Louis-David Morasse reveals his second profession

For 25 years, Louis-David Morasse has given us characters who are sometimes endearing, sometimes polarizing. Currently, it is in Alerts that he takes on a real acting challenge… while practicing another profession.

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Louis-David, we currently see you in Alerts. Is this a particularly demanding role to hold?

Yes, it’s the most demanding role I’ve had to take on in my career. The scenario is so well written that we fly from surprise to surprise. The team is great. It’s a nice big score to play.

We’ve never seen you in this kind of character.

No. Last year, I auditioned for another role, but it was suggested that I take the risk and wait for the next one. They really saw me in the other. I auditioned again for Laurent Bélanger and I was chosen. To play this role, I am happy to have a lot of experience. I have a daughter the same age as the character…

Was the man also hit?

Yes, it affects any parent. I used what I had. I am very close to my daughter. We have a very strong father-daughter relationship. My character’s daughter disappears and dies. It’s a progression. I have always been in favor of a certain modesty so that the viewer is moved. But there, I had no choice but to open the floodgates and cry en masse. The role is intense from start to finish. At one point I was afraid of being redundant, caricatured or boring the viewer, but I think we met the challenge. It’s difficult to play in these areas and remain credible. I made sure to keep that alive.

Do you have other projects on the agenda?

I play in STAT occasionally and I have another project that I can’t talk about at the moment. I am now a member of the board of directors of the Artists’ Union. We work hard with the political world and the various associations in the field. We are in a period of crisis. It’s difficult to get money. We must save our French-speaking culture, which is fragile. Our children watch international platforms. The little Gallic village that we form has been lucky to survive until now. To maintain our audience, we need a unique platform, setting up a Quebec Netflix so that we can continue to consume our culture.


Photo : Patrick Seguin / TVA Pu

The soap opera 4 and a half… Was it your first series?

Yes, I was leaving school. I have 28 years of career. I have appeared in 35 television series. I have some mileage… (smile) I was offered this character of poet, a role that I had to play for two scenes. Pierre Poirier and Sylvie Lussier really liked what I had done and they wrote for Renaud for four years. This was before social media. People sent us handwritten letters to Radio-Canada. My character was hateful. Bisexual, he slept with the mother and daughter. People hated me! I received insulting letters. Last year, everyone loved my character.


Photo : / SRC

Is this a role that has had a big impact on your career?

Yes, because at the time there were no recorders. People were watching live . At the height of 4 and a half…there were 2.3 million viewers! I was spoiled. Subsequently, Sylvie and Pierre wrote me a role in The Inn of the Black Dog. I did 13 years in this series. Then, I found myself in 5th rank for four years. We spent 20 or 25 years together. I was lucky. I did long-term contracts. With O’it was eight years. I am well aware of my luck. I have participated in shows that had ratings of over 1.2 million viewers. I was on the air Monday nights for 25 years.

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In some ways it’s a different time?

Yes, and I consider that the middle class of actors has disappeared. We now do this job as an extracurricular activity. You have to do another job in parallel. For 25 years, I could make a living as an actor, but that no longer exists.

Do you do anything else at the same time?

Yes, I am also a cabinetmaker. It allows me to recharge my batteries elsewhere, to see other people. It was a hobby for 25 years because it was a counterbalance to my job as an actor, which is in my head. Cutting a tree, transforming it into planks then into furniture or a staircase, it lasts a lifetime.

How did you understand that you were destined to become an actor?

In high school, the guidance counselor knew about it before me. In secondary school, I went on stage and was hooked. It wasn’t very encouraged in my family. My father was worried, and he was right to be. He would have wanted me to pursue a liberal profession. He was an administrator. He would have liked me not to choose an unstable profession.

He rightly wanted more security for his son?

Effectively. I entered CEGEP in another program. The guidance counselor predicted that a year later I would end up elsewhere, and he was right. I did a year of CEGEP then I did my auditions and entered Sainte-Thérèse. Dad was very proud of his boy… (smile)

Before leaving, he saw his happy son, who was practicing the profession he loved?

Yes. I accompanied him until the very end this spring. We experienced very rich moments. It was during the filming of Alerts. I played intensely and I lived intensely.

Support remains an extraordinary moment in one’s life.

Yes, and it changed me profoundly. My job as a self-employed worker has many flaws, but it allows me to have time. I got it and spent three weeks in hospice care with my father. Looking into our eyes. To live what we had to live. Until the last breath. I went back and forth between the film set and hospice care.

Were you lucky enough to be surrounded by an understanding team?

I wanted to keep it a secret, because I wanted us to play a good role. I didn’t want people to look at me with compassion or pity, for everyone to be moved and for it to make me bawl without it being for the right reason. I wanted to stay focused. It requires strength, all the same… I would say that it’s the experience, the learning that I did with great actors with whom I had the chance to work. Sometimes they had difficult times, but kept them secret. I realized that this is necessary to play the good deal.

Has your mother, for her part, seen your entire career?

Yes, and she has always retained her childish heart. As a spectator, she is “first degree”. If she sees something on the screen, she calls me to tell me about it. In the theater, if she’s in the room, she talks to me. It always made me laugh…

Alerts is broadcast on Mondays at 9 p.m. on TVA, and is available in catch-up on TVA+.

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