 19:19these lovely questions for me, right?
- 19:21Yes.
- 19:21H you know me well. Maybe even better
- 19:27than I know myself.
- 19:30Uh, I'll choose one.
- 19:32Yeah. Uh well look, I'm going to take
- 19:48I'm actually hesitating between one
- 19:50that is like more antagonizing, more
- 19:52confrontational for me uh or one that
- 19:54is that is that is easier. I don't know
- 19:58what to do.
- 20:00You can use a lifeline. But
- 20:07I'll take what I I I have a morbid
- 20:10curiosity about what is your worst flaw
- 20:13but I wouldn't know which to choose, so
- 20:19I want to take what place friendship
- 20:22has in your life.
- 20:23Perfect.
- 20:28So can you answer what place friendship
- 20:29has in your life? Huge. Uh in in really
- 20:40, friendship takes up a really huge
- 20:43place in my life. I have always had
- 20:50friends who have been be be beacons, in
- 20:59fact, in the night, in the storm, but
- 21:01also landmarks even in times of calm,
- 21:04you know. I have always gravitated
- 21:07toward friendship. Family is very I
- 21:09imagine we always contrast it: if
- 21:11it’s not friendship, then it’s
- 21:13family. We often tend to compare them.
- 21:17Uh, it’s not that I compare them
- 21:19because I have very strong bonds with
- 21:21my family, both families, my father's
- 21:22side, my family and my mother's, my
- 21:24family in general. You see, I’m
- 21:27changing positions here, I have no more
- 21:29circulation in my leg. But turning
- 21:35toward friendship for a need for
- 21:42comfort, for peace, for solace. Uh,
- 21:47it's something I have always done.
- 21:49Seeking the advice, the opinion of
- 21:51friends uh uh on my projects, on my
- 21:57loves, on uh, I've never been someone
- 22:00who keeps things to themselves,
- 22:02obviously.
- 22:04But do you have long-time friends who
- 22:06go back to childhood?
- 22:07I have long-time friends. I have new
- 22:12friends. It’s something I like to
- 22:14cultivate, friendship. I like
- 22:16discovering them, I like maintaining
- 22:18them. I can't say I like getting rid of
- 22:22them, but it’s true that I don’t
- 22:24maintain conflictual or toxic
- 22:26relationships, or else I like to
- 22:28resolve them. I have respect.
- 22:31Friendship has such a huge place in my
- 22:34life that I respect it enough to need
- 22:37to confront my friends as much as I
- 22:40need them to be able to confront me too
- 22:43, and they do. I like uh when
- 22:46friendships grow as well. That’s,
- 22:51it’s precious to me to look back at
- 22:54the past, and to say to myself: "Oh my
- 22:57god, you see, with this person, I was
- 23:01here, then there, then there, and we
- 23:04evolved, we changed positively." Uh and
- 23:10, and I’ve had great eras of
- 23:13friendship in my life. Sometimes, I've
- 23:17been drawn more to one person, and at
- 23:20other times, other eras, other moments,
- 23:24more toward another. But and then there
- 23:29are some in there, yes, that I've had
- 23:31since since childhood. There, it would
- 23:36be more the friendship with my cousins,
- 23:39you know, that I’ve maintained
- 23:41forever. Actually, as if they were my
- 23:44my sisters, my brothers, my cousins. Uh
- 23:47and there is always something friendly
- 23:49about being cousins. It's uh
- 23:52Are you one of the oldest, or the
- 23:54youngest? Because for me, for example,
- 23:57with my cousins, I'm always the
- 23:58youngest, it seems.
- 23:59Well, it depends on the family. OK,
- 24:01that's it, because for me
- 24:02in my father's family, I am the
- 24:03youngest. In my mother's family, I am
- 24:05among the oldest. Here, I am one of the
- 24:07two. We are the two oldest. Yeah.
- 24:09Stéphanie,
- 24:09I feel like I was, you know, sort of
- 24:11coddled when when I was the youngest,
- 24:14you know.
- 24:14But me, I sort of had both.
- 24:17But it's always been very friendly
- 24:19relationships, you know, of confiding
- 24:20in each other who have and what's also
- 24:25good with family is that there is still
- 24:27an understanding of your of your
- 24:28lifestyle. Uh, the fact that sometimes
- 24:32you get invested in something and then
- 24:34you disappear, uh, and where, uh, where
- 24:37in love or in friendship, people might
- 24:39not understand and might blame you for
- 24:41absences or...well, you can always go
- 24:43back home, you know, to the house, to
- 24:45your family's houses, I mean. Yeah,
- 24:48anyway, I don't have that type of
- 24:50relationship in friendships either, of
- 24:51blame or of people with expectations
- 24:54well there are expectations, you know,
- 24:55that I want to fulfill, but there isn't
- 24:57the expectation that there aren't
- 24:59unrealistic expectations in my
- 25:00friendships, there are a lot of people
- 25:02who are in the industry anyway. So
- 25:04there is an understanding of the fact
- 25:06that damn, it's been 2 months since we
- 25:07saw each other but we aren't not
- 25:08friends, you know. And we never see
- 25:11each other, we, you know, to be in the
- 25:13I have been before, plus I know that, I
- 25:15was reproached for it and I tried to
- 25:18work on it and
- 25:19you were demanding of others. Well no,
- 25:21but you know, sometimes I get lonely,
- 25:23and and you know, I've told friends: "
- 25:26We never see each other, you're...
- 25:28you're always at..." But you know, we
- 25:30give what we can, and when we are
- 25:32together, well it's good to spend that
- 25:34time, uh, complaining about what we
- 25:36didn't have or imagining what we could
- 25:39get next time we meet, you know. But
- 25:42hey, we'll see each other again soon.
- 25:43But right now, we are, we're seeing
- 25:45each other, damn it, we're together,
- 25:47we're having lunch, so let's enjoy it.
- 25:50And, and, but, but to conclude then on
- 25:53the, the role friendship plays, uh, a
- 26:01role, if not the whole role, actually.
- 26:06I eat with my friends, I I sleep with
- 26:11my friends, I I I I go on trips with my
- 26:14friends, I work out with my friends, I
- 26:16make films with my friends. I make
- 26:20films and I make friends, you know,
- 26:22everything in my life is done in in in
- 26:25there’s nothing, in any case,
- 26:27that’s done with distance or coldness
- 26:29, or there’s always, ultimately, a
- 26:32friendly dynamic that sets in. Uh I
- 26:35don't have to be friends with someone
- 26:37to work with them or to what I mean is
- 26:39that without saying I'm not selective,
- 26:42I think I make friends easily. I have
- 26:44warmth and friendship to give. And so
- 26:49if I meet someone who has that same
- 26:52propensity to to to give and to to I I
- 26:55we're likely to to fall into friendship
- 26:59, you know.
- 27:01Do you mix your friends together?
- 27:03Absolutely. Absolutely. And sometimes,
- 27:06I find it's also interesting to have
- 27:09friendships in different circles uh to
- 27:14change a bit of you know, there’s a
- 27:17bit of a chameleon-like quality uh
- 27:21in our camaraderie which means that,
- 27:22well, since we admire each other a lot,
- 27:24there's a lot of admiration in
- 27:26friendship, in love too, you know, you
- 27:27have to admire the other to to
- 27:29Yeah.
- 27:31It's essential, you know. To admire
- 27:32doesn't mean uh uh you have to be
- 27:34famous and and make good money, and you
- 27:36, it's not that kind of admiration.
- 27:38It's the admiration of small or big or
- 27:41medium things and it's it's uh we think
- 27:44we only admire a star or a...No, no. I
- 27:47admire...uh, I admire your, on a daily
- 27:50basis, your, uh, your rigor in your
- 27:53routine; you have your coffee, you set
- 27:55your cup just so, you choose beautiful
- 27:58things, you have a real regard for
- 28:01beauty. You speak well, you’re there
- 28:03when, uh, you’re punc—you’re
- 28:05punctual, it’s—it’s more
- 28:07straightforward. I admire—I admire
- 28:10the punctuality of certain people, me,
- 28:11who is not surprised. Uh, admiration is
- 28:15important. And so I think because we
- 28:18admire each other so much, well, we
- 28:20mirror each other a lot. We want to
- 28:22possess the beautiful things the other
- 28:24has, or we even want to laugh like them
- 28:26, or we want to imitate someone's
- 28:28rhythm of speech. And for me, a sign—
- 28:30well, you know, there’s something
- 28:33that can become unhealthy in that. You
- 28:35know, when you’re at an extreme. Uh,
- 28:37but for me, those borrowings are a good
- 28:40sign, you know. We borrow from those we
- 28:42love. Borrowing traits, or money too,
- 28:46but you understand what I mean. So
- 28:50it’s interesting sometimes to create
- 28:52amalgams and to have a blending between
- 28:55these groups. And generally, I notice
- 28:59that the friends I want in my life all
- 29:01get along well with each other, even if
- 29:04they come from different backgrounds.
- 29:07Yeah, even if they are different.
- 29:09Yeah.
- 29:09And at the same time,
- 29:10those differences are compatible.
- 29:11Yeah. But that also shows your open
- 29:14side. It completes all our facets, too.
- 29:18Openness, for sure, but I don't think
- 29:20I’d surround myself with people who
- 29:22aren’t open or who aren't...
- 29:25You know, it’s important to me to
- 29:27talk, to be interested in others;
- 29:28curiosity is asking questions, debating
- 29:30, talking.
- 29:33Sometimes it creates eclectic
- 29:34environments when you mix things up.
- 29:35That’s interesting. Well, but I think
- 29:38it’s essential, actually, because if
- 29:40we just have our nose and head stuck in
- 29:41one single thing, well,
- 29:45we become uniform; it becomes smooth,
- 29:47it becomes flat, it becomes boring.
- 29:51The question, there’s one that tempts
- 29:52me, for sure, but I’m going to go
- 29:53elsewhere because
- 29:54you can go with the flaw if you want.
- 29:56Was it that, or did you want authority?
- 29:58No, authority, but for sure, for sure
- 30:00you react to authority.
- 30:02We can—we can, go ahead, go ahead
- 30:03with whatever you want. Wait, wait,
- 30:06wait. Uh, wait, because I’m going to
- 30:11go—no, I’ll take "what importance
- 30:13do you give to the gaze of others."
- 30:16Because that can evolve over time, too.
- 30:19Yeah, it has to evolve. Uh, it has to
- 30:23evolve. It has evolved. Uh, the big
- 30:30question in all this is, who are these
- 30:31others? Is it how my friends see me? Is
- 30:38it how my family sees me? Is it how the
- 30:42public sees me? Is it how critics,
- 30:45journalists, industry people see me?
- 30:48Whose gaze is it? And is that gaze
- 30:52well-intentioned to begin with? And
- 30:58that is the question I realize I need
- 31:01to ask myself at all times before
- 31:04assigning that importance, giving that
- 31:07importance.
- 31:09You have
- 31:10you have to you have to graduate
- 31:14not graduate, that's not the right word
- 31:16, like a dimmer, you have to
- 31:18that I dose that I distribute
- 31:24because well,
- 31:32if your intensity were always the same,
- 31:34otherwise.
- 31:35Yeah, but also because I need to
- 31:36protect myself in all that, and I
- 31:42didn't, I poorly, I poorly protected
- 31:45myself from that in the past. I gave a
- 31:51lot of time in my life, a lot of energy
- 31:55, a lot of hate, and therefore love,
- 32:01because these are feelings, I find,
- 32:04that have a mutuality, that have a very
- 32:07similar intensity.
- 32:10Mm-hmm.
- 32:11Uh, even though, even though they're
- 32:14very different,
- 32:15we're not dealing with indifference. No
- 32:17,
- 32:17we're dealing with something that
- 32:18triggers a reaction. In both cases, you
- 32:20react.
- 32:20Yeah. And uh I let, I let myself be
- 32:25hurt, be, and it also comes from the
- 32:28fact that, well, what others think
- 32:33matters. Yes, to me, because the others
- 32:36are my interlocutors. I don't, I don't
- 32:40do this all alone, you know. Making
- 32:42films, first of all, I...but then
- 32:44obviously, I do it in a community when
- 32:46we create them, but I mean, I address
- 32:48them to someone. I am, I am addressing
- 32:51these others. Uh, so it's certain that
- 32:56if everyone hates me and everyone says,
- 32:59"He's a jerk and he talks like an
- 33:01and he thinks he's something
- 33:04else," well I go: "Oh yeah, well, okay,
- 33:07it looks like there's a common
- 33:09denominator or that I have things to
- 33:12change or things to..." And after that,
- 33:15well, that's part of the game, I'd say.
- 33:18It's not really the game of getting
- 33:19criticized because we make films. It's
- 33:22more about understanding what we've
- 33:24done and growing, evolving. There is an
- 33:28academic aspect, even, in the idea that
- 33:31it's not just an emotional or artistic
- 33:33side, there's an academic aspect to
- 33:35creation and to cinema.
- 33:37But were you already reactive to the
- 33:39gaze of others when you were young? I
- 33:44don't really remember. I don't think so
- 33:47. I don't think so. I think that when I
- 33:51started to open up and, to present
- 33:53myself, and to expose myself, even
- 33:55unconsciously at first, but to expose
- 33:57myself, to expose my intimacy, but then
- 34:00even, you know, my films, uh, uh, uh,
- 34:05contain autobiographical elements but
- 34:08are largely fictional and for the most
- 34:12part, you know. So, it's just that
- 34:16there is intimacy from me, from others,
- 34:18from my family, from people I've
- 34:21observed my whole life that I come to
- 34:23insert into those plots, because I want
- 34:26people to be able to identify with them
- 34:29and for a human connection to be
- 34:31created with the public.
- 34:35Uh, uh. I lost my train of thought. You
- 34:40asked me if, when I was young, I...Yeah
- 34:41, that's it. I don't remember if other
- 34:43people's opinions mattered, but from
- 34:45the moment I started to tell my own
- 34:46story,
- 34:49well, you know, these films are
- 34:52essentially what I think, what I am,
- 34:55what I have to say, I need the gaze of
- 34:58others. I couldn't be without it at all
- 35:02. I couldn't completely detach myself
- 35:05from it and just not care. Conversely,
- 35:09I've never understood directors who
- 35:11tell me, "Oh, I don't read reviews, I
- 35:13don't read that, I don't need that.""
- 35:16I've never read a review of my..." I'm
- 35:18like: "Oh yeah, you can't know what...
- 35:22what...even just a little bit about
- 35:24what people think." That...there was,
- 35:27there was, there was in that sentence a
- 35:28contempt for criticism that, for me,
- 35:30was displeasing, you know. Because,
- 35:33well, when it's constructive, criticism
- 35:35, when it's not personal or doesn't
- 35:38have a malicious bias, well then it's
- 35:40interesting. For me, at one point, well
- 35:43, for "Heartbeats," there was a critic
- 35:45who wrote: "It's because, you know, we
- 35:47go from one...from one music video to
- 35:49another." So, you know, there isn't
- 35:51much substance between the two. And at
- 35:53some point, it just becomes a series of
- 35:55music videos. It's like, yeah. And yes,
- 35:59it's a musical film, I don't deny that.
- 36:03But I found it interesting, you know,
- 36:05to understand that everything is a
- 36:06matter of balance, and that at some
- 36:08point, if there's too much of a music
- 36:10video sequence, you can't get
- 36:11emotionally invested, you know. You
- 36:13might say "Ah, it's beautiful, oh the
- 36:15slow motion, oh the dress, oh the song,
- 36:16all that.""But a film is a story we are
- 36:19telling." It's not just images.
- 36:20Malicious.
- 36:21Well, it wasn't malicious, it was just
- 36:22factual.
- 36:23That visual aspect, that, that was
- 36:24factual. So that's interesting. You
- 36:26take that, and you learn from it.
- 36:28Well, I learned from that at some point
- 36:30too. Oh, it's slow motion, it's...I was
- 36:33like, yeah, there is a lot of slow
- 36:35motion. We could use less. We'll use
- 36:38less in the next one. Uh, for me, I, I
- 36:41...actually, my big break with the
- 36:46world of criticism happened in my life
- 36:49because I used to like criticism: I
- 36:52liked reading it, I liked learning, I
- 36:54liked understanding what I had done,
- 36:57who I was, who I am, who...who...and
- 37:00I've always had negative ones. It
- 37:04wasn't, oh, a love story. And at some
- 37:06point
- 37:07no, that's it
- 37:08people didn't just decide I started
- 37:09making shitty movies and then people
- 37:11said it's, it's more complex than
- 37:13that.
- 37:14Uh, I felt that at some point it
- 37:16started to become something very
- 37:18personal, and, and from that point on,
- 37:21I stopped reading to protect myself,
- 37:23you know. So we come back to that
- 37:27protection we owe ourselves, because at
- 37:29some point, well, I understood that,
- 37:31yeah, it was no longer useful to me.
- 37:35I'm not saying there weren't any that
- 37:37were still relevant, but I could no
- 37:39longer, I couldn't take the risk of, of
- 37:40, of, of venturing into a read that
- 37:47would end up hurting me, doing me harm,
- 37:50feeding obsessive insecurities that
- 37:53don't make me grow, but just turn me
- 37:55even more inward and create doubts.
- 38:00with which
- 38:01I can't do anything. And what you're
- 38:03saying, it's not with doubts
- 38:04but but what you're saying applies to
- 38:06more but Yes. But but what you're
- 38:09saying applies to to a lot of people,
- 38:11you know, who will will get some some
- 38:13criticism at different moments in their
- 38:15lives on different things and. And it's
- 38:17about weighing the importance, because
- 38:20if you start doubting, changing for one
- 38:22person who criticized you, and you move
- 38:24away from yourself, you know, what's
- 38:27the point?
- 38:27You know, because what others think is
- 38:30when a critique is based on a value
- 38:33judgment or a projection of someone's
- 38:35idea of who they think you are onto you
- 38:38. What do we do with that? You know,
- 38:42for me, too much slow motion. Yes. Too
- 38:45this, too long. Too superficial, too
- 38:50this. That acting is too big. Perfect.
- 38:55But when we get into, "Ah, he must have
- 38:58made this film thinking..." thinking
- 39:00you're not in my head. And and don't
- 39:04try to be and uh uh you're not there.
- 39:10OK. I mean, he he's making a film about
- 39:16what it's like to be a genius and and
- 39:19to die and to feel alone.
- 39:24But but you know, your starting point
- 39:25is is just, from whose perspective?
- 39:28Yeah. To choose, yes the. The
- 39:30perspective, the, whether it's in a...
- 39:33that's it, in a film, if it concerns
- 39:35this film, if it's something I can
- 39:37change. We also come back to control:
- 39:39is this something I can control, or is
- 39:41it something I can't control? If you
- 39:44dislike me and you find this, and you
- 39:47find that, and you [] the person I am,
- 39:49and I get on your nerves, and I can't
- 39:52change that through a film or through a
- 39:54cosmetic or artistic or narrative
- 39:56choice, then it's useless to me.
- 40:01So, you're in a period now where it's
- 40:03like you're learning how to gauge your
- 40:06reactions to what others think. Is it
- 40:09...Did we start? I started a a while
- 40:11ago, it's been a while since I started
- 40:12telling myself, "Okay, I don't want to
- 40:14read reviews for this film," and they
- 40:15say, "But there are good ones." I was
- 40:18like, "Yeah, I I I I don't want to read
- 40:21them, I don't want to, no, I want to
- 40:23focus on my work." After here, we're
- 40:29giving capital importance to criticism
- 40:30anyway, even though there's also the
- 40:32criticism that our friends give us,
- 40:33that our...
- 40:34Well, yes, for me, that's what what
- 40:36others think is too. It's not just the
- 40:38gaze in the public sphere.
- 40:40No. And the look on Reddit from a girl
- 40:41who says, "Anyway, I ran into him on
- 40:43the street and he was really rude."
- 40:45Okay, but you see, that day my
- 40:47great-aunt had just died, so I owe you
- 40:50nothing, sweetie. And it's, it's a drag
- 40:53, but to go and capitalize on that,
- 40:55like, "Oh, I was an extra on a set and
- 40:58I saw that girl and she was really
- 41:00stuck up," and okay, that, that bunch
- 41:03of losers, for God's sake, who spend
- 41:05their time trash-talking people by, by,
- 41:08by, by, by putting in their two cents
- 41:10on what those people think, and what
- 41:13those people feel. That culture, it
- 41:16disgusts me, uh, I want nothing to do
- 41:20with it. And, and, and so if we're
- 41:24talking about, if those others, if the
- 41:25others are those people, there's no
- 41:27point in talking about it. For me, it's
- 41:30, it's toxic, it's pointless.
- 41:33And there's nothing good, nothing
- 41:34effective, nothing constructive,
- 41:36nothing productive that can come from
- 41:38that, giving value just to that, to get
- 41:41through the gaze of others.
- 41:43You know there are people who will hold
- 41:44themselves back their whole lives
- 41:47because of what others might think, you
- 41:48move forward after that, you protect
- 41:50yourself, but I still think about it.
- 41:53But when
- 41:53we can't, it's not a door that's open
- 41:55or closed.
- 41:57I tell you that, it's one thing to say
- 41:58it, another to put it into practice.
- 41:59But when you do, let's say when you're
- 42:02writing, when you're directing, do you
- 42:04think about that? Do you say, "This is
- 42:06going to get me slammed because I'm
- 42:08putting..."
- 42:08No.
- 42:09That, you're free in that moment.
- 42:10But, but I think about the audience.
- 42:12Yes. You think
- 42:13Will it, will it interest the audience?
- 42:15But that
- 42:15And I think about myself. So, I am part
- 42:17of the audience. But that's
- 42:19I watch, I, I, I watch mainstream
- 42:22movies too, and series, and...I lead a
- 42:24normal life, you know. I have a life,
- 42:29especially in terms of what I watch, I
- 42:30mean, it's pretty normal. But I have
- 42:35opinions, and there are things I find,
- 42:36well, things I find fascinating, and
- 42:37sometimes it's...but do you watch TV,
- 42:39then? Do you watch series? Do you? Yeah
- 42:43, yeah, I watch series, I watch TV, I
- 42:46watch American, Quebecois, Swedish
- 42:49series. I watch films, I listen to
- 42:53people, I listen, I'm a consumer of
- 42:56content. But I think about the audience
- 43:05when I create, because I think, well,
- 43:08is the story I'm telling clear? Will
- 43:12they be emotionally hooked on this or
- 43:15that? Do I have what I need to—do I
- 43:18have the necessary keys to
- 43:19understanding? Does the music come in
- 43:21at the right moment? Does that work?
- 43:24I'm always thinking about the
- 43:25audience's perspective, and I'm always
- 43:27thinking about my own perspective on
- 43:29myself when I create, and the
- 43:30perspective of the people I create with
- 43:31. I constantly ask the technicians, the
- 43:35craftspeople, the artists with whom we
- 43:37are telling a story. Does this work for
- 43:40you? Do I, do I have what I need? Is
- 43:42this shot necessary? I'm always asking
- 43:45questions. I'm always turning to my
- 43:46script supervisor and saying, do we
- 43:48have what we need, should we redo it,
- 43:50is the acting right? Then she looks at
- 43:51me over her glasses like this and she
- 43:53goes or, you know, André Turpin who is
- 43:57the director of photography who is
- 44:01looking at his light meter, he looks at
- 44:03me and I ask what I need, because we
- 44:07understand. We are always questioning
- 44:11ourselves. We I don't want to doubt
- 44:18myself because it's useless, but I can
- 44:23doubt my choices—and by doubt, I mean
- 44:25question them—because it's just
- 44:27healthy for me, it's just creative
- 44:28hygiene. That's it.
- 44:30Yes. And you're well surrounded, too,
- 44:31by
- 44:31But for me, if I write something, I
- 44:32think, no, it's perfect. Don't touch
- 44:33anything. It's perfect, don't change a
- 44:36comma. That's it. That's the text.
- 44:38That's it, so don't touch my text. And
- 44:40then, well, in the edit, don't touch
- 44:43that shot. And well, after that, it's
- 44:45easy. I'm the one who writes, directs,
- 44:47and edits. So, even in my own head, I
- 44:49could develop an affection or a certain
- 44:51pride around "this shot is so beautiful
- 44:53." But it's useless in the scene, so we
- 44:56don't include it. Yes, but it's a
- 44:58beautiful shot. It's a log. My god,
- 44:59what's happening right now is
- 45:00completely bipolar. But, uh, this
- 45:02dialogue with myself, you know, as an
- 45:05artist, it's important, but it's also
- 45:07easy, because for me, all that matters
- 45:10is the story, the narrative. We don't
- 45:13care about your lines; if you want to
- 45:15write a script where we keep every line
- 45:18and every stage direction and we do
- 45:20everything and change nothing, write a
- 45:22book. A script is in motion. A script
- 45:28can only become a film. Yeah. And
- 45:31and to become a film,
- 45:33you have to be able to make artistic
- 45:35choices together.
- 45:36But we don't know what you're taking
- 45:37out.
- 45:39When I watch your film, I don't know
- 45:40what you removed.
- 45:42But I removed something that I thought,
- 45:45or still think, ideally, hindered your
- 45:47understanding or wasn't necessary for
- 45:49your understanding, or made you say, "
- 45:51Okay, we get it now," and we don't have
- 45:53to dwell on it, and, oh, you see that
- 45:55line? Ah, that was too much. I feel
- 45:57like I would have understood it with
- 45:58just a look. And, in fact, you'll never
- 46:01know. So it can't cause any harm. But,
- 46:05but, but that, that perspective towards
- 46:07myself, that perspective from the
- 46:09audience, of what they might eventually
- 46:11think. It also brings us back to
- 46:13respecting the audience's intelligence.
- 46:15That perspective matters to me. And I
- 46:16need it to move forward. I need it to,
- 46:19uh, evolve myself. And the perspective,
- 46:27or rather let's say of those others we
- 46:33talked about earlier, whether it's on
- 46:36social media or in more venomous or
- 46:43biased critiques, well, that
- 46:45perspective, you know, is it really a
- 46:47perspective, or is it more like, you
- 46:49know, you feel it's skewed and arms are
- 46:51crossed? We're going nowhere with that,
- 46:54exactly.
- 46:55We're going nowhere with that.
- 46:56So you have to stop wasting energy on
- 46:58that.
- 47:00But there's saying it and there's doing
- 47:04it, like I was telling you.
- 47:05And it's in my nature.
- 47:07Yeah. And it depends on what moment of
- 47:08your life you're in. You know, there
- 47:09are all sorts of things. One morning
- 47:11everything's fine, you read that, you
- 47:12let it go. Yes, but then after that, we
- 47:14aren't perfect and we, we
- 47:17it comes out there and then you're like
- 47:18, "Ah, you just attacked me for
- 47:20something I said, you
- 47:22that's not what I meant." But it was
- 47:24clear. Why do you feel like someone
- 47:26came along and pushed your buttons
- 47:31and, you know, I took the trouble to
- 47:32choose a specific word, and they put in
- 47:34a different word instead, you know.
- 47:37It's it's normal to react to that too.
- 47:40After that, to what extent can it get
- 47:41to you in the long run, and to what
- 47:42extent can it spark a reaction, a
- 47:44concrete reaction where you're going to
- 47:45respond or you're going to...That's the
- 47:47little bit of perspective. But it's
- 47:50also normal to react and to just keep
- 47:51it to yourself instead of writing back.
- 47:53Oh no no no no.
- 47:55Are you ready for the yellow level?
- 47:58So you draw them, you give me four.
- 48:01That's part of the past.
- 48:02OK.
- 48:03You're going to give me—you're going
- 48:05to shuffle. I'll take four. You'll
- 48:06answer a question, and then I'll ask
- 48:08you a question. You pick one.
- 48:17Here.
- 48:18Oh no no, it's you, it's your game. OK,
- 48:20thank you.
- 48:21This right here?
- 48:23Yeah,
- 48:23I'll put one on top of the other and
- 48:24one next to the other.
- 48:26Whatever you like. It's your game. You
- 48:28go with that, then it's going to be
- 48:29anal-retentive, and it's going to be
- 48:30set aside like this here.
- 48:33OK. That part's important. Oh, I really
- 48:35don't like what just happened here. Did
- 48:37you see? It keeps sliding. There's an
- 48:39angle in the table. My carpenter.
- 48:42So, does that bother you?
- 48:43We'll do it like this and put the apple
- 48:44on top.
- 48:47There's a lot going on in your head
- 48:48right now.
- 48:48Yeah. Excuse me. Pardon. The curiosity
- 48:50just kicked in and
- 48:51I love that. OK. So things are going
- 48:54well.
- 48:54It's going. Yeah. You?
- 48:58So if it's crooked. Well, that's
- 49:00perfect. So apply the rules, place the
- 49:01cards, do whatever you want. I just
- 49:03want you to be comfortable. What type
- 49:04of lover are you? What is the biggest
- 49:07challenge you have had to overcome?
- 49:09Were you ever a child? I've been
- 49:11wanting to ask you that question for a
- 49:13long time. What did you not receive
- 49:14from your parents that you missed out
- 49:16on? Perfect.
- 49:23You pick one.
- 49:28Is there one that speaks to you? They
- 49:31all speak to you. But
- 49:38where do you want to go? I don't know.
- 50:08I'll take "what type of lover are you."
- 50:14Uh, I, I It's well phrased because I
- 50:21think I'm a lover, but I don't think
- 50:23I've ever been a partner or an active
- 50:26member of a couple dynamic. I've always
- 50:31had very short relationships, really
- 50:32very short. And What I’ve known of
- 50:41love is dynamics in which, well, I
- 50:46would settle into a relationship and
- 50:50then eventually, well, there was
- 50:56distance, a detachment on my part. And
- 51:04then it would end. And what else I've
- 51:09known is love at first sight, well,
- 51:16dazzling, devastating, or where I fall
- 51:21for someone, in a way that’s
- 51:30obsessive and quite destructive for me,
- 51:34without it being mutual. [Sigh] That
- 51:41tendency, I've had it pointed out to me
- 51:44well. In recent years, I’d say in the
- 51:48last 10 years of my life, people have
- 51:49often taken advantage of it, to my
- 51:53detriment. I think of people, you know,
- 51:57who wanted to get things or who
- 51:59understood I had a soft spot for them
- 52:01and who perhaps saw opportunities or
- 52:08who wanted to [Sigh]
- 52:14be in our light, you know, there are
- 52:15people who sometimes want to be in the
- 52:16light. And I’ve reconciled with that
- 52:20idea because I understand what
- 52:22opportunism is, you know. [Sigh] I
- 52:29understand, or in any case, I
- 52:31understand the ambition to want to
- 52:34succeed, to be afraid of nothing. It's
- 52:38just what I don’t understand. And all
- 52:42my life, I’ve fought against that and
- 52:46to never do that. Uh and if I ever did
- 52:57it and it’s just, I blame myself, I
- 53:04blame myself for not remembering it.
- 53:07That’s even worse. And I blame myself
- 53:09for having thought that way, but
- 53:13against the idea of—I said I’ve
- 53:16fought all my life against the idea of
- 53:19using someone you give nothing to just
- 53:22to obtain something. That, I could
- 53:28never do. I couldn’t sell someone the
- 53:31idea that I love them, that I could
- 53:33love them, to get something in return,
- 53:38to taste their success, to be in their
- 53:41light, to get their favors, to be seen
- 53:44with them. I wouldn’t be capable of
- 53:46doing that. My entire body would rebel
- 53:49against that situation. And
- 53:53it’s done to you. Unfortunately, it
- 53:57is still something quite frequent as a
- 54:03behavior. I observe it around me. I
- 54:08have friends who are victims of it.
- 54:13What’s also complicated with these
- 54:14situations is that there’s always
- 54:16real affection at the base. So it’s
- 54:20not entirely fake or artificial. I’m
- 54:22not an imbecile either, you know.
- 54:24There’s always a part of truth you
- 54:27can base things on, which you can
- 54:29mention to others to confirm that, yes,
- 54:32there is romantic potential. Yes, but
- 54:35fundamentally, you realize that from
- 54:39the start, there was never any
- 54:42intention from the person for it to go
- 54:45further, the intention to give you that
- 54:52that in fact, uh it was opportunism
- 54:59through romantic feelings. And how do
- 55:05you recover from that? It's a betrayal.
- 55:08Do you see it that way?
- 55:10We recover each time, but it wears you
- 55:12out.
- 55:16That’s your passionate side coming
- 55:18out at that moment.
- 55:19Yes. Yeah.
- 55:23And we nurture it in any case. We let
- 55:26that passion live. But it's exhausting
- 55:28because there is an enormous amount of
- 55:32loneliness in that passion. And
- 55:35sometimes, you know, usually the other
- 55:37person manages to give us just enough
- 55:39to keep it going, but
- 55:41the fire stays lit
- 55:42and without ever satisfying, or, and by
- 55:45satisfying, I don't just mean sex or or
- 55:48No,
- 55:49satisfying can mean kissing, holding,
- 55:51and hugging. Yes, it can be, uh,
- 55:53through love, but there’s something
- 55:57incomplete, and we live in a state of
- 56:00waiting.
- 56:01Do you have the feeling that you aren't
- 56:03enough at those times to have the other
- 56:05person completely with you?
- 56:09No, I don't think I tell myself that
- 56:11I’m not enough. I think I understand
- 56:13that it doesn't depend on me. I think
- 56:15it depends on the other person. And
- 56:17but in the waiting, when you’re
- 56:19waiting, do you feel like it's because
- 56:21you aren't offering enough? Do you have
- 56:24to give more?
- 56:25But I think that’s what ends up
- 56:26happening, you know. Uh you know, for
- 56:30me, when that kind of situation happens
- 56:32in my life when I meet someone like
- 56:36that, I often tell myself, "Oh, this is
- 56:38going to cost me." It’s going to cost
- 56:41me in restaurants, it’s going to cost
- 56:43me in "Hey, I'm in Paris for a film
- 56:48promo.""Come, come, come spend the
- 56:52weekend.""Oh, are you sure?""Yes, yes,
- 56:54come, because they’re paying for my
- 56:56hotel and I’ll buy you a ticket with
- 56:57my frequent flyer points," and it gets
- 56:59expensive. These passions are expensive
- 57:02, and they are costly in human terms
- 57:05too.
- 57:05And what do you experience in these
- 57:07passions that makes you repeat them?
- 57:12Just an intensity. I’m not living a
- 57:16mutuality; I’m living an intensity.
- 57:17And what does it do for you to live
- 57:19that intensity? I think it nourishes me
- 57:25because you’re comfortable in that
- 57:27zone of intensity.
- 57:28Well, yes, we’re comfortable. We’re
- 57:30comfortable when we aren't confronted.
- 57:31Disconnected a bit from reality.
- 57:32Exactly. We’re comfortable when we
- 57:34aren't confronted with reality. We’re
- 57:35in a great place.
- 57:37We’re good because everything is
- 57:38possible.
- 57:40You’re making a film.
- 57:41Yes. So so that
- 57:46there’s something like cinema in
- 57:47reality. When that reality is
- 57:50confronted by a disconnect or a
- 57:52disappointment, there’s a sense of
- 57:54vertigo. It’s like an eight-story
- 57:57drop in your gut, in your stomach. You
- 57:59fall right there. But it’s just as
- 58:03intense when you get the right text at
- 58:05the right time, and it continues to
- 58:10that vision of reality that you wish to
- 58:12maintain, that you wish to nurture.
- 58:15Then you take flight and everything is
- 58:18light and and you visualize, you dream,
- 58:26you see yourself. You know, there’s a
- 58:29meme I really like on Instagram. Which
- 58:31is so silly, but so accurate. And
- 58:35it’s just written, you know, like me
- 58:42I have to keep my distances. I have to
- 58:45keep my distance when I fall, when I
- 58:47have a crush and all that. It just says
- 58:51, me: after a date with someone I like.
- 58:57And there’s just a screenshot. It’s
- 58:59just an image where it says "suit for
- 59:01wedding" in a Google search. I’m like
- 59:04, Yeah. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Yes, yes, the
- 59:07wedding, wedding in Tuscany with a
- 59:09beautiful arch.
- 59:13Uh, vineyards, uh, you know, filled
- 59:15with hibiscus or buttercups or...Yes,
- 59:18yes, the bow tie, the Armani suit, with
- 59:21a double neckline, and yes, we
- 59:23visualize these things in a crazy way.
- 59:26When we have a crush, and we beat
- 59:28ourselves up over it, but I think
- 59:29everyone does it. I’m not saying
- 59:32I’ve ever typed...I’m not saying
- 59:34I’ve ever typed "suit for wedding,"
- 59:36but it’s just a symbol. It’s just
- 59:38an analogy that makes me laugh because
- 59:40it captures our excess well. Uh, our
- 59:43excess when we fall—it says it right
- 59:47there—when we fall
- 59:49in love.
- 59:50In love.
- 59:52And so, you’ve fallen in love often.
- 59:56And how does the descent go? Honestly,
- 1:00:01faster and faster, better and better,
- 1:00:06more and more, it’s getting easier
- 1:00:08and easier. It’s, uh
- 1:00:11But is it a pattern you always repeat?
- 1:00:13It’s a pattern that people repeat
- 1:00:15with me, too.
- 1:00:16But you’re receptive at the same time
- 1:00:19.
- 1:00:19Yes, but that’s what’s needed, you
- 1:00:20know. I mean, for me,
- 1:00:24you like that feeling
- 1:00:26of being patient. It’s just that the
- 1:00:28difference between me
- 1:00:31and someone who falls into a pattern
- 1:00:33like this, it's that this pattern, it's
- 1:00:35presented to me
- 1:00:38because you have to offer because you
- 1:00:40have a lot to offer.
- 1:00:41For someone as you say who is an
- 1:00:43opportunist, who wants the spotlight,
- 1:00:44you
- 1:00:46even if I know it, from the moment I
- 1:00:48close myself off completely like an
- 1:00:50oyster and I don't want to let that in
- 1:00:53anymore. But I become suspicious. If I
- 1:00:58become suspicious, well I become lonely
- 1:01:04because it's everywhere around me. And
- 1:01:10it's one thing to spot it but to spot
- 1:01:12it, you have to try it and see and
- 1:01:14that's something that keeps happening
- 1:01:17before I even choose it myself. It's
- 1:01:20there in my life. And now, well, the
- 1:01:22only thing I can do, because I can't
- 1:01:24cut myself off entirely from the world
- 1:01:26and tell myself "maybe this person
- 1:01:28wants something from me, maybe they
- 1:01:30want...", I can't, I can't be on my
- 1:01:31guard like that all the time, because
- 1:01:33then I'm not living.
- 1:01:36because because I I would be turning my
- 1:01:40back on my life, on life.
- 1:01:43Yes. And hope that one day it works out
- 1:01:45too. But is it
- 1:01:47But I never think that I don't think it
- 1:01:49would work out that way if it did work
- 1:01:51out.
- 1:01:52It wouldn't start with that kind of
- 1:01:53situation. I
- 1:01:55But since you are someone passionate,
- 1:01:57is it necessary to always feel passion
- 1:01:59or do you disconnect?
- 1:02:02No. And when I saw what type of lover
- 1:02:04are you, I wanted to answer you. I told
- 1:02:07you I don't know, I think. But I no
- 1:02:11no type of lover. I'm not looking for
- 1:02:14that in my life. I don't wake up in the
- 1:02:16morning saying "Oh, it would be fun to
- 1:02:18You still think about your wedding?" No
- 1:02:20no, it was a it was an image.
- 1:02:24OK. OK. I understand but but you still
- 1:02:26had a lot of details. But
- 1:02:27yes, it was to make you laugh.
- 1:02:28OK. But I was imagining it. I was
- 1:02:30imagining you, I saw you at the altar,
- 1:02:31I didn't see the other person. I didn't
- 1:02:32know who it was
- 1:02:33probably. Yes. Maybe but maybe not with
- 1:02:37a a twist but
- 1:02:42I'm not actively looking for that. Uh I
- 1:02:47don't put myself in situations where I
- 1:02:50can fall into a trap or I after that it
- 1:02:53happens uh it presents itself. What I
- 1:02:57can do differently now that I am
- 1:02:58equipped to do things differently now
- 1:03:00is to set my boundaries. Then, when I
- 1:03:03feel I’ve fallen into a trap,
- 1:03:05confront the other person and say: "
- 1:03:07listen, you made me feel this, this,
- 1:03:11and this." Because, the moment I’ve
- 1:03:15lost something, or won't have it, or
- 1:03:17see that I have indeed fallen into a
- 1:03:19trap, the only way to regain dignity
- 1:03:22and some form of control over the
- 1:03:24situation—because since I can't
- 1:03:26control the other person's feelings,
- 1:03:28the only thing I can control is my
- 1:03:30dignity, and getting answers to
- 1:03:32questions, and being able to share with
- 1:03:35people: "Why did you do that?" Do you
- 1:03:38realize that this pattern is harmful to
- 1:03:41me and that it’s malicious, and there
- 1:03:44is a great sense of relief in that
- 1:03:48in facing it.
- 1:03:49Yes. In facing it
- 1:03:51in facing Yes. Yes. Because
- 1:03:54and then it has always led to
- 1:03:55interesting conversations because
- 1:03:56generally people don't just, uh, leave
- 1:03:58and get defensive. They often say: "Oh,
- 1:04:01uh, OK, well sorry, uh, uh..." And then
- 1:04:04we talk, and they tell me: "But at the
- 1:04:06same time..." And then, well sometimes
- 1:04:08yes, people are full of and it was
- 1:04:11all fake, but sometimes they also say:
- 1:04:13"No, but actually I'm there, I'm with
- 1:04:18you there." You're like: "Oh, OK." So
- 1:04:19in the end, it can work and there’s a
- 1:04:21stretch of road to travel together.
- 1:04:23Eventually, things readjust and they
- 1:04:25become friendships that are even
- 1:04:27stronger. I don't dismiss either, I
- 1:04:33don't cast aside.
- 1:04:34these dynamics from my life entirely,
- 1:04:36I'm not punitive
- 1:04:38Yeah, but I need to face it to be able
- 1:04:40to move on, and I need to say: "that
- 1:04:41hurt me, and don't do that to someone
- 1:04:43else." It's the only power I can regain
- 1:04:46, you know. And it's not that I'm
- 1:04:49looking for power, it's that if I've
- 1:04:51been hurt, I don't need to get revenge,
- 1:04:53but I have the need...
- 1:04:55I have the need to say and to name,
- 1:04:56yeah
- 1:04:57naming naming, it's the same power as
- 1:05:01choosing, you know, choosing others '
- 1:05:02perspectives, choosing one's peers,
- 1:05:04well naming,
- 1:05:05saying and these are things that we we
- 1:05:11that we can that we have a tendency to
- 1:05:14acquire very late in life uh and that
- 1:05:18have entered mine recently, naming uh
- 1:05:24naming uh distinguishing and uh
- 1:05:31choosing these are incredibly simple
- 1:05:35verbs and of such complexity tentacular
- 1:05:42. No, but sometimes it's time, it's
- 1:05:44experience. Yes,
- 1:05:45it doesn't just happen like that.
- 1:05:46That's what life is for, right?
- 1:05:47You have to stop making films for 7
- 1:05:49years
- 1:05:50to learn how to name things.
- 1:05:52But because you have to live when you
- 1:05:53only work.
- 1:05:54Me, in addition, clearly all those
- 1:05:57films lived in me for so long. You know
- 1:06:00, it's no coincidence that JFO was a
- 1:06:04film about show business, about the
- 1:06:06relationship with the industry, about
- 1:06:08after 2009, after 8 years of making
- 1:06:15films and being part of an industry, of
- 1:06:18being part of the festival circuit.
- 1:06:21That’s what I had to say at that
- 1:06:22point. That was it, so afterwards I
- 1:06:24thought I need to experience things. I
- 1:06:27need to live my life, to travel, to
- 1:06:30meet people. I need to, to, to be led
- 1:06:33by the nose, to be thrown out there. I
- 1:06:38need, myself, to, to, to lose something
- 1:06:43, to, to, to have a film project
- 1:06:45collapse, to take care of, to my mental
- 1:06:52health, to, to take care of myself so
- 1:06:58that afterwards I can come back and
- 1:07:01tell.
- 1:07:02Not tell. Here is what I did in the
- 1:07:04last 7 years. But
- 1:07:06Ah, I had ideas born from those moments
- 1:07:08of solitude, from those moments of, you
- 1:07:10know, someone who is happy, and who
- 1:07:12lives, and who has success, and who
- 1:07:14travels. But I can't make a film,
- 1:07:17myself, about "I went to Cannes to the
- 1:07:19hotel and I had a coffee and I did an
- 1:07:21interview there," you know.
- 1:07:24Yeah, but you're an emotion sensor too.
- 1:07:26You're a human observer. That's it.
- 1:07:28Yeah. But there isn't much humanity in
- 1:07:31the industry.
- 1:07:33But that's why you got out of it, then.
- 1:07:34That's it.
- 1:07:35It feels good to go see what's
- 1:07:36elsewhere.
- 1:07:36Yeah. And you know, during my phases of
- 1:07:42doubt and during the media appearances
- 1:07:44there might have been, whether they
- 1:07:46were from me or something I didn't ask
- 1:07:48for, or you know, there's always a
- 1:07:50pendulum. There is I don't know why I
- 1:07:55winked like that, but in any case it's
- 1:07:56interesting. I am, I am observing you.
- 1:07:58Cut that out. There has been one
- 1:08:03constant, and it's the public. People,
- 1:08:08uh, men, women, uh, the young, the
- 1:08:11older ones, the, the, the people. I and
- 1:08:18I didn't venture into the depths of
- 1:08:20Reddit because you know what I think of
- 1:08:22it, but on social networks, on, uh,
- 1:08:24they defended me, uh, saying "Come on,
- 1:08:27he never said that, honestly.""It's the
- 1:08:32isolation, the loneliness, I felt it
- 1:08:34more from certain people in the
- 1:08:36industry and in certain circles,
- 1:08:38certain artistic bodies, certain
- 1:08:42an organ an organ. An organism, in any
- 1:08:46case.
- 1:08:46Yeah, that's for sure.
- 1:08:48An organ,
- 1:08:49a beautiful organism.
- 1:08:52In any case,
- 1:08:53I always felt the the the it soothed me
- 1:08:57a lot, you know. But especially since
- 1:09:00what you've done, you do it for the
- 1:09:01public and the public gives it back to
- 1:09:02you. So from there, that's the end of
- 1:09:04the story. Exactly. Exactly. That's it.
- 1:09:06The rest is, it's part of the story,
- 1:09:08but it's not what you'll remember. For
- 1:09:10me, it's this question that I want to
- 1:09:12ask you, and it's funny, one time I was
- 1:09:14giving a lecture and at the end of the
- 1:09:15lecture they asked me questions, but
- 1:09:17not about my lecture. They asked me,
- 1:09:19several times they asked me, which
- 1:09:20guest would you like to host, who would
- 1:09:22you like to interview? And then at that
- 1:09:25time, they always think I'm going to
- 1:09:27name, I don't know. I've already done
- 1:09:29it.
- 1:09:29I know.
- 1:09:30after you arrive after that
- 1:09:31you could you could
- 1:09:33Well yes I could, but you know, they're
- 1:09:35going to think, big shoes to fill.
- 1:09:37yeah they're going to think Baron, I
- 1:09:39don't know, and me
- 1:09:40not the same legs, we don't have the
- 1:09:41the
- 1:09:42but I always say Xavier computation
- 1:09:44Me, I, always Xavier Dolan, and that,
- 1:09:46that...Ah yes, you've never done Xavier
- 1:09:48? I say no, and then the other time,
- 1:09:49someone said to me:" OK, but what would
- 1:09:51be the question you would want to ask?
- 1:09:53"And I said:" The question I should ask
- 1:09:55is: has he ever been a child? "And then
- 1:09:57, everyone got emotional with the uh
- 1:09:59with the question, but it's what came
- 1:10:01to me. And I'm going to I'm just going
- 1:10:02to put it in context, for example. Why?
- 1:10:04Because I I had put it in context at
- 1:10:06that moment too. Me, when I watched for
- 1:10:09the first time uh" I Killed My Mother "
- 1:10:11and I understood the age you were when
- 1:10:14you you thought of that idea, when you
- 1:10:17wrote that film, I said:" But who is it
- 1:10:20? "that's when you became interesting
- 1:10:22to me. from that moment on, after the
- 1:10:24first viewing, I want to know this guy.
- 1:10:27Who is is he? No, but who is this old
- 1:10:29soul? Where does he arrive from? Where
- 1:10:30does he come from, from what planet? I
- 1:10:32get the feeling that you know, I'm not
- 1:10:33really one for past lives, but I
- 1:10:35thought to myself, it’s like this
- 1:10:36isn't his first life. You see, I
- 1:10:37thought that about you because I told
- 1:10:39myself, there is a strength in the
- 1:10:41content, in the understanding, in the
- 1:10:43angle, and in the perspective that I
- 1:10:45felt all through this film. I knew that
- 1:10:48came from you, but I wondered, how can
- 1:10:50someone be a child and write that so
- 1:10:53young? The question.
- 1:10:58Well, ask me again. So,
- 1:11:00have you ever been a child? Not for
- 1:11:03long. Uhh not for long, that's between
- 1:11:11the age of 1 and 4 or 5 then after uhh
- 1:11:22it was a mix of all sorts of eras, of
- 1:11:23all sorts of backgrounds, of
- 1:11:25environments. But I think we left the
- 1:11:31territory of childhood. By that, I mean
- 1:11:38childhood, what it is, or rather what
- 1:11:40it should be: a protected environment,
- 1:11:44a healthy environment, an environment
- 1:12:00with boundaries. of understanding. HH
- 1:12:09let's say that very young I started,
- 1:12:16you know, doing commercials for
- 1:12:17high-end brands and being part of the
- 1:12:19industry and all that. And that created
- 1:12:23a a break from reality, you know. For
- 1:12:28me, as a child, first of all, I was...I
- 1:12:32, I have ADHD, uh, but it wasn't
- 1:12:39diagnosed at the time, though it was
- 1:12:43noted in many ways on report cards and
- 1:12:47in behavioral reports as a problem, as
- 1:12:52a...but yeah, it wasn't explored or
- 1:12:58cared for or treated. Obviously,
- 1:13:03compared to today, what we knew back
- 1:13:04then was extremely lacking and the
- 1:13:09solutions were very few. Well, there
- 1:13:13was one, Ritalin, and kids were drugged
- 1:13:15up on it and then they'd come back to
- 1:13:17class and were like that, I understand.
- 1:13:21But, from the moment that, that, that
- 1:13:31the commercials started, and where I, I
- 1:13:34discovered that adult world, turbulent,
- 1:13:37fast, always in motion within that
- 1:13:40creative dynamic, uh, the cameras, the
- 1:13:43technicians, uh, all that obviously
- 1:13:46intertwined with the discovery, you
- 1:13:52know, of, of my sexuality, of my
- 1:13:54identity, uh, being tossed around like
- 1:14:03that between, between show business,
- 1:14:05you know, and then having to confront
- 1:14:08that with the reality of primary school
- 1:14:11, you know, I know I was a really
- 1:14:14difficult child, you know, for the
- 1:14:16others. others uh I fought a lot uh I
- 1:14:25took up way too much space. Uh, my
- 1:14:30mother had told me, you know, to never,
- 1:14:32ever, ever, ever, ever talk about my
- 1:14:34commercials, you know. It was sacred. I
- 1:14:38absolutely had to never talk about them
- 1:14:40, to be as humble as possible. But you
- 1:14:43know, telling a child that, it's like
- 1:14:46me saying don't drink, don't smoke, and
- 1:14:50don't do drugs.
- 1:14:54What do you want to do?
- 1:14:56The opposite.
- 1:14:57Exactly. So that's fine. It was
- 1:15:01obviously the idea of not bragging, so
- 1:15:04as not to be hated, so that...Because
- 1:15:06we hate that, people who brag, all that
- 1:15:08. But then I, for a long time, you know
- 1:15:11, I was convinced never to talk about
- 1:15:13it. People talked to me about it all
- 1:15:15the time: parents, you know, students
- 1:15:17would come talk to me about it,
- 1:15:19students would...But you know, all the
- 1:15:20weird dynamics it created, and...
- 1:15:23Did it separate you from others?
- 1:15:27In a way, I think, I think, I think I
- 1:15:28was also just straight-up strange. You
- 1:15:31know, I had a very strange relationship
- 1:15:33with authority. I, I would boss the
- 1:15:36younger ones around. I was verbally and
- 1:15:39physically violent, you know. And
- 1:15:45Were you violent at home as well? Uh,
- 1:15:51well yes, uh, yes. Well yes, I was a
- 1:15:53child, I was an angry child. I was a
- 1:15:55child, uh, I still am. Uh. Yes, yes, I
- 1:16:03was, I was totally—afterward, the
- 1:16:06instincts that manifested in society
- 1:16:08too were strange. A weird type of
- 1:16:13dynamic that I had observed either on
- 1:16:15film sets or I don't know where in my
- 1:16:21life, but that I would replicate like
- 1:16:23that, you know, as a child, and which,
- 1:16:25well, must have been really peculiar
- 1:16:28and was not
- 1:16:29typical, I would say, of a child.
- 1:16:31But where were you happy?
- 1:16:34Where was I happy?
- 1:16:35Yeah. Where did you feel good at that
- 1:16:37time, did you have a place where you
- 1:16:39were at peace? Where you weren't
- 1:16:42confronted by the outside world?
- 1:16:44On set? With people your own age?
- 1:16:50But even on sets, you know, I was, I
- 1:16:54was, I was very restless. And, you know
- 1:16:59, we live in an era today where we are
- 1:17:02in, in a listening mode, at least, we
- 1:17:04try to be. We advocate for it, we name,
- 1:17:08you know, as we said earlier, things;
- 1:17:11we address, uh, needs; we want to have
- 1:17:14non-violent communication. Hell, that
- 1:17:18word didn't even exist when I was a kid
- 1:17:20, you know. Uh, a child who was who was
- 1:17:23jumping around, you know," shut your
- 1:17:25mouth, sit down, and stop talking. "I'm
- 1:17:27going to give you a demerit in your
- 1:17:29agenda. Hey, I'm going to I'm going to
- 1:17:31fail you in this subject. I'm going to,
- 1:17:33you know, all that.
- 1:17:34Are there any consequences? You weren't
- 1:17:36in solution mode. All those behaviors,
- 1:17:40uh, were met with very punitive methods
- 1:17:42, you know, and that just exacerbated
- 1:17:44them, I think. But I remember one
- 1:17:49really striking episode that uh which
- 1:17:56was a turning point, actually, in I
- 1:18:04think it had been a long time since I
- 1:18:05was a child, but that's when I became a
- 1:18:10teenager or an adult, it was, but I was
- 1:18:11extremely young. It was, uh, at 10 or
- 1:18:1411 years old, I had filmed" The
- 1:18:16Suspended Fortress "for Les Productions
- 1:18:19La Fête. Uh, and I had missed some I
- 1:18:23had missed school, and, uh, so I was in
- 1:18:276th grade and there was a teacher,
- 1:18:32secular, it was a religious school but
- 1:18:35she was a secular teacher named Karen
- 1:18:42or Karine, Karen, I think, Ms. Karen.
- 1:18:47And she had set up a class council
- 1:18:51where we would compliment or criticize
- 1:18:58each other, you know, by writing on a
- 1:19:01piece of paper things we liked or
- 1:19:04things we liked less and wanted to
- 1:19:07discuss to eventually resolve. Well,
- 1:19:10and so on. The idea in itself is fine.
- 1:19:15So she would read all of that in front
- 1:19:22of the class on Friday before we left,
- 1:19:23I think it was the Friday before we
- 1:19:25left the boarding school. I was at
- 1:19:28boarding school, on a reflection, there
- 1:19:30. You would leave, like, with a
- 1:19:31reflection for the weekend. So you were
- 1:19:33a boarder starting at age 7, like
- 1:19:35from 7 to 13 or Yeah.
- 1:19:36OK. 14, uh, so, no, from 8 to 14, in
- 1:19:49any case, uh, so, she was taking, she
- 1:19:55was literally picking from a hat things
- 1:19:57that had been submitted by other
- 1:19:59students, written by other students,
- 1:20:01and she says:" So, well, it's
- 1:20:03Stéphanie. "So she named the person
- 1:20:07who had written the note, it wasn't
- 1:20:09anonymous, uh, and says:" Well, so
- 1:20:11Stéphanie today wants to tell us that
- 1:20:13... "That's it, her name is Stéphanie,
- 1:20:16the young student had her note, it was:
- 1:20:18" Well, today I would like to complain
- 1:20:21about Xavier's behavior, uh. "He never
- 1:20:24raises his hand to speak, he never asks
- 1:20:26for permission to go to the computer,
- 1:20:28he’s always showing off, he’s
- 1:20:29always talking about his ads, uh, uh,
- 1:20:31the special treatment, blah, blah, blah
- 1:20:33, everything. That...that was quite a
- 1:20:36dense critique. And I remember my heart
- 1:20:39was beating very, very fast. And uh, so
- 1:20:43the the the idea, the teacher's choice
- 1:20:47uh, following the reading of that note,
- 1:20:51was to hold a vote. Uh.
- 1:20:55By a show of hands.
- 1:20:56Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, who agreed and who
- 1:21:00didn't. And uh, well I was sitting in
- 1:21:04the middle of the class, and so all the
- 1:21:07hands were raised in front of me, and
- 1:21:09then I turned around, and all the hands
- 1:21:11were raised behind me, including those
- 1:21:13of my best friends, you know, and at
- 1:21:20that moment, I remember thinking:" I'm
- 1:21:30all alone. "If I didn't realize all of
- 1:21:34that, I'm I'm all alone. I'm on my own.
- 1:21:43I I I can't depend on anyone to educate
- 1:21:47me, to show me how to live, how to act,
- 1:21:52how to be with others. I'm all alone.
- 1:21:59And I have to pull myself together and
- 1:22:01take charge because if I don't look out
- 1:22:03for myself, no one will do it for me.
- 1:22:12And it didn't happen right then and
- 1:22:15there because I was 11 years old. But
- 1:22:23that was the reflection. Is that when
- 1:22:28you started writing?
- 1:22:33No, I was already writing.
- 1:22:35Oh, yeah?
- 1:22:35Yeah. I was writing movie synopses, I
- 1:22:38was writing poems, I was writing shows
- 1:22:41about people with superpowers and a bit
- 1:22:44inspired by, no, I was already writing.
- 1:22:47So you had that living inside you in
- 1:22:50your in your solitude? You had a world,
- 1:22:54you had your own world. I never spent
- 1:22:55time telling myself," Oh my god, I’m
- 1:22:57so different from the others, I’m so
- 1:22:59different. "" You know, me
- 1:23:00it’s like they tell you that, for
- 1:23:02example,
- 1:23:02they tell me, but I didn't hear that. I
- 1:23:05wanted to play with the other kids.
- 1:23:07I wanted to play role-playing games. I
- 1:23:08wanted to pretend to be Neo in The
- 1:23:10Matrix. I wanted to pretend to be Harry
- 1:23:12Potter. I, I wanted to be good at
- 1:23:15sports and I wasn't. Uh, I wanted
- 1:23:19Félix to teach me how to play football
- 1:23:21in 5th grade and he did. I wanted uh uh
- 1:23:25to, you know, I wanted to play
- 1:23:27hide-and-seek in the lockers with
- 1:23:30Guérine. Uh, I wanted to be normal,
- 1:23:33you know.
- 1:23:35But from
- 1:23:36I wasn't happy. I wasn't happy being,
- 1:23:38being, being, you know, I
- 1:23:41If you hadn't done commercials, if you
- 1:23:42hadn't done that, would it have changed
- 1:23:43anything? Sure, but because it sort of
- 1:23:47created a bias, too. It set you apart
- 1:23:52from your
- 1:23:53a bias for others
- 1:23:54for others, not for you, but in the
- 1:23:55sense that
- 1:23:56something I can't control. They put you
- 1:23:59, they put you in a separate category.
- 1:24:01Hm
- 1:24:01hm.
- 1:24:01Because being on TV is also impressive.
- 1:24:04Sure, but you know, who is a child and
- 1:24:07not someone mature who is going to
- 1:24:09behave, uh, in the face of that, in a
- 1:24:11way that is necessarily, uh, in good
- 1:24:13taste? Or you know, uh, when we give
- 1:24:15someone power or or or make them feel
- 1:24:17like they intimidate us, well, they can
- 1:24:20very well use it the wrong way. You
- 1:24:22know, a a child
- 1:24:25and at
- 1:24:26it's mean
- 1:24:2711 years after that episode of the
- 1:24:28raised hand in your class, what has
- 1:24:30changed? I never forgot that moment,
- 1:24:35but after that, if you want, I went
- 1:24:40back to high school and uh private
- 1:24:45school in Longueuil, and after a month,
- 1:24:46well there was a gap, you know, in my
- 1:24:48grades. And once again, well I I was
- 1:24:51disturbing my classmates in class, and
- 1:24:52I could I was talking and it's and it's
- 1:24:54okay, anyway, you know. And so I was
- 1:24:57expelled, I went back to the boarding
- 1:24:59school uh in the Eastern Townships. Uh
- 1:25:03and then uh and then there, well I was
- 1:25:10confronted and I hadn't experienced
- 1:25:13that at all in elementary school. I was
- 1:25:18confronted with very, very great verbal
- 1:25:21and physical violence from the local
- 1:25:25youths toward one another. And it
- 1:25:30became the law of the jungle, it became
- 1:25:35you had to survive. So to survive, you
- 1:25:38had to say someone else was a loser.
- 1:25:43And every week, not day, but maybe
- 1:25:52every other day, every third day, I
- 1:25:54think of the the young people who were
- 1:25:59victims of these of these uh bullying
- 1:26:07there. And uh we were all there, we
- 1:26:10were all getting uh bullied. But I I I
- 1:26:18wouldn't say that I was bullied there,
- 1:26:22you know. I liked it, I sided, you know
- 1:26:30, with the side actually, I think that
- 1:26:35this sort of overachieving aspect in my
- 1:26:38head uh that came from from that
- 1:26:44hyperactivity made me do even more than
- 1:26:46the client asked for. And After that, I
- 1:26:53wanted to leave that school because I I
- 1:26:55absolutely wanted to come home because
- 1:26:57I didn't recognize myself anymore in
- 1:26:59that in that nastiness. Uh, and also,
- 1:27:05well, I knew I was gay, and I was
- 1:27:07suffering, and I I wanted to, I was
- 1:27:11externalizing that on on others, and
- 1:27:16afterward I came back home, and then,
- 1:27:21in ninth grade, well I went to live
- 1:27:24with my uncle and aunt, with my cousins
- 1:27:27, and from there on, I had a family
- 1:27:38residential dynamic that was normal.
- 1:27:48There were rules, there was homework to
- 1:27:51do, set times to do things. There were
- 1:27:54moments of laughter, of closeness,
- 1:27:56meals together, morning routines with
- 1:27:58the TV playing and the news, "Salut
- 1:28:00Bonjour," and breakfast, and toast, and
- 1:28:03the toaster, and there from there on
- 1:28:10there from there on, it was okay. I
- 1:28:14came out in ninth grade. I confronted
- 1:28:20guys who were homophobic and weren't
- 1:28:22nice to me. And by doing it using
- 1:28:24non-violent communication,
- 1:28:26uh, in the end I had many, most of them
- 1:28:29were like, "It's true, sorry." It was
- 1:28:32like a kind of bad ad against bullying,
- 1:28:34but one that ends well, just like that.
- 1:28:37But it was like that, just by talking,
- 1:28:38and saying, "I don't understand, we
- 1:28:40were friends, and then all of a sudden,
- 1:28:41you know..." And it was like, "Okay,
- 1:28:43yeah, okay." But in the end, the week
- 1:28:45after, you know, we were friends. And
- 1:28:47in tenth grade, well, I I I had friends
- 1:28:51. And it always remained an environment
- 1:28:57where there's dark humor, and where we
- 1:28:58make fun of each other a bit, but it
- 1:29:00wasn't in that violent way anymore. And
- 1:29:02in that, there was a sense, uh, let's
- 1:29:08say, of humanity that had been
- 1:29:09rediscovered. Uh I also think that, you
- 1:29:15know, we spend a lot of time hating
- 1:29:17ourselves, feeling bad and hiding. Uh,
- 1:29:23and when we hold things in, when we
- 1:29:26have a secret, well, we we project a
- 1:29:29lot of ugliness and animosity onto
- 1:29:31others. And when we get free of it,
- 1:29:36well, when we free ourselves from that,
- 1:29:42we suddenly have more room for our
- 1:29:45humanity, you know, and for others. And
- 1:29:52I would say that's what happened to me
- 1:29:55in ninth grade. And you see, between
- 1:29:59Madame Karen's class council and all
- 1:30:02the raised hands telling me that it
- 1:30:07wasn't working, you know, my thing that
- 1:30:09I wasn't that I wasn't okay, that I
- 1:30:12wasn't a good person, that I wasn't
- 1:30:14loved. Up until then, it was still a a
- 1:30:21downward spiral. And were you ever a
- 1:30:23child? Yes. Did those spirals and those
- 1:30:27boarding schools and those
- 1:30:28back-and-forths in the industry and
- 1:30:31having been abandoned like that by the
- 1:30:33community, you know? That’s how I
- 1:30:36experienced it, like a heartbreak, you
- 1:30:37know. No one wanted a kid who was in a
- 1:30:40boarding school, in Saint-Don, and who
- 1:30:42costs us a driver, and a bus, and who
- 1:30:44isn't available, and who's...it hurts
- 1:30:46to lose, to lose the work like that,
- 1:30:47you know, which was the only place
- 1:30:49where I felt I could shine, even if
- 1:30:53they blamed me for it, even if André
- 1:30:55Melançon told me every day of filming,
- 1:30:58every day of filming, after the
- 1:30:59commercials, I’d ask
- 1:31:01I would go see him to ask if my
- 1:31:02behavior was better, and he would
- 1:31:03always answer me the same thing.
- 1:31:08There's room for improvement. so
- 1:31:15but in that environment, when you had
- 1:31:17your scenes, you were fully yourself.
- 1:31:19You also had all the light, you had
- 1:31:22your place.
- 1:31:24Yeah, I had my place.
- 1:31:26Did you have
- 1:31:26I don't know if I wanted all the
- 1:31:28attention and all the light, clearly.
- 1:31:29But, but you had, but I think it was
- 1:31:31mostly that I had my place. Yeah,
- 1:31:32that’s well, that’s well put.
- 1:31:34Elsewhere, it was hard to define that
- 1:31:36place.
- 1:31:36It was, that's it,
- 1:31:37in motion. The impression you had—
- 1:31:40I’ve been listening to you for a
- 1:31:41while now, I feel there was a lot of
- 1:31:42movement in that period, and you’ve
- 1:31:44never spoken to me about your father
- 1:31:45and mother. Where are they? Uh, they
- 1:31:53are there, uh, they are at, at—you
- 1:32:00mean during, uh,
- 1:32:02in your life, what place do they take?
- 1:32:04Today or back then? Back then.
- 1:32:20Difficult, uh, it's often then that
- 1:32:28this card comes up.
- 1:32:30But you know,
- 1:32:31but you don't have to answer that. you
- 1:32:32gave me.
- 1:32:33No, I won't answer, but I will tell you
- 1:32:35: "hh, in the work I've been trying to
- 1:32:43do over the last few years, in the idea
- 1:32:45of naming and choosing one's battles,
- 1:32:48of choosing what we can, of identifying
- 1:32:50what we can control and what we can't
- 1:32:52control, uh, there is one thing that
- 1:32:54has been constant in my life and that I
- 1:32:56have always tried to cultivate and that
- 1:32:58has been really useful for learning to
- 1:33:00forgive myself.» me towards myself
- 1:33:04also my wrongs or asking others for
- 1:33:06forgiveness or to and or and which has
- 1:33:09always been at the heart of my writing.
- 1:33:16Then it's uh uh uh empathy uh without
- 1:33:27empathy, we we we are lost, you know.
- 1:33:31We are we are no one uh to write
- 1:33:35characters, to write stories. You can't
- 1:33:38just have empathy for one character and
- 1:33:41then not for another. You have to
- 1:33:43defend everyone. You have to be ready
- 1:33:45to go to the front lines for each of
- 1:33:48the characters. Uh then you have to
- 1:33:54learn to do it for people in life too
- 1:33:57because we don't live in a movie, we
- 1:34:00live life where each of our words has
- 1:34:03an impact, each of our actions has a
- 1:34:08posterity. And and I have many flaws, I
- 1:34:18have many shortcomings, but I have
- 1:34:25empathy, and that empathy there makes
- 1:34:33me decide not to be accountable or not,
- 1:34:45not to elaborate on what parenthood is,
- 1:34:48or on what my relationship is to, to my
- 1:34:53parents back then, because I think that
- 1:34:56in any case the Joker is eloquent, but
- 1:34:59because.
- 1:35:02I will do that when the time is chosen
- 1:35:06one day uh if I haven't already done it
- 1:35:12in public in a film and in certain
- 1:35:17others after if you will in a certain
- 1:35:19way. So I think that's sufficient.
- 1:35:24Very well answered. Is it your story?
- 1:35:27Uh
- 1:35:27is it your story? Does it belong to you
- 1:35:29? Well it's my story but it's my
- 1:35:31parents' story too you know.
- 1:35:33Yes yes yes.
- 1:35:34Lately there's someone who you know we
- 1:35:36were talking about trauma. For a long
- 1:35:40time, I thought, you know, that a
- 1:35:42trauma was something in emergency
- 1:35:44medicine, like in er, in any case in an
- 1:35:46emergency, in in, but you know, because
- 1:35:48once again, you know, it's very recent
- 1:35:51in our vocabulary to talk about it, to
- 1:35:53trivialize it, to democratize it. You
- 1:35:55know, a trauma, it's not just you fall
- 1:35:57from the 8th floor, a physical trauma
- 1:35:59there, you know. No, I was traumatized
- 1:36:01by such and such a thing. And, it's
- 1:36:03very serious when we say" trauma ". And
- 1:36:05but, there is" traumatism ", and there
- 1:36:08is" trauma ", and...and there are many
- 1:36:14things, you know, that...that because I
- 1:36:18could name them, and because I could
- 1:36:19understand them, because I thought I
- 1:36:21had empathy, and I would say:" No, but
- 1:36:22at the same time there’s this, and
- 1:36:24there’s that, and it was hard, and
- 1:36:25such and such a person went through
- 1:36:26such and such a difficulty... "And but,
- 1:36:31just because we understand a trauma we
- 1:36:35experienced by, by justifying it with
- 1:36:37another person's traumas or another
- 1:36:39person's own difficulties, doesn't mean
- 1:36:41we solve it for ourselves. You know,
- 1:36:44there's naming and there's healing.
- 1:36:49They are two different things. To heal,
- 1:36:51you have to name it step by step. Yes.
- 1:36:54And healing from trauma, sometimes uh
- 1:36:56we heal, but it remains and when we
- 1:36:58scratch it comes back too. And there
- 1:37:02are traumas that
- 1:37:05that come in in adult life to tickle
- 1:37:11those from childhood. So
- 1:37:13Yeah, but childhood is our it's still
- 1:37:16the pillar of who we are. It's an
- 1:37:19important pillar of who we will always
- 1:37:22be.
- 1:37:24So I don't know if I was ever a child,
- 1:37:32but I know that if I hadn't had the
- 1:37:34childhood and adolescence I had, I
- 1:37:40would probably not have made films or
- 1:37:46not made those films.
- 1:37:47Hm hm hm. in that way. Hm
- 1:37:49hm.
- 1:37:51I might not have, even if some of these
- 1:37:53traits are inherent or I had them at
- 1:37:55birth, I might not have had that
- 1:37:57audacity. I might not have. That's why
- 1:38:01I've never held any regret or
- 1:38:04bitterness toward the childhood I had.
- 1:38:09But I think I spent a lot of time
- 1:38:17exploiting that childhood, and the
- 1:38:23traumas that marked it, just like the
- 1:38:26events or the the...but the divorces,
- 1:38:31the moving, the the the boarding
- 1:38:36schools, the this, the that, the
- 1:38:37filming, the heartbreaks, the
- 1:38:39rejections, the coming out. I spent a
- 1:38:42lot of time drawing from those things
- 1:38:47their juice and their essence and their
- 1:38:49sap to be able to make films out of
- 1:38:51them and not to be able to understand,
- 1:38:54you know, how these traumas damaged me.
- 1:38:57damaged so that's what I've been doing
- 1:39:03in recent years. Red level
- 1:39:07damn
- 1:39:10you we’re answering just one red
- 1:39:11level question and you’re giving me
- 1:39:13three.
- 1:39:17Thanks. Do you have any regrets? What
- 1:39:22is your biggest source of insecurity?
- 1:39:26Which loss was the hardest to go
- 1:39:27through? Would you like to go see the
- 1:39:57other one? They're fine.
- 1:40:00But would you like to see the other one
- 1:40:01if you have doubts? Well, that's it.
- 1:40:02You can Oh yes, we’ll we can change
- 1:40:04the rules. What is your relationship
- 1:40:08with death? Let's leave it there.
- 1:40:11Bye. Great. Uh, you know what? Actually
- 1:40:19, I'll take that one.
- 1:40:20Perfect. And I don't know which one to
- 1:40:22remove, but I'll let you you can choose
- 1:40:25between those three.
- 1:40:26No, we're not picking any more. We only
- 1:40:27answer one question in the red level.
- 1:40:29That's good. That's cool. I'm prepared.
- 1:40:31I'm well prepared. I've done my
- 1:40:32homework. I'll take" what is your
- 1:40:34relationship with death. "Yeah, go
- 1:40:35ahead.
- 1:40:37Uh, I've always had the impression,
- 1:40:44since the beginning of, of, let's say,
- 1:40:45of, that I've been making films, since
- 1:40:47the start of my career, that, that I'm
- 1:40:51going to run out of time, you know,
- 1:40:53that, that I won't have enough time to
- 1:40:55say everything I have to say, to do
- 1:40:57everything I want to do, to, to talk
- 1:40:58about, about who and what I want to
- 1:41:00talk about. I always feel like it's a
- 1:41:04race against time, a race against death
- 1:41:07. And, uh, besides, it's also fueled,
- 1:41:12you know, uh, by, uh, the world we live
- 1:41:16in, which is also in a race, uh,
- 1:41:19against the planet, against wars,
- 1:41:22against, uh, against the rise of the
- 1:41:29far right, against the, the social rift
- 1:41:32, the social breach, this division that
- 1:41:35just keeps, that, that, that keeps
- 1:41:37growing, and is fueled by the haters,
- 1:41:40the, the, the platform vultures who,
- 1:41:43who want to feed that beast of, of
- 1:41:46hatred and who profit, obviously, uh,
- 1:41:52financially and, and in all sorts of
- 1:41:54ways from that hatred and that gulf,
- 1:41:56you know. So we, we are in a two-speed
- 1:42:01race, you know, mine against my death
- 1:42:05and, and mine against the death of, of
- 1:42:08society. And, uh, and I know that this
- 1:42:12sentence will be met with skepticism
- 1:42:15from, from people who," Ah, it's fine.
- 1:42:19"" If it's hotter in summer, yeah, well
- 1:42:22when it's hot, "you know, I, I
- 1:42:23certainly have a much more fatalistic
- 1:42:25approach regarding, regarding ecology
- 1:42:27and our consumption.
- 1:42:29But are you afraid of your own death?
- 1:42:37I don't know anymore. I used to think
- 1:42:38about it a lot at one point, and, uh,
- 1:42:43I'm more in a I'm in a, I'm in a
- 1:42:49mindset that is, is positive right now.
- 1:42:53I'm in an angle, if you will, of
- 1:42:54appreciation, of gratitude, not in a,
- 1:42:56that might be an anglicism. Here, I'm
- 1:42:58talking about negative bias. I I don't
- 1:43:01want to focus on what I don't have. I
- 1:43:03want to focus on what I have, and what
- 1:43:05I can create as well. I've always been
- 1:43:07a creator, well, I want to create
- 1:43:09things, opportunities for myself, for
- 1:43:11my friends. Uh so I don't think about
- 1:43:16death. I think I'm more afraid of the
- 1:43:20illness that leads to death.
- 1:43:23As for romance and company,
- 1:43:25these are like sex questions, right?
- 1:43:26They are
- 1:43:27Well, you'll see, you choose four, you
- 1:43:29can label them yourself. There are four
- 1:43:31, just give me three. Three.
- 1:43:33Sometimes I add more, it depends. So,
- 1:43:35there you go. Do you prefer to seduce
- 1:43:38or be seduced? It's still sweet
- 1:43:40to seduce.
- 1:43:41What memory do you have of your first
- 1:43:43time? What would you have liked to know
- 1:43:45about sexuality at 20?
- 1:43:49At 20, well, I would have liked, I
- 1:43:51would have liked for people to talk to
- 1:43:54me about consent, about intimacy, about
- 1:44:00psychology. It's both sexual and
- 1:44:02psychological. I think I would have, I
- 1:44:04would have wanted...I think even if the
- 1:44:11era we're living in now, you know,
- 1:44:13which makes us very aware and makes
- 1:44:15young people aware so much, you know,
- 1:44:20of notions of, of hypersensitivity or
- 1:44:22simply sensitivity, of essence,
- 1:44:24humanity, respect, listening, mutuality
- 1:44:26. Uh, I think we are a bit of a victim
- 1:44:33of an era that did it in a really
- 1:44:34shattering way, uh, through the media
- 1:44:37and through scandals, and that it
- 1:44:39antagonized part of the message, you
- 1:44:41know, to the detriment of the action.
- 1:44:44Yeah.
- 1:44:45So I think a lot of young people, uh, a
- 1:44:47lot of people are rebelling and are
- 1:44:50indignant, if you will, about this
- 1:44:52awareness of consent. And then, we
- 1:44:56quickly fall into" we can't say
- 1:44:57anything anymore, "" we can't do
- 1:44:59anything anymore, "" we can't anymore "
- 1:45:01...Uh, I try to understand both sides
- 1:45:03there, even if, you know, I will never,
- 1:45:05never condone, you know, toxic, hateful
- 1:45:07, or violent behavior, or uh...uh, but
- 1:45:15I, I...would tell you that I question
- 1:45:17the way of making people aware, once
- 1:45:19again, you know, through prohibition,
- 1:45:21condemnation, the, the, the the kind of
- 1:45:26sensationalist display of it in the
- 1:45:28press. You know, I wonder what we take
- 1:45:30away from it, and to what extent there
- 1:45:31is a healthy retention of it and not an
- 1:45:33antagonization, as I said, you know, of
- 1:45:34the messages to be retained. And anyway
- 1:45:36, I would have, I would have wanted, at
- 1:45:3820, for people to
- 1:45:39What would it have changed for you to
- 1:45:41know that at 20? Well, it would have
- 1:45:44changed the way I acted with with
- 1:45:46people, my way of, you know, there's a
- 1:45:48spontaneity that's that's that's nice
- 1:45:51in in love, you know. It's it's after
- 1:45:54that, you know, what's difficult is
- 1:45:55that it always depends on the judgment,
- 1:45:56you know, that you have. There are some
- 1:45:59who there are some who don't have it,
- 1:46:01there are some who do. How do we
- 1:46:02determine who has judgment and who
- 1:46:04doesn't? He's got a good head on his
- 1:46:05shoulders, he's capable of No, you know
- 1:46:06. But it's true that the notion of
- 1:46:11taking a risk when kissing someone, you
- 1:46:12know, there's always a context
- 1:46:14obviously, you know, which can be grim
- 1:46:16or toxic or where you could, one could
- 1:46:18say:" Well, it's obvious, they're not
- 1:46:19interested, can't you tell, "you know.
- 1:46:23But when both are interested and then
- 1:46:24well who makes the first move? There's
- 1:46:26there's an excitement in that which is
- 1:46:28still part for me of the history I've
- 1:46:29had with love, you know, and with
- 1:46:31seduction. But there are other aspects,
- 1:46:35other notions, uh, blurry, never
- 1:46:38addressed, uh, where I would have
- 1:46:40wanted that someone share that an adult
- 1:46:47share with me certain notions. But I
- 1:46:51think at that age, I think when I was
- 1:46:5320, the adults themselves probably
- 1:46:54didn't have them either. You know,
- 1:46:57instead of a biology class, well I
- 1:46:59think we had sex ed classes, but it
- 1:47:01seems so blurry to me. I think we were
- 1:47:03just messing around and putting condoms
- 1:47:04on bananas, you know.
- 1:47:05Yeah, that's it. It was more about the
- 1:47:06reproductive systems. I I there was
- 1:47:08there was it wasn't we weren't into the
- 1:47:10intimacy of bodies.
- 1:47:11That's it. You know, it's awkward. And
- 1:47:12the Judeo-Christian side means that
- 1:47:14well an adult shouldn't tell their
- 1:47:16child we should. And we don't want our
- 1:47:18parents to tell us" We need to have a
- 1:47:19conversation, honey. "" Oh no, you know
- 1:47:21, but we should have a conversation,
- 1:47:24you know, because, uh, I think I would
- 1:47:27have saved a lot of time not not being
- 1:47:30hurt, and I would have saved some
- 1:47:32others from being hurt, uh, by
- 1:47:35understanding, you know, certain
- 1:47:37obvious things which, when you've never
- 1:47:40experienced them, You can't just say, "
- 1:47:45Oh yeah, okay." That wasn't, you know,
- 1:47:47obviously that's what's complicated
- 1:47:50about this conversation, is that I
- 1:47:52don't want people to hijack it and
- 1:47:54claim it as a way to normalize
- 1:47:56problematic behavior. I'm just talking
- 1:48:00about that gray area where there's a
- 1:48:03spontaneity or a permissiveness that
- 1:48:05isn't obvious, and that "read the room"
- 1:48:08moment where you think, "Ah, you know,
- 1:48:10that's right, I often did that when I
- 1:48:13was younger, or I never thought it was
- 1:48:15a problem." But that's it, because I
- 1:48:19was...I was going to say something
- 1:48:21super vulgar, an example of...let's
- 1:48:23just drop it, but...
- 1:48:25And you prefer to seduce? That was the
- 1:48:27first thing you answered. Yes.
- 1:48:29You like that? It's hard.
- 1:48:30Yeah.
- 1:48:30Do you do that often, it's hard?
- 1:48:33Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
- 1:48:36What does...what does seduction bring
- 1:48:38you? Why do you like being in that zone
- 1:48:40?
- 1:48:41Well, it's fun to have that, that
- 1:48:43validation. I don't seduce just for the
- 1:48:46sake of seducing. No, I get that, when
- 1:48:51someone responds to your charm or your
- 1:48:53...It's pleasant validation.
- 1:48:57But you know, that's it, I don't seduce
- 1:48:59if I don't want there to be a follow-up
- 1:49:02. You know.
- 1:49:03That could mean you're a flirt, but I
- 1:49:05don't know.
- 1:49:08Yeah, but there are some who don't like
- 1:49:10that, who aren't comfortable in that
- 1:49:11zone.
- 1:49:12Who don't like being seduced. No, to
- 1:49:13seduce. Some people say, I don't have
- 1:49:16the audacity to go and seduce.
- 1:49:19Well, that...that depends, you know. I
- 1:49:23...I can also be super intimidated, and
- 1:49:28, you know, find my place in public in
- 1:49:30a...you know, if we're friends and you
- 1:49:32say, "Come on, there's a dinner with
- 1:49:33eight people," I'll go, "Oh my god, you
- 1:49:35don't know me well!" You know, I'll be
- 1:49:39scared, I'll be afraid of people, I'll
- 1:49:41be shy at the beginning, I...
- 1:49:43And here we are, 250 of us.
- 1:49:45Better than 250 people talking to you.
- 1:49:48No, but at 8, are you afraid of having
- 1:49:50too much attention on you?
- 1:49:51Too much? Yeah, or just being shy, or,
- 1:49:55you know, social intimacy is
- 1:49:58complicated. It's like bubbles,
- 1:50:01socialization. I, I, I think...
- 1:50:05But when do you seduce? Let's say
- 1:50:07someone likes you.
- 1:50:08But when I find someone who is
- 1:50:09beautiful, charming or intelligent, and
- 1:50:11sexy, and I want to sleep with them.
- 1:50:16I like your face.
- 1:50:16When others,
- 1:50:18that's what I'm telling you. Not when I
- 1:50:21don't, it's that, the flirting and the
- 1:50:23messing around that leads to nothing.
- 1:50:26That is very tiresome. You guys need to
- 1:50:28stop that right now.
- 1:50:31Uh, you know, if it's useless, well,
- 1:50:34it's useless. We don't do that, you
- 1:50:36know, that screwing around.
- 1:50:38Be honest with you.
- 1:50:40I would like, yeah, that's it. You
- 1:50:42don't have to tell me.
- 1:50:44So, a final question. The last question
- 1:50:46. What's on your bucket list? A very
- 1:50:51simple question, the last one. Uh work
- 1:51:04with Kate Winslet, work with Meryl
- 1:51:09Streep, go to Japan.
- 1:51:15Have you already been approached? By
- 1:51:17those two actresses.
- 1:51:19Mm-hmm.
- 1:51:20Have you already met them? Hm
- 1:51:21hm.
- 1:51:23And what's next?
- 1:51:26I don't know.
- 1:51:27So there are discussions already open,
- 1:51:28as you say. Not currently, you know, I
- 1:51:31already have a history, a past with one
- 1:51:34of the two but
- 1:51:37I would like that, I have nothing right
- 1:51:39now but
- 1:51:40it's something I would like to do, to
- 1:51:42be able to work. I find that Kate
- 1:51:44Winslet is really an actress who has a
- 1:51:46before and an after in her career. She
- 1:51:49is truly an actress that I have seen
- 1:51:51become an artist. I was like, okay,
- 1:51:54there is a mastery in her work that
- 1:51:57really struck me at one point. I
- 1:51:59thought, okay, she's reached a
- 1:52:01completely different level now. She is,
- 1:52:04we learn there, you know, Mare of
- 1:52:06Easttown, her series there, it's on
- 1:52:07Crave. It's, it's a masterclass in
- 1:52:14acting, you know. For an actor, it's
- 1:52:16like, okay. Ah, okay. Yeah, that's it.
- 1:52:19You see, for a director
- 1:52:21for a director too
- 1:52:22to direct her.
- 1:52:23Yes. Yes. Well, yes. But, but what I
- 1:52:26mean is mainly that, it's that the
- 1:52:31style, the elegance, the restraint, the
- 1:52:34embodiment, uh, it makes you realize
- 1:52:41the honesty of the performance. The
- 1:52:43honesty of her performance. say it
- 1:52:45It doesn't pull, the, you know. She has
- 1:52:47a moment, at a given moment, she, she,
- 1:52:49she talks to a psychologist or a social
- 1:52:51worker, I don't remember, about, well,
- 1:52:53the suicide of her son, you know. But
- 1:52:58you know, that scene, it’s the moment
- 1:52:59; you read that, and as an actor, you
- 1:53:01go: "I, I, I’m going to dive in,
- 1:53:02I’m going to, I’m going to..."
- 1:53:04It’s, it’s your scene, you know.
- 1:53:08But her detachment and her restraint,
- 1:53:11it was as if her goal was not to play
- 1:53:14that scene, not to have the
- 1:53:16gratification of that moment, not to
- 1:53:19have endless sobbing, crying, crying,
- 1:53:22pushing the button, crying, having
- 1:53:25watery eyes, and...We hold back in life
- 1:53:30, we hold back our, our, and it's even
- 1:53:32hard to act out restraint because it
- 1:53:34becomes something we're performing, you
- 1:53:36know. So it’s about holding back, not
- 1:53:38acting out restraint.
- 1:53:39Her accuracy
- 1:53:40and her precision—that’s just why I
- 1:53:42have so much admiration for Meryl
- 1:53:43Streep. Well, it’s been
- 1:53:45well Meryl Streep is, is Meryl Streep,
- 1:53:47right? It’s, it’s, yeah, it’s
- 1:53:49great, and then Japan, I haven't been
- 1:53:51to Japan yet.
- 1:53:52No.
- 1:53:52So that, that’s achievable.
- 1:53:54I’d like to go to Asia, there are so
- 1:53:56many—I mean, it doesn't, it’s not
- 1:53:58limited to just a nice bucket list. And
- 1:54:00it's fun. What I like
- 1:54:01Would you have wanted me to name
- 1:54:03something a little more accessible like
- 1:54:04going to brunch at the Manor? What I
- 1:54:07like doesn't exist anymore, so that
- 1:54:08won't work. You should be on The
- 1:54:10Traitors, it's filming. But, uh, the
- 1:54:13thing is, uh
- 1:54:15You know what I like about what you
- 1:54:17said is that you’ve already taken
- 1:54:19steps toward it. It’s not just thrown
- 1:54:22out into the universe. And one day—I
- 1:54:24love that side of you where, uh, you
- 1:54:27don’t just throw things into the
- 1:54:29universe.
- 1:54:31Well
- 1:54:31you face things.
- 1:54:33Yes, but I throw them out there too. I,
- 1:54:36I, I really appreciate how the universe
- 1:54:39right now, now that now that I’ve
- 1:54:44started taking care of myself and
- 1:54:47digging deep to understand, to get to
- 1:54:49the bottom of certain problems, to face
- 1:54:55them—I love how the universe sends
- 1:54:57things back to me. OK. certain things
- 1:55:04and places them, positions them in a
- 1:55:08magical and mystical way. I appreciate
- 1:55:15the synchronicity between the gratitude
- 1:55:18I feel and the efforts I make to work
- 1:55:21on myself, and the passion I feel in my
- 1:55:24work, and the passion I put into
- 1:55:26applying my—into applying my routine,
- 1:55:29actually. You know, I appreciate the
- 1:55:33synchronicity between those things and
- 1:55:35between the way the universe answers me
- 1:55:40. And I really believe in the universe,
- 1:55:44but I don't believe in sitting around
- 1:55:46waiting for the train to pass. I
- 1:55:49believe we put it out there, we do, we
- 1:55:53work and if it's meant to happen,
- 1:55:58that's when we can sometimes twist
- 1:56:01fate's arm if we work even harder. But
- 1:56:04it happens. Uh, but I believe in the
- 1:56:09alignment, you know, of the stars and
- 1:56:11in the universe, and especially in a
- 1:56:14universe that gives back, that answers
- 1:56:17us. It's a response. It's not an event,
- 1:56:23it doesn't just happen. It answers back
- 1:56:27. There is a communication, you know,
- 1:56:32with life. And it's embodied in a quote
- 1:56:42that I really love by Mark Twain uh who
- 1:56:48had a few pretty good ones, but I
- 1:56:49really love this one. And I apply it as
- 1:56:52much to a way of life and a general
- 1:56:54mantra as I do to little things I want
- 1:56:57to put off. Things I don't want to do
- 1:57:00right away, things I don't want to—
- 1:57:02and it is "the secret of getting ahead.
- 1:57:04" And I don't have the words to
- 1:57:10translate it with the same punch. But
- 1:57:13basically, if you want to succeed, if
- 1:57:19you want to get ahead, do it now, get
- 1:57:25to work right away.
- 1:57:28See, that's not very elegant as
- 1:57:30Yeah, but what it also means is if you
- 1:57:32want it to happen, just start. That's
- 1:57:34it. You have to start somewhere. And
- 1:57:38usually, you have to start somewhere,
- 1:57:41and eventually, that somewhere is here
- 1:57:45and now.
- 1:57:46Yeah. I see it as an imperative: start,
- 1:57:50and the present moment.
- 1:57:51Yeah.
- 1:57:52Well done. Did you get the game, if you
- 1:57:56want to play at home?
- 1:57:59Thank you so much, Xavier Dolan, for
- 1:58:01stopping by today. It's
- 1:58:04greatly appreciated, really. It's been
- 1:58:06a wonderful moment. Thank you so much.
- 1:58:08Thanks to everyone for being here. See
- 1:58:10you in the next podcast.
- 1:58:17This episode was presented by Karine
- 1:58:19Jonka, the reference for skincare in
- 1:58:21Quebec, and by the Mary Club, a space
- 1:58:23dedicated to wellness. The board games
- 1:58:28Ouvre ton jeu, original edition and
- 1:58:29couples edition, are available
- 1:58:30everywhere in stores and at randolph.ca
- 1:58:32.
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This page contains the full transcript of Xavier Dolan | Ouvre ton jeu avec Marie-Claude Barrette by Marie-Claude Barrette, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 17,030 words across 2,587 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.
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Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.
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