Maybe because she’s scared of growing old, the actress is going through an introspective phase, which brings out her creativity ....

TV buffs are not about to forget Céline Bonnier as “Mama Dionne” from the time of Million Dollar Babies. Now we find her in The Mask, and in her guise as ‘a hockey player’s wife’ she couldn’t be more conventional. Anything to surprise us!  As a bonus she gives us a scoop by sharing with the readers of 7 Jours the fruits of a passion which until now has been a well guarded secret: drawing and painting.

“In my family three or four of us have quite a talent for drawing. One of my brothers specialises in architecture. I’m always sketching and I do a bit of acrylic. Lately I’ve started working in oils, but between you and me I’ve never actually finished a single painting.”

Céline, I bet that in your childhood in Quebec, the family home was overflowing with works of art ....

(she laughs) We didn’t have a luxurious home. My parents didn’t buy any works of art whatsoever. Our family particularly enjoyed doing things with the hand and the mind, such as drawing, mechanics and such like. We loved to make things. Even today I don’t buy pictures. As a child I was inspired by watching my brother Sylvain draw. As we were the two youngest in a family of eight we spent a long time travelling together with our parents. In the car, Sylvain would draw, and I would watch.

Do you have any other influences?

Yes, for example in London I discovered the works of Egon Schiele, an Austrian painter who died very young. I was also influenced by Van Gogh, especially during a trip I made to Scotland. And then there’s Dali, Rembrandt, Magritte .....  I also like ‘pop art’. For me, it’s not so much curiosity, more a sort of need to encounter painters that attracts me to a museum or gallery. I don’t know how to express it ....  Their canvasses make me dance inside, they move me completely. I learn a lot by looking at them. For me, drawing is a means of expression. I draw because I need to and when I feel that need. Normally this coincides with a period of introspection.

What is it that you express through drawing that you can’t say in music or through drama?

The most personal, hidden, secret things. At the moment I draw figures, ‘silent observers’. I think that I draw ... thought! (she laughs). I must be completely introspective these days!  Moreover, I draw a lot in bed; it’s the ideal spot. I also read, and at one time I would watch TV and eat in bed! In Quebec when I left home and moved into a flat to study at the Conservatory, I set up all my stuff around my bed!

As you are contemplating so much these days, what is it that troubles you?

I think that I have a fear of growing old. Yes, that’s right. I’m already 31, and I’m finding life is very fleeting. I want to enjoy the good times right away. I hope that at 32 I’ll be asking myself fewer questions!

Do you have plans for your future?

What interests me first and foremost is to discover as many planets as possible, all gates opening to some sort of truth. I wouldn’t be able to do the same job for ten years, nine to five, and have a totally organised life. Planning means shutting yourself off from discovery. When my accountant advises me to make plans I get really annoyed. He speaks a language which is as abstract to me as a painting of a black square in a white square. Speak to me about profitability and output and I fall asleep automatically.

All the same you’re going to have to see your accountant before the end of April ...

I’m trying to get used to that idea. However I live on my salary without thinking about what’s going to happen in six months. And as for parking tickets, I always deal with them at the last minute. They don’t interest me!

Money wasn’t worshipped in your family then ...

Absolutely not. My parents are very good people. They are as ‘wholesome’ as wholewheat bread, you know? The most important thing for them was to love and respect their children. They are naturally inclined towards simple values like love, peace, trust, and freedom. At 31 I realise that these are my values too. I am looking for real freedom (not the freedom to fool around), creativity, and a respect for other people’s opinions if they differ from mine.

And where do you find this?

I go to the country often, I like to play sports now and again (squash, badminton) and I love to cycle around Montreal. I stay faithful to my friends and family. We organise dinners and parties together. And then I work a lot. That’s my life in a nutshell. I like being at home, in my apartment in Montreal, with all my belongings. I have hung my drawings, my photos, and my prints of Lautrec and Schiele on the walls. I have dirty old dolls that I played with when I was five. It looks like a student’s flat; sometimes I feel as though I’m 18! But I couldn’t live in an ‘Ideal Homes’ sort of place. I need to be able to sit down in a place that is ‘me’.

Is your love-life as unplanned as your finances?

Absolutely. Love is different every day. Rigidity in love is like having no flexibility in your timetable or your working hours. There are people who live like that, but I believe they have to submit to it. It’s not natural, and I would be miserable forcing myself into it. It’s like sitting in the sun in the South singing The Chicken Song << This works for the UK. Substitute any naff communal action song from your own culture! - viv>>. This makes me uncomfortable. I don’t like to be ‘regimented’. I try to maintain my freedom and to give it as free a rein as possible. This keeps it alive.

The TV series The Mask is showing on TQS, and you play the wife of a famous NHL goalkeeper Romain Gabriel (played by Patrice L’Ecuyer) ...

My character, Louise, is an intelligent woman who takes good care of her children, but who feels neglected. Her husband, like all hockey players, is seldom at home. He has a full life elsewhere with a team of guys .... It’s certainly not an easy life. She’s bored. So she falls in love with someone else....

How is the filming going?

It’s a really good crew. There’s already a bond between the director Richard Roy, the director of photography Daniel Vincelette and myself, because we worked together on Caboose. I was confident  I had a friendly relationship with them. It’s been really good. Even if it’s not ‘the role’ of my career, it’s the first time I’ve been involved in a series created specifically for Quebec TV, and it’s also the first time I’ve played a ‘normal’ woman. It’s really been an interesting experience.

Céline at the Theatre of the Americas Festival

We are doing eight performances of Oestrus in May and June. There is music in it from start to finish. My brother, who died before the show was staged, adapted this play from the work of Henry Miller. We perform three different scenes simultaneously, and the audience can walk around and choose what they want. You can go to three performances and never see the same thing. It’s very dynamic! I’m also currently playing Lolita at the Rialto until April; it’s a musical ‘freakshow’ type of production.

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