Roy Mania knows no frontiers

Roy Dupuis’ fans gather together from the United States and Europe to attend their idol’s stage comeback.

In Quebec being a star often means that you shine only in a local firmament.  Except for Céline Dion, few celebrities have paparazzi and ecstatic groupies hot on their heels. Not so Roy Dupuis, who has dedicated fans on an international scale, several of whom are getting ready to set a course for Montreal to admire the stage comeback of the mysterious Michael of La Femme Nikita.

It’s hard to imagine that as far away as Russia, web users are keying in Roy Dupuis’ every move, exchanging views on his latest appearances on screen, or lamenting the recent passing of his mother.  People who haven’t mastered the Cyrillic alphabet can go and visit one of the numerous sites in Spanish, Japanese or English where Roy Dupuis’ life and career are laid out in minute detail, where the “ Royettes” (on royettes.com) busy themselves and go into keyboard raptures on discussion forums.

Roy Dupuis fuels a celebrity phenomenon that is unique in Quebec for an actor. As Sarah Kane’s play, Blasted, opens this evening at the Usine C, ticket sales are in full swing and dozens of fans from the United States and Europe are getting ready to come and see their muse’s return to the stage, performing for the first time with his partner, actress Céline Bonnier.   Dupuis’ last stage appearance was in 1994, in the play True West by Sam Shepard.

“From my own mailing list I know that at least 20 of my members are going to Montreal during the next few days to see Blasted, the majority coming from the US but also from Holland,” maintains Maxine Cunnyngham from Oklahoma City, who manages the discussion group amisparroy.com.

According to her, Roy Dupuis’ fame went global after the worldwide broadcasting of the successful series La Femme Nikita, where he plays a mysterious anti-terrorist agent of unflappable composure. The series’ popularity gave rise to the creation of dozens of sites and message boards linked to Nikita or specifically Roy Dupuis, not just in the States but from Japan to Brazil, recruiting fans in five continents, including Australia.  Amongst them there is even a Greek and a Russian site where sincere condolences following the recent death of his mother are addressed to Roy in French.

“All these people are in touch with everything that happens in Roy’s life via the internet, and some even meet up at particular events, like film premieres or events organised by the Rivers Foundation,” says Ms Cunnyngham, who is herself the organiser of fund raising campaigns for the Rivers Foundation, a non-profit organisation co-founded by Roy Dupuis, Michel Gauthier and Alain Saladzius, to protect the most beautiful rivers in Québec.

This constellation of fans is very valuable to the Rivers Foundation.  In fact no less than 70% of the funding received by the organisation comes from Roy Dupuis’ loyal supporters.  “For them, giving to the Foundation is like giving a gift to the actor whom they admire as much for his social conscience as for his talent,” says Ms Cunnyngham.

Moreover, twice a year the Rivers Foundation holds an auction where dozens of fans gather to fight over autographed items and photos which sometimes reach exorbitant prices.  According to Michel Gauthier, the actor’s official photographer and co-president of the Foundation, a statuette won by Roy Dupuis at the last Halifax Film Festival for his role as General Roméo Dallaire in Shake Hands with the Devil fetched no less than $20,000.

”When the fans are there they get carried away!  On top of that it lets them meet him and go on stage with him,” explains M. Gauthier.

At every press conference Roy is at, the photographers from the main daily papers are contacted to make their photographs over to the Rivers Foundation, who resells them to the highest bidder at these twice-yearly events.  At these occasions autographed photos sometimes go for $2,000 or $3,000 apiece, although most can be got for around $350.  Anything goes – autographed DVDs, film soundtracks, film posters signed by Roy, in short anything that a fan could want to add to her collection.

Roy mania also takes place on ebay, where you will find a host of articles on offer from sellers of dreams, who try to cash in on the frenzied and lucrative popularity of the actor.  You can even find copies of the 10th March edition of Le Devoir where Roy Dupuis, awarded the Genie for Best Actor in Shake Hands with the Devil the previous evening, put on a beaming smile for the front page.

For it must be said that fans of the actor, who was born in Ontario and spent his youth in Quebec, have difficulty laying their hands on some of his films that are rarely distributed outside Canada.  Many resort to Amazon.ca in order to keep up with the career of the actor who gave up playing Michael in Nikita in 2001.

“There is a huge market on the Internet for Roy’s DVDs, because many of them are quite simply not distributed abroad.  But we always find a way of keeping informed of everything he does, particularly by consulting the Montreal newspapers!” says the founder of amisparroy.com, who managed to lay her hands on a poster of Blasted by contacting Le Devoir.

Meetings, premieres, auctions – the activities which unite the fans are legion. And that even includes a beginners’ course in French!  All the better to follow Roy everywhere ….