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The roles of my life: Evelyne Brochu’s beautiful dating

August 17, 2020

Since the pandemic, actors have never been so busy rummaging through their memory boxes. In this summer series, La Presse asks seasoned performers to comment on landmark roles in their careers. Today, actress Evelyne Brochu shares with us some of her best performances in theatre, film and television.

Her first significant role

Lechy in L'échange, by Paul Claudel, which I played when I left the Conservatoire, at the Auditions du Quat'Sous, under the direction of Patricia Nolin. It’s funny to name Lechy because it’s not a professional production. But I felt a click, a magic, a flame when I did it. It was a key to getting into the business. What’s more, several people in the business saw me play, including producer André Monette who called me later to audition for La promesse. I spent five years playing in this TV series on TVA, at the very beginning of my career. It’s great training to shoot about 15 scenes a day with experienced performers like Louise Turcot, Germain Houde, Sébastien Delorme… I absorbed all the craftsmanship of the profession. I learned the grammar of television. When I won a Gemini award for my role in La promesse, I thanked André Monette. André loves going to the theatre. He has given several little-known young actors, whom he used to see in the theatre, the chance to make television.

The role that the audience most often talks to her about

Delphine in @orphanblack​. It’s a science fiction series, with very strong female characters. My character is a doctor and in love with one of the clones [played by Tatiana Maslany]. She wants to cure her sick girlfriend. Since it’s co-produced with several countries and the BBC, the series has been seen in about 170 countries. […] There are people who live in countries where homosexuality is criminal. The couple formed by these two heroines gave them the courage to assume their identity. Many young girls became attached to my character and have been following my career ever since.

A role that made her grow artistically and humanly

Rose in Café de Flore, by Jean-Marc Vallée. I was so happy during this shooting, I wished it would never end. The dance scene to Elisapie Isaac’s music, Jean-Marc slipped it into the film three days before shooting it. I had to learn the choreography in a hurry to show it to the 75 extras. His cinema is full of poetry and incursions into what is sacred in life, moments charged with emotion and sensuality. We always want to say yes to Jean-Marc Vallée. It’s not a job, to work with this director. It’s a deeply human experience. And this film has allowed me to have my manager in Los Angeles and my agent in Paris to open my career internationally.

A role in the theater she dreams of playing one day

Medea, Hedda Gabler and also play Lechy in a real production. Three roles of wounded, betrayed, angry women. There’s a lot of talk about sexual misconduct these days. Victims who say they froze in front of their attackers. They felt bad, but they froze. Why do these women feel powerless in these situations? Because, unlike men, we’ve been raised never to antagonize people, always to be nice, desirable. A bartender is washing glasses behind the counter and is told by her boss and customers: “Well, smile, gorgeous!” So playing a powerful role like Medea, a larger-than-life character who’s been expressing women’s rage for centuries, is very liberating.

The strangest role she’s played in her 15-year career

From a woman who thinks she has a honeycomb in her breast in the short film The Nest. In 2014, I received a call from David Cronenberg, who offered me the opportunity to star in this short film he made at home in his garage in Toronto, to be included in an exhibition about him. With an extremely small team: a make-up artist and her family. Cronenberg plays the surgeon who has to operate on my character. He filmed himself with a GoPro camera attached to his head. His son took the sound. It’s a strange offer and I hesitated before accepting. There is frontal nudity and the film will remain on the web. But I thought, what would Tilda Swinton or Kate Winslet do? I can’t refuse a film experience with a master of the seventh art. It only happens once in a lifetime.

The next role on her agenda

Paris Police 1900, a series for Canal+, due out in January 2021. I will also shoot season 2 in France next spring with my family [Evelyne Brochu has a 2-year-old son and is expecting twins next November]. It’s a very well-produced and written historical series, with very good actors, mostly known in the theatre, including members of the Comédie-Française. I play Marguerite Steinheil, President Félix Faure’s mistress, in 1899. He is famous because he died in office, at the presidential palace, almost in the arms of his mistress.