Christian Bégin was already recognized as an excellent actor, and, over the last 15 years, he has stood out as a host and interviewer. If he always works hard, it is to derive full satisfaction from his projects. Meeting a pampered man.
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Carried out at the end of the year, as the holiday season approaches, this interview with Christian Bégin was first intended to talk about the fifth edition of The night of depressionwhich he will host on January 20 at the Théâtre St-Denis. Just before Christmas, the actor and businessman went to rest with his partner at his residence, located in Kamouraska. A well-deserved vacation for this multi-talented artist. “All my filming is finished, I have nothing before March 1, except the animation of The Night of Depression. After that, I return to my land. It will be a well-deserved vacation and it feels great, because I would tell you that I need it,” says Christian.
It must be said that he has worked quite a bit in recent years! In addition to animating Curious Begin, There are people at mass et The high masshe played in the comedy To candidatesalongside Catherine Chabotin the web series The mediatorwhich features Mylène Mackaywithout forgetting Indefensiblewhere he played a psychiatrist.
«The night of depression is the event that I like to host the most on stage, it’s my evening of the year. I really have free reign, it’s a crazy evening. There are so many people and so many different artists! It is a unique event for which there are no rehearsals, except for the singers. I have so much fun doing this! As it’s an evening about depression, I always take great pleasure in finding a slightly more irreverent tone. Once again this year, there are some incredible names who will take part.” Among the artists who will participate in this show, we note Marie-Claude Barrette, Joe Bocan, Brigitte Boisjoli, Marie Carmen, Véronic DiCaire, Chantal Lamarre, Mado Lamotte, Soleil Launière, Yama Laurent, Lynda Lemay, Benoit McGinnis, Jacques Michel, Zachary Richard, Arnaud Soly…
A sight far from depressing!
So this is a promising evening, and if it were televised, it would undoubtedly reach even more people, but Christian does not agree. “I think it gives the evening something special, because people know they’ll be the only ones there. It creates a certain excitement in the room and an availability for everything; I’m glad it’s not televised.”
When I point out to him that the Night of depression will take place on the same day as the inauguration of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States, Christian has a moment of astonishment. “Ah, it’s true! Oh my God! It’s an incredible coincidence, but it’s going to be a coincidence that pays off for us! René Brisebois did the lyrics with me, we worked on the opening number, and I never made the connection that it was the same day,” he says.
And the depression in all this? Does he think that people are not in high spirits at the start of the year, as is often the case? “Yes, I feel it, there is a feeling of sickness, there is a kind of lead weight that weighs on everyone. We arrived at the parties a little tongue-tied. I made my tree well in advance this year to try to chase away the gray. There is a desire to change moodbecause it is heavy at the moment, politically and socially. You see, for the winter, I closed my grocery store in Kamouraska (The beadle’s garden) because we felt it was going to be dead. We realized that the financial year was not sustainable in the winter. There aren’t enough people coming to the grocery store. I think people will be cocooning a lot this winter. We feel that there is something weighing on the morale of the troops. This show, The night of depressionit’s very cathartic, it’s a good outlet. It’s not depressing, we present numbers that deal with depression, but we laugh a lot – we cry too, because there are numbers that are very moving. There are incredible performances and it’s all very liberating. The people who come to see the show year after year are completely galvanized when they leave there. It’s a job of dusting off depression.”
Shows that span time
Since we are talking about depression, Christian admits that he managed to overcome relatively well the health problem he had in March 2023. Remember that he had to have brain surgery for a tumor. “It was a fairly one-off episode, this affair that happened to me. I didn’t have to fight against an invasive disease, I didn’t have cancer, I had a tumor. Once my convalescence was over, I quickly put the necklace back on. In the current situation, I am truly among the privileged, in the sense that I make TV shows that stand the test of time. It’s rare, a show that will reach an 18th season (Curious Begin) and, this year, we arrive at a 9th season of There are people at mass. I told you I was going on vacation, and I’m going on vacation with peace of mind because I know I have work waiting for me. I can’t complain, there are so many people around me who don’t have a job, who don’t work as they would like. They are thinking about plan Bs, talking about returning to school, reorientation, so I can say that I am one of the extremely privileged people and I take the measure of this every day of my life. In addition, I continue to play: I made a new series, The Callof Luc Dionnewhich focuses on the biker wars and the trial of Mom Boucher. I host my two shows and when, in addition, we ask the actor, it’s a nice surprise. Like last year, when I did To candidates and that I had a golden role,” he explains.
-This series starring Catherine Chabot only lasted a year, but it should be mentioned that Christian was fabulous in the role of Serge Rivest, a man who tried by all means to prevent his century-old house from being expropriated. to make way for parking. A performance likely to earn him a Gemini prize.
Two beautiful roles
“I loved this character so much! He was like a comet in the show, he didn’t carry the series on his shoulders, but he was endearing in his grumpiness. And there, in The CallI play the role of the leader of the Carcajou squad. It’s also something I’ve never done. Historically, the biker war was very strong, it mobilized all of Quebec. Before filming, we met members of the Carcajou squad and we really understood how big it was.” This six-episode series produced by Julie Perreault takes the stage this year on immediately and this is the first time that Christian has the opportunity to play texts by Luc Dionne.
“It was really fun because Luc, he masters this universe perfectly, he is immersed in it. He knows them, the Carcajou guys, they’re friends. And Julie Perreault, I say it every time I can say it: she is the most prepared director I have worked with in 38 years in the business. The filming was very tight, very condensed, we had 6 hours to shoot in 27 days. Having such a prepared director was so valuable! I got off the plane, I went to shoot two episodes of Curious Begin in France, and the next day, I started on the set of The Call. It was extraordinary, and I found Patrice Robitaillewho is a work colleague that I adore. I played with him a few years ago in The first namea show that we have presented almost 200 times. In The Callit is with him, and with Magalie Lépine-Blondeauwho plays Judge Charbonneau, whom I had the most scenes to play.”
From the operation he underwent in 2023, Christian says he learned an important lesson: “What appears clearer to me today is how fragile everything is. At the same time, everything is very strong too, because I recovered from it, I have no after-effects. This association, fragility and the ability to bounce back, means that I am now more attentive to the signals that my body sends me, which I did not do at all before. You see, at the moment, I’m tired, I arrive on my knees at parties. My body says to me: “That’s enough, Cricri”, so that’s going to be it,” he said, laughing. I’m 61 years old, but in my head, I’m sometimes 22. And the older we get, the wider this gap becomes. I don’t do a lot of sport and it’s not that I don’t pay attention to my body, but I don’t take care of it like I should at the age I am. I challenge it, I push it a lot, and the older I get, the more I realize that between the perception I have and what my body is capable of taking, my body speaks a lot louder than before. I need to be gentler with myself,” he adds.
Coming back to the Garden of the Beadle, Christian remains optimistic for the summer season. “It’s still tough, small business, at the moment. We are being eaten by all the big stores in the world, but last summer, we worked miracles. My girlfriend joined the team and she really straightened out the management. We are well prepared for summer, a very busy period. It’s a great business and I’m learning, once again, how to become a good entrepreneur. Marie-Ève (Perron) is a good ally in this project,” he says about his partner, who is an actress.
A beautiful meeting
In 2025, Christian will once again host Curious Begin et There are people at massand the filming of The high mass were completed last year. “We did a show with Janette (Bertrand)for his 100th birthday, and we will broadcast it on March 25, his 100th birthday. She is incredible, this woman! Everything has been said about Janette, but in a society where the words of older people are somewhat devalued, she is alert, she still thinks about the world, she is at the top why game. What keeps her alive, she says, is that she still has plans. She doesn’t want to lose touch with the world she lives in, despite her age, and she is still avant-garde. She is such an impressive woman! We’ve known each other for years: one of the biggest roles I had on TV, at the start of my career, was in Love with a capital A. It was an episode about gang rape that I shot with Dominique Leducthe mother of my son. Dominique was pregnant with Théo at that time, that was something. I owe a lot to Janette; I also wrote the preface to his recipe book, which has been republished.”
The series The Call will be available on illico+ from January 23. The new season of There are people at mass will be presented from May 2 on Télé-Québec. Curious Begin will be broadcast in the fall on Télé-Québec.
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