Goulet found a friend in Gilles Villeneuve while filming biopic premiering at TIFF

TORONTO – Actor Rémi Goulet was on the set of Canadian hockey movie “Major Junior” when a producer mentioned he was working on a film about the late Formula One star Gilles Villeneuve.

Christian Larouche was convinced Goulet was meant to play the Canadian race car driver, but years into his acting career, the actor knew better than to get his hopes up.

It was only when Goulet landed the role in 2021 and started intensely researching Villeneuve that he realized just how much he was meant to play the driver. 

Villeneuve, who died after a racetrack collision in May 1982, was from Berthierville, Que. Goulet grew up 20 minutes away. They both liked snowmobiling in the same fields and shared a love for speed that was born in the back roads of Quebec. 

“I had a little car that I liked to beat up a little bit in those old roads and so it all felt like organic to take on that role,” Goulet said ahead of the world premiere of “Villeneuve: Rise of a Legend.”

The French-language feature film tells the story of Villeneuve’s evolution from a Quebecois trumpet-playing teen to Canada’s most beloved Formula One driver. It delves into his early days racing snowmobiles, and later cars in Formula Atlantic, a stepping stone to Formula One.

The film, directed by Yan Lanouette Turgeon and also starring Rosalie Bonenfant as Villeneuve’s wife Joann, will close out the Toronto International Film Festival with a Saturday gala.

The premiere will mark one of Goulet’s biggest roles yet but also form the culmination of a long journey to bring Villeneuve’s story to the big screen.

The idea for the film materialized around 2018, when Villeneuve’s daughter was looking to tell her dad’s story in a way that didn’t just focus on his fatal crash nor his first major win — the 1978 Montreal Grand Prix, when he became the first Canadian driver to win a Formula One race.

Around the same time, she was approached by director Daniel Roby. She had been considering creating an English miniseries but given that Roby had already written the script for “Villeneuve: Rise of a Legend,” she signed on as an executive producer.

Finances, the COVID-19 pandemic and a change in director meant it took years to get the film anywhere close to completion. It was screened for media a week before the TIFF premiere with a note labelling it a “work in progress.”

Director Yan Lanouette Turgeon said at the time that it was about 90 per cent finished with mostly sound mixing and some visual effects left to perfect and insert.

He wound up taking the helm of the movie in 2024, on the 42nd anniversary of Gilles Villeneuve’s death. (Roby and the producer had a difference in opinions around how race-oriented the project should be, leading to the director change, Le Journal de Montreal reported in 2024.)

Lanouette Turgeon recalls joining the film was an easy sell.

“I read the script and I fell in love with Gilles right away,” he said. 

Being from Quebec, he knew some of Villeneuve’s story already, but it was “the basic stuff” like how successful the driver had been. 

Lanoette Turgeon even remembered the day Villeneuve died. He had been at his family’s summer home with relatives, when some started crying and his dad yelled out “no.”

“I was seven years old, so I couldn’t really understand everything about what had just happened, but I knew we lost someone important, like a mythical figure,” Lanoutte Turgeon said.

Later, as director of the biopic, he set out to show audiences a more down-to-earth side of Villeneuve. The film depicts the driver working alongside mechanics into the wee hours to fix his car; giving up his family’s home to fund a racing career; and living out of a mobile home so he could bounce from track to track.

“I felt as though I wanted to make sort of a character study about him, more than just an action or a racing movie,” Lanoutte Turgeon said. “He was always very guy-next-door but at the same time very mysterious.”

To learn about Villeneuve and help emulate his body language, Goulet devoured old articles, videos, photos and interviews.

Melanie Villeneuve filled in the gaps missing in the public record. She told Goulet about her dad’s temerity and shared anecdotes to help paint a picture of who he was away from the spotlight.

Goulet, however, didn’t speak with her brother Jacques Villenueve, Canada’s first Formula One world champion.

“I didn’t want to force anything,” Goulet said. “It’s something you’ve got to be careful with because for us, he’s a figure, but for them, he is their dad and everything, so it’s a lot more emotional.”

Jacques Villeneuve’s wife Giulia said the family has been involved in production but lets Melanie Villeneuve take the lead on Gilles Villeneuve projects. 

“Rest assured that her point of view reflects Jacques’ as well,” Giulia said in an email.

Even without with the son’s input, Goulet said he feels like he formed a deep connection with Gilles Villeneuve.

“The moment that the production was ending, it felt really weird because it was like losing a friend a little bit and so it was very emotional.”

“I hadn’t lived that emotion with a character before… and now, I hope people are going to love him as much as I did.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 20, 2026.