If Virginie Fortin had been told a few years ago that she was being offered a starring role in a romantic comedy on a silver platter, the actress and comedian would have thought it a joke. But that’s exactly what happened with the Christmas movie, 23rd of December.
• Also read: Holiday madness at the center of a film by India Desjardins
It was the idea and screenwriter of the feature, India Desjardins, who had her in mind when writing the screenplay for December 23, a choral film directed by Miryam Bouchard (Mon cirque à moi) that follows the adventures of several characters in parallel . on the eve of Christmas Eve. The author wanted to entrust Virginie Fortin with one of the main roles in her film because, according to her, she shares the same sense of humor as her.
“I couldn’t believe people thought that about me without even asking me to audition,” the 36-year-old actress said in an interview with the Journal.
“I was super flattered that India recognized my sense of humor. It’s true that we have a lot of chemistry, you and me. I think we agree on a lot of opinions, feminists for example. As I read the script, I realized that there were many twists and turns that I could say. There’s also a kind of awkwardness in my character that I could identify with. Like me, she downplays a lot with humor and makes little jokes to advance socially.
It is therefore no coincidence that the character of Elsa, played by Virginie Fortin on December 23, has some points in common with India Desjardins. The children’s book author Elsa is a kind of alter ego of the screenwriter.
“On the other hand, the aim was not to imitate India, Nuance Virginie Fortin. The great power of fiction is that you can take a little bit of inspiration from reality and then make something different out of it. In India’s writing, it was already clear on the paper who this girl was. It’s not all India and it’s not all me. It’s a happy mix of both. It didn’t take much compositional work.
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Although this is her first film role, Virginie Fortin had already gained a lot of film experience, starring alongside Évelyne Brochu in the three seasons of the Trop series. However, she does not hide the fact that the means used on a film set have impressed her.
“I knew we didn’t have time anymore when we were shooting for the movies,” she says. I noticed it the day I thought I’d finish early because there was only one scene on my schedule. But in the end, when I got to the set, I realized that we would spend all day shooting this scene! It’s also fun to be able to close off a section of Rue Sainte-Catherine for a whole morning to film a scene. I’ve seen the little hook more often than in the cinema. I felt a bit like I was in Hollywood!”
The film 23rd of December opens on 25.11.