The room is huge. The raw primitive music of The Pogues bounces off the walls. He dances, whirls, using up all the space. He’s elated and singing at the top of his voice. He’s exhilarated, sweating, and stamps out the beat with force, an ecstatic expression on his face as if he was floating in outer space. On the last chord he leaps up and does the splits in a magnificent finale.

Roy Dupuis is being himself. Without a mask, released from the constraints imposed by stardom. He lets himself go without moderation or restraint, shaking off all inhibitions. It’s like a reincarnation of Zorba the Greek. Or, rather, a strange cross between Marlon Brando and Patrick Dewaere. But it’s really Roy Dupuis, the colossus of Abitibi.

There’s always this need to go crazy?

It’s in my nature, and especially because I love life intensely. And then, it’s also necessary to let go when you have to rein yourself in for too long. I am a man of seasons, but I have many Springs in one year.

Does it help you escape from your characters?

Yes, because I inhabit them in a visceral sort of way. The world of my character for Being at Home with Claude is not mine, and I had to search for it in the smallest recesses. It’s the same thing for the journalist in Scoop and also for Ovila in Les Filles de Caleb. Transforming yourself for a time into someone else, without forgetting who you are. You can find Romeos and Juliets anywhere; but to portray them onstage is a different matter.

Was Ovila very like the real Roy Dupuis?

Certainly he had a bit of me, as do all the characters I play. Actors aren’t necessarily possessed by their characters. All the same, you need to give what you have, and furthermore what you have in the depth of your soul, without allowing yourself to be taken over totally. Like Ovila I am a bit uprooted. A ‘city boy’ by adoption. I came to the city from Amos, via Kapuskasing, Ontario and Sainte-Rose.

And was the big city a shock?

Yes and no. I had to master it, to uncover it. Little by little I adjusted. But there again, it doesn’t take long to do the guided tour. Before coming to the city I didn’t smoke and never touched alcohol. Does the city corrupt and pollute? It’s a reasonable question. There are so many much worse things happening in far away places. Montreal can make your head spin, and paradoxically can make you feel alone in the world. However, I miss the country with its forests, lakes, rivers and the wonderful seasons. I appreciate space. That’s why I’m thinking about settling in the countryside. But not too far from the city. A sort of compromise, a mixture of city dweller and a native of the great outdoors.

Yet you still go out a lot ….

Not as much as all that. I’m more solitary than other people because my work is so demanding. Unfortunately it’s difficult for me to go about incognito. To hear some people talk I’m around everywhere. I don’t know if I have the gift of ubiquity, or a lot of doubles.

Wherever you go you cause waves ….

Things get started ….. and are then added to. "Dupuis did this, Dupuis did that ….. Did you know that …. I heard that Roy … ". Rumours, always rumours. It’s part of the job. You end up by putting up a shield.

Does it annoy you?

Not in the least. I’m a simple guy. I talk to everyone and I like people. You can’t control everything that people say. I sort through it all, and if it’s not too important I have a laugh about it.

As far as criticism is concerned, whether it’s positive or negative, I have always thought that the critics were criticising themselves. Regarding the subject of my elocution, which caused so much ink to flow, I want to improve it. But you know, one doesn’t make love to Stéphanie Rousseau in Scoop while delivering a speech in the manner of Cyrano. You have to use more natural techniques.

Does the job require a lot of concentration?

You've got to be joking. You have to make allowances. I don’t read a lot, except for my work. Screenplays and National Geographic. But I observe, I watch, I listen. It does no harm to be aware. The author that has influenced me the most is Dostoyevsky. I’ve read everything of his. It’s a treasure house of observation and reflections of man and his passage through life. I’m an inquiring TV viewer. I particularly like documentaries. I like to make new discoveries.

What discoveries interest you the most?

Everything. Everything is interesting. I was destined for the pure sciences before I decided to go into the theatre. I have always been drawn towards astrophysics. It’s pure science which manages to ask the real questions. I’m fascinated by the mysteries of life.

Which mysteries?
Life, its origin. Destiny, the great cosmic events which created the Universe. Everything can be explained. At least we are now beginning to find the answers to things which used to appear inexplicable. I find these hypotheses addictive.

Have you always been so inquisitive?

Yes, but also very active and determined. These are the circumstances which, in a way, have made me grow up to be what I am. I didn’t like it when, at the age of four, my mother made me learn the cello, but that lasted for eight years. This gave me a training in discipline. In addition, I knocked myself out doing sport …. to excess.

Always driven by excess?

No, by the wish for a job well done. I remember one day when my friends heard me playing the cello for the first time … it was a shock for them. As if, because you excel at hockey or the like, you can’t broaden your accomplishments and improve yourself in other spheres. There’s no incompatibility between the physical and the intellectual; everything should be in tune.

Is music one of your passions?

It’s vital. Moreover, for my next film I have to take up the cello again. A part of my past life. I will soon have to buy a new instrument. I’m quite nervous about it. It will undoubtedly open up a whole range of emotions as soon as I take up the bow again. It’s as demanding as a sport.

One can scarcely imagine Roy Dupuis playing the cello ….

You’re falling into the trap too. Putting labels, images on people. If I told you I was surprised that you could read, given the image I had of you, how would you react?

I’m only imagining what people say about you being a bum, a rebel …

You’re right. Sometimes I indulge this delinquent side - or bum - call it what you will. It’s probably a type of nonconformity, the desire to be my own person by rejecting a lot of conventions and popular opinions. But it’s all the same to me. You can telephone my mother to get the last word. She could teach you a thing or two about her Roy.

Because your mother knows you better than yourself?

I owe my mother everything. This woman has given us, my sister, my brother and me, everything we have. A life as a piano teacher to support her family. There’s more than love between us. For me she is the best example of all that is Woman. There’s also my aunt. Imagine, 96 years of experience. There’s another woman who has given me a tremendous amount. You would need to meet them both. A veritable fireworks display of perspective.

Is there a difference between Woman and women?

I am fascinated by both Woman and women. I’m convinced that the very essence of life is feminine. But we could talk about this for hours and hours. I feel that the subject has been gone over so often. Yet the theme of the woman who gives and perpetuates life will always remain at the heart of many discussions. If we get started on this you will have to add pages to this interview. Yes, I love women. For their mystery, their complexity and for the opposite. Perhaps it’s I who complicates things too much. I’ll tell you this : we’re in danger of starting a discussion which will take us till sunrise … and then continue to the next one. In a word … I am under their spell, but at the same time it’s not always easy.

Yet for you everything seems easy ….

That depends on what you mean by easy. But in a way I believe I’m privileged. I don’t want for anything, and I’m at a point in my life when I could have anything I wished for. Perhaps this is the point where I should redefine my priorities. Like living in the country. Having children. Finding my real roots in the earth, returning to my origins. Here in the city I’m constantly in demand, and because I’m fond of having fun and living life to the full I feel that a move to the country will allow me to be unencumbered and fulfilled at the same time.

Do you sometimes have difficult moments?

Yes, but in reality, not a lot. I rarely encounter solitude. That doesn’t stop me from feeling very alone sometimes. From reflecting on life, and from enjoying it enough to fear death. Or rather, to overcome it.

You always have this strange preoccupation with death ….

It’s precisely because I live at 100 miles an hour that sometimes I call a halt. Death is inevitable; what is essential is to know how to live life. I don’t set myself objectives, but I want at least to have a regard for certain principles. I have some good friends outside the business who accompany me in my self-exploration, and to whom I pledge absolute loyalty. There are people who have touched me deeply, and it’s through them that I know that the rest is still to come. Who can say what tomorrow will bring? You do heaps of jobs, then they all fade away and you start all over again. I will be in Cannes for the festival; we shall see what we shall see. I have lots of projects and offers. I prefer to live completely in the present. We shall see what happens to the career and what follows.

Ambitions?

Plenty. The ambition to succeed, to become a great actor. It’s a great challenge.

Is there a limit?

I believe that I’m an absolute being. Everything must be total : love, friendship, loyalty. I am ruled by three great principles that won’t let me go and that are essential for everyone. You can’t live without them. That’s desire, will and action. Without desire you can’t have will. And, without will, there’s no action. I also like to think of myself as a servant. An actor is a servant, in the service of a lot of people; the director, the producer, all of the crew. Also, and I can’t deny this, in the service of the public. That will make a good title for you : Le Roy des serviteurs (King of the Servants).

Roy Dupuis smokes a final cigarette before crossing the deserted square. It really is sunrise and he has talked about women, of their ability to create. Of his need for admiration, even confessing that deep inside him it’s perhaps to conquer Woman that he has become what he is. He goes to join his partner and to inhale another lungful of life. Not a bad life, rather an absolute thirst to experience everything, to miss nothing and to live to be old like his 96-year-old aunt.