Louise Turcot will be more present than ever on our screens this year. The 78-year-old actress says she’s been overwhelmed by the variety of roles she’s had the privilege of defending in film and television lately.
“As we get older, we’re often offered the roles of women lying on a hospital bed or suffering from Alzheimer’s,” she laments. But the characters that have been offered to me for some time are very varied. In the film Notre-Dame de Moncton [qui prend l’affiche la semaine prochaine], I play the role of a very active and fit woman who takes charge of her life. It’s very interesting.”
In addition to that role on Notre-Dame de Moncton, Louise Turcot recently portrayed an elderly woman victim of sexual violence in the second season of Reasonable Doubt, which airs this winter. We will also find her later this year in the film The Time of a Summer by Louise Archambault, but also in Testament, the new dramatic comedy by Denys Arcand.
Although she is currently going through a stimulating phase in her career, Louise Turcot is aware that the situation could be very different in a year or two. Because in this job, which she has been doing for more than 50 years, “getting older is often synonymous with not being able to work,” she recalls.
“It’s a mistake in our profession,” she says. As we get older we have a lot of experience and know-how that we want to share, but unfortunately this is the time when we become less interesting to people who write. Television and cinema are among the youngest, and that is normal. But I think we could have both. We could have a lot of roles for characters in their 20s and 30s, but also a few for older people. Because they exist in society. It would be fun to have represented her. This is my little personal fight!”
“A Benevolent Movie”
Louise Turcot fell in love with the screenplay of Notre-Dame de Moncton, director Denise Bouchard’s second feature film. The film tells the unexpected meeting between a young woman (Laurie Gagné) who is preparing to reconnect with the son she had to give up for adoption 20 years ago and an elderly lady (Louise Turcot) who has just lost her husband has lost.
“What I liked most about this scenario is that it’s a benevolent film, she gets carried away. It’s a film that feels good. People who saw it said to us: My God, it’s good to see a film about mutual aid and to see people who have compassion and help each other in life. It’s really a nice topic. These are two women who are each at a pivotal moment in their lives. Instead of turning against each other, they will work together to improve their lives. That’s the beauty of the film.”
The actress was also happy to spend a few weeks in Moncton in spring 2022 to shoot the film with a crew primarily from New Brunswick. His spouse Gilles Renaud stood by his side as he also has a role in the feature film.
“We always like to play together, Gilles and I, but that very rarely happens to us,” she notes. In this case he plays my husband, but unfortunately he dies in the first half hour of the film (laughs). We like working together because we see the game and the work the same way.
Our Lady of Moncton hits theaters on March 24th.