“It was intense,” he remembers. I tore off my laundry. I was really emotional. I was going crazy! However, I only play the tambourine! But, as I write the texts, the songs live in me.
When he was younger, his role model was the American punk singer GG Allin. “He did a lot of business on stage,” recalls the artist. But he was violent in a way that I don’t like.”
While he played a Machiavellian character from the 18th century in a short film, Martin Dubreuil asked Luc Brien, the singer and guitarist of the Breastfeeders, if he had a book to suggest to him that featured an evil character, a question of fully understand the psychology of your character.
Luc Brien, who studied literature, offered him the work The songs of Maldororwritten by Isidore Ducasse, under the pseudonym Count de Lautréamont.
“It’s the emblem of the surrealists, the Dadaists,” describes the actor. The author warns the reader that what he is reading will be dangerous. We wonder if he’s crazy. The character of Maldoror is a kind of demigod.” Under the suggestion of his friend Luc, this is how Johnny Maldoror was born.
Martin Dubreuil, left, as Johnny Maldoror in The Breastfeeders. (Archives)
This is what the actor and member of the group Les Breastfeeders came to say during a recent free and relaxed discussion in front of an audience, at the invitation of the Paraloeil cinema and production center in Rimouski. Actor Martin Dubreuil spoke about his varied roles both in cinema and on the small screen. The artist was an open book on the characters who marked him, on his acting techniques, on his models.
Yves Boisvert
One of Martin Dubreuil’s favorite roles among all those he has played is that of Yves Boisvert in the feature film To everyone who doesn’t read mefor which the actor won an Iris prize for best male performance in a leading role at the Québec Cinéma 2019 gala. In his opinion, it was a perfect role for him.
“It made me think of everything I went through in my life before becoming a little wiser, settling down, settling down with my girlfriend and my children. When I entered into the character of Boisvert, I became a poet who went to bed and got up at any time.
“I discovered a poet, a man I didn’t know. I loved discovering Yves Boisvert and his poems. I loved playing that. I felt confident.”
Once the film was released, Martin Dubreuil met several people who had known Boisvert. “It hurt me to learn things I wish I had known before making the film. I knew he had Irish blood. I have Italian blood. So, my Boisvert is more Italian.
“If I had known Boisvert had Irish blood, I would have worked on it, observed and learned Irish stuff. I would have had a different attitude.”
Renowned for being an actor in short films, Martin Dubreuil was not approached for the character of Yves Boisvert. Director Yan Giroux saw Luc Picard in this role. But, the actor was playing at that time in the series District 31 by Fabienne Larouche.
“He wanted to break his contract, but it didn’t work,” says Dubreuil. He was very sad about that. You have to believe that this role was made for me!” Little anecdote: Henri, Luc Picard’s son, plays in the film.
Sat
Martin Dubreuil’s last stay in the Rimouski region dates back to August 2022 during the filming of the film The time of a summer in Sainte-Luce. “It was great, even if it’s always something to be in a hotel, far from your loved ones,” he remembers. But, it helps you get into character.”
According to him, this also allows him to build links with other actors. “Those who get along well on screen are not necessarily those who get along well off the screen,” he points out, however.
In this feature film, Martin Dubreuil plays the role of Sam, a former soldier struggling with post-traumatic shock syndrome. He knew how to get into the skin of his character so well that he retained “after-effects”.
“When I hear the sound of an airplane, I still jump because I had forced myself to be afraid of the slightest sound. I’m still stuck with this; I get nervous when I hear a noise.”
Around twenty people came to meet Martin Dubreuil. (Johanne Fournier, Special collaboration)
Anthony Lemaire
Other roles have marked the actor, including that of Anthony Lemaire, a repeat pedophile in The seven days of retaliation. In the film, surgeon Bruno Hamel, played by Claude Legault, delivers chain blows to Lemaire, who has both hands tied in the air and who has a fractured knee.
Before the scene, to make his acting seem more real, Martin Dubreuil crushed his fingers in the door of his dressing room while repeating the words: “It’s not me, I swear! Wait until I have my trial!”
“It’s my concern for realism. When I watch this again, I’m happy with my acting. These are things you don’t learn at drama school.” Moreover, the one who denies the mention of self-taught actor which is often attached to him, says he uses his stress to release more emotions.
He recognizes that simulating suffering is one of his strengths. “It started when I was a kid at the mall with friends, where I would pretend to trip and fall on my face. In 4th grade, a guy fell on me and I pretended I had a leg injury.
“With my friend Michel, we went to the hospital. I didn’t like lying, but I played.”
Among his favorite actors, Martin Dubreuil names Luc Picard and Jean Lapointe. He also says he admires Roy Dupuis, with whom he plays in the series With a beating heart.
Around twenty people attended the talk which took place at the Le Bien le Malt microbrewery in Rimouski and which was hosted by Paraloeil’s broadcasting and programming manager, Jean-Philippe Catellier. After the activity, Martin Dubreuil performed with the Breastfeeders at the Bains publics cultural cabaret, located in downtown Rimouski.
