Do not tell Claude Legault that it will be fine. Not on a film set, in any case. Especially not if you are a director. “When I hear that, manI become nervous, ”says the actor with his usual outspokenness, who always does so much good. “It means they don’t know it more than me. They pretend they know it, crossing their fingers. It’s really mard. »»
Quite the opposite of his friend Podz who, during the shooting of the series Midnight, eveninghe instilled in the confidence necessary to search in the least enlightened corners of his soul, without Claude having to say explicitly to him that he was not convinced to have what it takes to embody this character. Character he had however co-wrote with his partner Pierre-Yves Bernard.
Not be sure of your business? It still happens to him, in Claude Legault, as during the recent shooting of the series Collectionalso signed Podz. “Sometimes I work a scene and I say to myself:” How are we going to do that? ” And Podz replies: “I don’t know, but we’re going to find.” Me, that’s enough for me. It means that he won’t let me go on the way. We will do it together and we will go through. »»
Photo Alain Roberge, the press
Claude Legault in an interview
If he has no formal training at stake, Claude Legault graduated from a school where we learn quickly, that of improv. “And from the start, I set myself a goal: the search for the truth,” recalls the 62 -year -old guy, who has still not cured his allergy to the bullshit – so much the better.
“I have always been in improvisation in it. For me, each improvisation is a question of life or death. If I play, it’s true, what happens to me. Even if I’m riding a horse in a fire building, and being chased by a Skinheads gang, it’s true. I make it true to you. I don’t play the guy who plays. »»
Julien’s beautiful sad eyes
In Midnight, eveningthe series which gave its impetus to the Claude Legault-Mania in 2005, that is to say 20 years ago, it will have not only been supported by Podz, but also by a distribution all stars, whose late Julien Poulin. An actor that we had little seen in this kind of serious role, all in circumspection and interiority.
Photo Alain Roberge, La Presse Archives
Julien Poulin, Louis Champagne, Julie Perreault and Claude Legault in November 2006
Claude Legault acknowledges having been surprised by seeing his name on the sheet of actors called in hearing. “I see the line-up And I do: Ah ouain? Julien Poulin! “He even had to push this” nice guy “in his last entrenchments so that he shows that he would be able, when the time comes, deploying the aggressiveness that the barmates sometimes show.
I had so much fun with Julien [Poulin]. I had no real conversation, from man to man, with my father. Never. It did not happen, as with many guys my age. But with Julien, I had. It was a bit of our father, to Louis [Champagne] and me.
Claude Legault
From the one he describes as “candor on two legs”, “who did not want to make noise, who never wanted to disturb”, Claude Legault remembers an ambivalence as to the love that Quebecers had.
“He had misery to take that,” he said. He had no misery of giving you it, because we gave us in mass, love, he was enveloping. But he, to receive love was difficult. I think he has always been uncomfortable with Elvis [Gratton]. It had become something far too big for him. He campaigned, but at the same time, when the world no longer recognized him, without him saying, it hurt him. He was not someone who had easy happiness, Julien. I called her beautiful sad eyes. »»
No choice of dealing with it
Claude Legault is better, he swears. In 2020, the actor had to park on the shoulder – the shoulder of life – in order to treat a professional exhaustion. “When it happened, it was time that I returned to the garage. The red button had been lit for a long time. The fuel level was low. The tires were buttocks. »»
Photo Alain Roberge, the press
Claude Legault, who is better
His year 2025 is on the contrary already to be placed under the sign of pleasure, not to say big fun : In addition to hosting a just for laughing gala in Quebec on August 16, he has just laid the scenario of a third film in the franchise in front of the financing instances. In a galaxy near you.
He smiled, obviously proud to have had the wisdom to take care of him. “These moments of weakness there are naturally good,” he says about his forced break, because all your problems that you have been pelleting on the side for years, they go back in full face, and as you have no more strength to reject them in the ditch, they come back, they are the line and you have no choice of taking care of it. »»
Gala just for laughter by Claude Legault, August 16 at the Grand Théâtre de Québec
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Three quotes from our interview
About the financing of Quebec TV
“Quebec TV has been punctuated for years. It becomes more and more starry. We would like to do 19-2 Today ? Forget that! Because today, almost all series are done in closed doors. It doesn’t come out much, it’s hoping a lot. There is the famous adage “yes, but often the constraints bring creativity”. Eat mard! This is a thousand piastres sentences to make you swallow that it is correct that we come to cut in your budget. »»
Regarding his statements during the 2012 student strike
“Camille, my agent, who is very concerned about his flock, said to me:” Claude, there is a matter that you have to understand: you, in your head, you are still ti-class, but for people, you are Claude Legault. You’re in the living room of the world. Your word, now, it is scrutinized, no matter what you are going to say. And this is where I understood that I had just lost part of my freedom. But it’s correct. It comes with it. »»
About the film Gaz Bar Blues (2003) and Serge Thériault
“It is sure that Serge was special. There are times when he just can’t. We didn’t really know what was going on, where he was, then finally, it happened. It was a whole management. But I, as I knew it was the same, I decided to be in the care with him. Especially since Serge, it was like an idol for me. I was going to get cafes to him, I was sailing. Everyone was fine with him. It is superb in the film. Tremendous. »»