Rejean Tremblay & Fabienne Larouche

• The fictional newspaper L’Express is a barely disguised version of La Presse. Many of the staff correspond to real-life individuals. Roy’s character, Michel Gagné, is based on Michel Girard.
• For the series, Macha Grenon (Stéphanie Rousseau) had to take driving lessons. Roy could drive but didn’t have a licence. (He passed his motor cycle test on 1st September 1992, and immediately bought a $20,000 cycle.)
• The first drafts of Scoop I, II, and III were written on table napkins in the Café Cherrier.
• Scoop was written by husband and wife team Réjean Tremblay and Fabienne Larouche. You can tell the difference in the torrid love scenes - in those written by Réjean, Stéphanie comes on to Michel, while in Fabienne’s the opposite is true.
• Sidekick syndrome: When Scoop was conceived, and with a formidable team of stars in the cast, Roy’s character was just one of many. Shortly after transmission began it was obvious who the real star was, and the writers had to evolve the Michel Gagné character into being the most prominent.

Roy & Jean Beaudin

• Brigitte Haentjens claims to have ‘discovered’ Roy for the theatre when she was casting the part of Jay in Le Chien. He walked into the rehearsal room looking for his girlfriend, and she immediately decided that he was Jay, though she didn’t even know if he was an actor.
• Jean Beaudin claims to have ‘discovered’ Roy for the screen. He stopped the auditions for Ovila (Les Filles de Caleb) as soon as he had seen Roy. Regarding the role of Yves in Being at Home with Claude, although the part had been defined theatrically by both Lothaire Bluteau and Marc Béland, Jean Beaudin made it "with him and for him". Had Roy not accepted the part, he would not have made the film.
• Michel Langlois wrote the part of Alex in Cap Tourmente especially for Roy. He says "Roy was born to make films, and he feels completely at ease in front of the camera. Perhaps more so than in everyday life. When I watch him on the screen it’s like a miracle … "

• Roy was educated by nuns, and as an adolescent shut himself away in the library to read the Bible, as he was fascinated by the story of Christ. He is no longer a believer.
• His sun sign is Taurus, and he was born in the Chinese year of the cat.
• From the Tarot deck, the card La Justice (VIII) is very important in his life (suggested interpretations : equity, justice, fairness, reasonableness, proper balance, rightness, virtue, honour, virginity), and his number is, of course, ‘1’.
• Roy’s Rituals : In the theatre, before a show he used to catch himself whistling a tune. But he realised that when he was whistling he was less focused. Now, when he finds himself about to whistle, he sings instead.
• On the way to a performance he makes sure he doesn’t step on the cracks in the pavement. He says he does all sorts of things like that, from the moment he gets up until the performance.
• Roy always thought he would die at the age of 33. <Happy day, 21^st April 1997!>

• Marlon Brando, James Dean, Gérard Depardieu, Robert de Niro, Rod Steiger

• Dostoyevsky, Réjean Ducharme, Paul Oster

• Marlon Brando, Michel Simon, Gérard Philipe

• Lelouch, Coppola, Zulawski, Jarmusch, Carax

• Béatrice Dalle, Nastassja Kinski

• Roy didn’t smoke or drink before coming to Montreal.
• He would cut out drinking completely when he was filming
• He tends to put on weight during filming because of eating the wrong type of food at irregular hours
• The women in Roy’s family have greatly influenced him - his grandmother Liane, his great-aunt Mimi, his mother Ryna

• Roy has been publicly criticised for:

  • speaking incoherently
  • unruly behaviour after a few drinks
  • landing parts simply because of his good looks
  • avoiding journalists
  • being uncommunicative with journalists
  • being obstreperous with journalists

• When asked if being in Scoop had changed his vision of journalists, he replied that he had learned some of the techniques of journalism but he did not claim to understand how a journalist feels. When further pressed as to whether he would like to take up journalism as a career, he said he was very happy as an actor.

• The Being at Home with Claude team travelled to Cannes when the film was presented as Canada’s Official Selection. Producer Louise Gendron had Roy watched day and night to ensure he behaved himself and turned up on time for meetings with important contacts. Even so, he still managed to ‘disappear’ for several minutes - to the consternation of all.
• At a party in Cannes, Roy danced with famous Quebec singer Ginette Reno, and agreed to make a record with her. It was to be a ballad called J’ai le coeur tenderly. But (fortunately?) he changed his mind later, excusing himself as being too busy filming Cap Tourmente.

• During filming on location at Port-au-Persil in Charlevoix, all the principals stayed in a big house, but Roy chose to lodge in a motel along with the technical crew.
• Why did he go blonde for the part? Director Michel Langlois argues that his mother and sister were both blonde, and as a seaman his hair would have been bleached by the sun…. or is this just an excuse for reproducing this?.

In case you can't tell the difference Roy is on the left *G*

• Impressionist Guy Richer has impersonated Roy. This is his analysis of how to capture the character : " His gestures are very economical. His acting style is not commonplace. He gazes very intensely, looks away completely, and comes back just as strong. It’s amazing. As far as his voice is concerned, he has a good depth of voice but he mumbles in places and speaks clearly in others. He accentuates some syllables which you wouldn’t expect, and abbreviates others. This creates an extraordinary effect. He’s not so popular for nothing!"
• Roy has seen Guy Richer do this impression and although he thinks the caricature accentuates his faults, he thinks it’s very good.

• Most used line : I have nothing to learn, I have things to do
• Roy on stardom (1994) : I became as popular as Robert de Niro is in his country. Except that Robert de Niro has the means to pay to escape, to have a secluded house, peace. I still have to go to the corner shop for my bread. I live with it.
• Roy on creativity : It’s difficult to believe in your own creativity when you’re an actor. These are not my words, my ideas, my emotions that I play. What is left of me when it’s finished? I am not a pizza. I am only a slice of pizza.

• Between 1993 and 1996 Roy gradually transformed himself into an altogether more restrained character … which he describes as finally growing up or, paradoxically, returning to the discipline of his childhood. This has involved :
  • giving up going out on the town
  • going to therapy twice a week
  • giving up alcohol completely (since January 1995)
  • travelling to isolated regions for self-contemplation
  • taking up golf
  • moving from the city to a secluded spot in the country
  • taking up DIY in a major way
  • reading astronomy and philosophy
  • accepting the Nikita contract to enable him to maximise his time at home
• During interviews, journalists have marvelled at how accommodating he is, how liberal with his time, and rarely fail to identify the precise variety of fruit juice he is drinking. So have we lost the fun-loving Roy-boy with the twinkle in his eye? Both Macha Grenon and Alberta Watson have testified that he is a great practical joker and loves clowning around. Perhaps this late 1996 picture says it all.