Roméo Dallaire’s book, Shake Hands with the Devil, will be made into a film with Roy Dupuis playing the general.  During the press conference for Shake Hands with the Devil, which will be released in 2007, La Presse went to shake hands with two men whose interests go far beyond the world of show business.

Anything goes when it comes to coaxing one of the artistic community’s most difficult actors to interview.  So if you were to pop outside for a quick puff, Mr Dupuis, would that be a good time for a chat?  Right.

So this interview took place in a sunny spot by the ashtray of the Ritz Carlton on Sherbrooke, where a press conference was held on Friday to unveil the details of his next film, Shake Hands with the Devil, adapted from the memoirs of General Roméo Dallaire, whom he will play onscreen.  Dressed in a crumpled shirt and trousers, with unruly hair and sunglasses, Roy Dupuis puffed on two consecutive cigarettes during this apparent break between several interviews with the media assembled for the occasion.

After the handsome Alexis in Un homme et son péché, then the mythical Rocket in Maurice Richard, this is another substantial role for Roy Dupuis, who will once again lend his features to a notable character in our history.  Except that, in his opinion, General Dallaire hasn’t yet made much of a mark on our consciousness.

“People know who he is, but I’m not sure everyone knows the details of his story,” he notes.  “That’s one of the reasons to tell it in the cinema.  As the general often says, a book is all very well, but fewer people read than go to the movies.  This film is part of his approach, because telling this story is his reason for living.”

Roméo Dallaire was 47 at the time of the events, Roy Dupuis is currently 42. <<Correction: he was of course 43 and 2 months! – viv>> You can already picture him with a moustache and slightly greying temples, but all that is the job of the make-up crew.  In the course of his work, the actor is said to sit on each role like an egg before hatching it.  For the past month, as well as reading Shake Hands with the Devil, he has been studying Roméo Dallaire. 

“I know where he comes from, where he was born, how he grew up, what his interests were.  I think he’s one of those rare people who act according to their conscience, and that this story changed him a lot.  For him, being a general isn’t a job, it’s a calling he’s had since he was very young.  His father was in the military. He’s grounded and believes enough in humanity to do what he does today, despite the horror he went through.

Roy Dupuis declares that, like everyone else in 1994, he didn’t grasp the magnitude of the Rwandan genocide.  He reveals that the film begins with the general returning to the country, and that the drama unfolds in flash-back, finally capturing the whole internal tragedy of a man who is confronted with the unimaginable.

“I think what he did was tremendous, staying on and trying to save as many people as possible.  When you know the situation you understand that he was obeying orders and that he was also responsible for the lives of his men.  His aim was to convince the UN and the international community, and this is what he still blames himself for failing to do.”

 That the cinema can help to change opinion, the actor has no doubt.  He believes in the power of the medium, as he believes in the relevance of artists engaging in social issues, being co-founder of the Rivers Foundation and protector of the Rupert River.

Consequently his name is more often found in the editorial pages than in the personality magazines.  Not everyone is happy that he lends his celebrity to a cause, on which subject he published a long response to his detractors in Le Devoir , which reads “What exactly am I accused of? As an artist, for speaking out, for not confining myself to my craft due to my ignorance. Ironically, this message reinforces the most common and contemptuous of stereotypes: look good and keep quiet. A message which would be laughable if it didn’t conceal a pernicious order to artists: that of self-censorship.”

Looking good is a given.  At 42 he won the Flash award for male sex-symbol, and his only reaction was to say, “Again”.  He is often untalkative in interviews, interminable silences preceding sometimes lacklustre answers – a real journalist’s nightmare.  Except if the question is about something that particularly interests him.  Protecting rivers is one.  Commitment is another.

“In interview I feel a lot more comfortable talking about something I feel strongly about than talking about my underpants!”

“It’s a question I ask myself, why in the press and on talk-shows do they pay so much attention to silly things that do absolutely nothing to inform or enrich society!  I’m often in the media glare – when I want to be – so at least I try to have something to say, to draw attention to something that could contribute to society.  At some point this becomes a responsibility.  Yes, you could wash your hands of it, but that’s not the way I’m made, that’s all.”

He insists on specifying that this battle isn’t his own, but that of specialists who have convinced him of the importance of the development of alternative, ecological energy sources.  His main argument: that saving energy would be more profitable for us than an increase in the consumption of hydro-electricity, because it would allow us both to pay less for our own consumption and to sell the resulting surplus.

On this subject he doesn’t hesitate to dive into a numbers war, as well as dismissing the critics. 

“At the moment there’s nothing that convinces me that economic reasons are the only basis for informing decisions.  That’s the big problem, and it’s the same the world over.  The people with power, not just the political parties, but the multi-nationals, for example, quite simply want to keep it, and to do this they need to continue to do what they’ve always done.  Several studies clearly show that energy saving creates more employment than any dam.  All the projects that are being put forward are based on an increase in demand, while we currently have the technologies to decrease consumption.  But the new technologies come from small businesses, so they so they carry less weight.”

His career and his campaigning activities keep Roy Dupuis in Quebec.  “I could have settled in Los Angeles, but I decided that no, home is here.  And there’s nothing to stop me going to film for two months in Africa, like at the moment.”

The cigarette break is over, and there’s only one more question, far from his current preoccupations: are the producers of the famous series 24 still wooing him? A big smile appears on his face.

“They are.  I’ve just never been able to fit it in …”

And he’ll say no more about it.