Patrice Bélanger did not make a cross on his acting profession

“If I was forced to keep only one contract, it is clear that it would be Survivor Quebec », Harts Patrice Bélanger, just back from the Philippines after the shooting of the third season. This reality TV, he’s a fan finished forever, and he would see himself hosting him for another 25 years, like Jeff Probst in the American version. However, Patrice Bélanger does not hide that he would also like to return to the game.

Posted at 7:00 a.m.

“I am very pampered, I have no right to complain. But yes, it’s true, I remain an actor, so it is certain that I dream that I am offered roles, “admits in all transparency Patrice Bélanger, met a few days after his return to Quebec when he was in the midst of a promotion for the new season of Survivor Quebec.

We sometimes forget it, but Patrice Bélanger is an actor of training. After leaving the Dramatic Art Conservatory, it was revealed to the general public in 2008 in the series on the Lavigueur family. His interpretation of Yve Lavigueur had even earned him a Gemini appointment at the time. Patrice Bélanger continued to play next, but he has never crumbled under proposals, unlike Sophie Cadieux or Laurence Lebœuf, whose career exploded after Lavigguese. It is therefore quite natural that the animation ended up taking up more and more space over the years.

“I like to animate as much as playing. Even when I was a teenager in Gatineau, I was doing theater in high school and I was animated on community television at the same time. I am not at all an actor who is frustrated not to play and who therefore turned to animation, “wishes to specify Patrice Bélanger, who wakes up at dawn for 15 years to liven up in the morning on the radio.

Patrice Bélanger’s frosty side

On TV, he animated for seven years Sweet sweetbefore taking the bar of the Quebec adaptation of Survivor. Whether he likes it or not, Patrice Bélanger is now and above all a host in the eyes of the ordinary mortals. He is aware of it: it is not him that we are going to think of instinct in casting agencies when we look for an actor.

This is the reality of many actors who have become animators. During his visit to the show In the mediaMélanie Maynard had recognized with frankness that her job as a host had ended up killing her career as an actress. Patrice Bélanger is not as categorical.

“I really don’t want to compare myself to Marc Labrèche, who is a genius and who has much more talent than me. But I tell myself that he played very little when he animated The end of the world et The big blonde. Then he played in The age of darkness de Denys Arcand. I think that in Quebec, the public accepts that a public figure can both lead and play, ”underlines the one whose last role on TV goes back to the series Hôtel, Canceled after a single season at TVA.

Could her very smooth public image of a very general public host have cut him off from certain roles? No doubt, he admits. Difficult indeed to imagine Patrice Bélanger in the shoes of an villain. But since he animates Survivor Quebecon the other hand, he observes that the perception that the public has evolved somewhat.

“It showed another image of me. When I was animated Sweet sweetI was the friendly and dynamic guy with the voice of a crepe. With Suvivorwe discover a more scathing, more sharp side of me. It’s going to look for a completely different audience, ”notes Patrice Bélanger.

The experience of a life

That we are not mistaken: his decision to leave VAT three years ago to go and animate Survivor Quebec was not motivated by any strategic calculation. He was very comfortable with the image he sent back to Sweet sweetshow which he also loved to animate. He would probably still be there, if Noovo had not decided to adapt Survivorone of the most popular reality TV in the world. When he learned that the format had been bought, it was stronger than him: he immediately called producer Julie Snyder to signify her immense interest in the idea of ​​animate the Quebec version, underlines this maniac of Survivor For 25 years.

Patrice Bélanger prides himself on having listened to the 48 seasons of Survivor in the United States. Some even more than once, because he wanted to be sure to understand the subtleties.

When he became the host of this program which demands a huge logistics, his great fear was that the Quebec edition was not up to par. His doubts were dissipated when he arrived on the film set in the Philippines.

“Honestly, someone who is not familiar with the cogs of television would see very few differences between the Quebec edition and the American publishing. And God knows that we do this with half half of their means. Production does a great job. It is perhaps me that we see on the poster when leaving the Jacques-Cartier bridge, but in reality, it is really a teamwork, ”underlines the host, very grateful.

The shooting of SURIVOR Quebecwhich mobilizes a hundred Quebecers on site including the candidates, is sometimes trying. There are many unforeseen events. Working conditions are difficult in the sweltering heat of the Philippines. But it is a human experience oh so stimulating, which does not compare itself to any other production in Quebec, adds Patrice Bélanger. Nothing would make him give up Survivor Quebec. Not even his desire, very real, however, to reconnect with his job as an actor.

Survivor Quebecin Noovo, Sunday at 8 p.m., and from Monday to Thursday at 7 p.m.