L'Homme de La Femme Nikita
Sophisticated, Sexy Roy Dupuis.
La Femme Nikita is currently the most successful program on the USA Network (Sundays, 10pm ET). Like The X-Files on Fox, La Femme Nikita quickly made the leap from cult hit to ratings blockbuster - and its gaining momentum in its second season.
Much of the credit must go to "Nikita" herself, Peta Wilson, the glamorous operative forced to be a part of the ruthless Section One, a top-secret government unit.
But with his role as "Michael", the mysterious man who is Nikita's uneasy ally and trainer, Canadian hunk Roy Dupuis has attracted many viewers with his subtle performance.
Though Michael has help Nikita survive a suicide mission, his feelings are never clear, cranking up the erotic tension between the sinewy leads.
Roy himself has been an erotic figure in much of his work, thanks to his penetrating eyes and romantic looks. It shouldn't surprise you to hear that he has played "Romeo" onstage and he also took on the part of "Harold" in Harold & Maude. He has appeared in the controversial Canadian film Jesus of Montreal, Screamers, as a hustler in Being at Home with Claude and in both Emily and its sequel Blanche. In Emily, along with heat, Roy generated a Best Actor award at the Cannes Audio/Video Festival. Roy has won several prestigious awards for acting, including the Canadian Gala Metrostar for 1991 and 1992, a Canadian Emmy for his leading role in '92 and the Rose D'Or (People's Choice Award) for 1991.
Though quite famous in Canada prior to La Femme Nikita, Roy was probably best known in America as the uncaring father of a five-pack in the international Dionne Quintuplets miniseries Million Dollar Babies.
Roy was born in Ontario and raised in Quebec, where he was preoccupied by science before seeing a film about the playwright Moliere that inspired him to look into theatre. When a friend of his canceled a plan to audition for the National Theatre School of Canada, Roy stepped in, bringing no expectations with him; he was selected from among more than 2,000 wannabes!
Roy does have time to make a movies now and then, and in fact recently finished shooting the issue thriller Hemoglobin with Rutger Hauer, about a man with an unknown blood disease and no living relatives.
The very private Roy Dupuis is a total athlete, and is constantly active, whether doing some cross-country ski-ing, skydiving or working on the 150 year old restored farmhouse he recently bought in Montreal. A victim of chronic wanderlust, Roy often backpacks to the far corners of the world - in fact he spent last summer in Turkey.
With the popularity of La Femme Nikita, time is running out on Roy's ability to backpack to a remote village and remain anonymous.