Rumours’ Canadian PM not based on Trudeau, actor says

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This article was published 17/10/2024 (644 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO — When Rumours premièred at the Cannes film festival earlier this year, the initial shock was to seeing Winnipeg directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson teamed with Australian actress Cate Blanchett, easily one of the biggest stars to shine in the Maddin/Johnson firmament.

Even better, once cast, Blanchett proved to be a magnet for the rest of the international cast, which includes Charles Dance, Denis Ménochet (Inglourious Basterds), Nikki Amuka-Bird (Knock at the Cabin), Rolando Ravello (Perfect Strangers) and Takehiro Hira (Gran Turismo) as the leaders of, respectively, the U.S., France, Britain, Italy and Japan. Blanchett plays German chancellor Hilda Orlmann.

“It was pretty easy to cast the movie once Cate was interested,” says Evan Johnson, credited as the sole screenwriter of the film, set at a quasi-future G7 conference where world leaders gather to address an apocalyptic crisis by … drafting a statement.

Even with Blanchett’s participation, it might be argued that Rumours’ MVP is Canadian actor Roy Dupuis in the role of Canadian prime minister Maxime Laplace.

Laplace is a singular comic invention, ironically because his life is filled with drama. Sexual tension abounds in this particular G7 meeting, not only because Laplace has a history with Amuka-Bird’s PM but because Blanchett’s Hilda clearly has the hots for him. (The smouldering glances she sends his way are reminiscent of Melania Trump’s seemingly lustful photo op with real-life PM Justin Trudeau at a 2019 G7 conference.)

During an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, Dupuis, 61, asserts definitively that, sexual intrigues notwithstanding, Trudeau was not the basis for his character

“Not at all. The directors sent us archive videos of different G7s and I saw the (PM) we have right now. I saw his father. I saw Chrétien,” Dupuis says.

The directors used the footage to give the actors a chance to study the body language of world leaders over the course of these diplomatic meetings.

And, yes, Dupuis did borrow the unique stance of Justin Trudeau during a photo op.

“He has his legs spread apart. I thought that was different than any other (leader),” he says.

“But that’s it. For me, it was obvious that this had nothing to do with this specific prime minister.”

Dupuis was attracted to the role because, as a veteran of 60 feature films and a few TV series, the opportunity to do this kind of surreal comedy comes rarely. He tends to take on very serious roles in mostly Quebec films, ranging from his work as legendary hockey star Maurice Richard in The Rocket (2005) or General Romeo Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil (2007).

Playing the drama, as opposed to attempting to boost the comedy, was apparently the right choice for Dupuis.

“The best way to make this work was to play it like his life depends on it. That’s what makes it so ridiculous,” Dupuis says.

Any doubts Dupuis may have had about the film vanished at the Cannes screening, he says.

“All the journalists were saying, ‘It feels so good to laugh at Cannes.’ Most of the films they encounter are serious. They’re art. This is still art, but it’s so f—-ing out there. It’s probably the most weird movie anyone will see in Cannes, but it’s also the most funny,” Dupuis says.

“Anytime I see a movie (of mine) for the first time, I don’t like it, but I had a good time. It’s the first time I’m sitting in the audience and watching a movie and I’m having fun. It’s weird.”

That memory of the première matches Maddin’s.

“The reception in Cannes surprised me. I didn’t know how it would be received: funny or dramatic or dreamy, or none of the above,” says the My Winnipeg director.

Maddin said the TIFF audience seemed to revel in the film’s humour.

“It felt like it was The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” he says of the famously audience-inclusive cult musical.

“They were so engaged. It went over really well.”

Even in the context of a comedy, the inherent drama of the character initially compelled Dupuis to say no to the role; he had been working on a TV series, À coeur battant, that deals with family violence, and felt drained by three years of playing an emotional role.

“‘I’d like to do a cowboy movie with no emotions.’ And then I hung up,” he recalls of his initial conversation with the filmmakers.

“But for the next five days, the character was haunting me, so I called him back and I said, if it’s not too late, I would do it.”

As far as inspiration goes, Dupuis has his own take.

“We were basically playing countries, more than prime ministers and presidents. That’s how they constructed our characters, by the mood of the country, the mood that comes out from Germany. The mood that emanates from Canada,” he says.

And how does the character reflect Canada?

“He’s not really taken seriously. He’s the adolescent. He is not an adult yet,” Dupuis says.

“But he’s passionate, and he’s also very courageous and he likes to help, like the Canadian Peacekeepers.”

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Randall King
Writer

Randall King writes about film for the Winnipeg Free Press.