Published at 1:23 am. Updated at 8:00 a.m.
Marie-Victorin CEGEP
“I would never have done this job if I hadn’t come here. Never ! » emphasizes Anglesh Major as he enters the Marie-Victorin CEGEP in the north of Montreal.
In high school, theater was a vacation course for his friends, but for him it was an awakening. “I pretended to say it was boring like everyone else, but deep down I stumbled. »
However, Anglesh Major was a quiet boy on the benches at Louis Riel Secondary School. “The kind of student you don’t notice.” »
Despite his introverted nature, the young man chose the theater option in the Art, Letters and Communication course at Cégep Marie-Victorin. “When I arrived here I didn’t know anyone. I didn’t feel like I belonged,” he admits.
After a year, Anglesh thought about giving it all up, but the professor and director of the program, Pierre Brodeur, did everything to stop him. The man who would become his mentor made it clear to him that there are other forms of theater than the one with a capital T. “He made it clear to me that theater is about being a human being, that it is about being yourself.” I owe him a lot. »
PHOTO MARCO CAMPANOZZI, THE PRESS
Anglesh Major sits with our journalist in a café at Cégep Marie-Victorin, whose open day is taking place on Saturday.
The family nest
A few weeks before our interview, Anglesh Major held a conference at the Cégep Marie-Victorin. He touched people by sharing how his father reacted when he told him he wanted to go on stage.
“Boy, I messed up. »
Instead, Anglesh told his father about the happiness and diverse opportunities he had given him when he let him immigrate from Haiti at the age of three: “You gave me the greatest gift in the world and let me unwrap it.” »
PHOTO CATHERINE LEFEBVRE, ARCHIVE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Anglesh Major with the Actor of the Year award (in the Theater category), which he won at the 2022 6th Dynasty Gala celebrating black excellence.
Anglesh grew up far away from his mother, who remained in Haiti. After several requests from her son, she was finally able to join him in Montreal last summer. Result: happiness, but also a lot of adjustment to a new life.
It can take time to feel at home in the right place, and his son knows that.
After CEGEP, Anglesh Major made the jump to CEGEP de Saint-Hyacinthe theater school before being removed from the cohort. A failure, however, did not quench his thirst for acting, so he joined the UQAM Theater School.
Anglesh Major particularly remembers a time when he was embarrassed to give a reading by Michel Tremblay. During his training, he even received coaching to hide his Creole accent. But why should you feel like you have to be someone else?
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RADIO-CANADA
Anglesh Major in I Want Someone to Erase Me, series based on the novel by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
In 2017, at the request of his former teacher Luce Pelletier, Anglesh Major participated in the distribution of the play J’appelle mes Frères (by Jonas Hassen Khemiri). It was his first big role. The second came with Richardson’s character in the series “I Want Someone to Erase Me,” broadcast on ICI Tou.tv.
Playing a criminal of Haitian origin from the Saint-Michel district who sells drugs? Anglesh Major wanted to avoid this stereotypical character, but a meeting with Eric Piccoli made him change his mind. “This role has everything: a bad guy, a nice guy, a charmer, a scared guy,” the director told him.
The reviews were unanimous. And for Anglesh Major it was a revelation. “Being an actor means playing someone else, but with a part of yourself. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, LA PRESSE ARCHIVE
Anglesh Major on the set of STAT, where he plays the role of emergency doctor Marco.
The buddy
“A big part of the job is exposure to real life,” says Anglesh Major, who worked in housekeeping at CHUM for eight years. An experience that temporarily led him to become a neuropsychologist. “I saw a few cases, but I was particularly moved by everything that had to do with memory,” he says. Memory is the accumulation of who we are. »
“A hospital is cold on the outside, but on the inside it is so human,” continues the man who plays the role of an emergency doctor in the daily newspaper STAT.
A role for which he went into the audition with “naïveté” – a word he will use several times in our interview. His agent even had to remind him that STAT was replacing the television phenomenon District 31 (in which he had a small role).
PHOTO PROVIDED BY DUCEPPE
Anglesh Major on stage at the Théâtre Duceppe
Duceppes
Another offer he accepted with “naïveté” before STAT was that of Alexandre Goyette to take on the sole role of the acclaimed play King Dave at the Théâtre Duceppe.
When Anglesh Major began rehearsals, he realized that many actors would have refused to do a 100-minute monologue.
But the pressure didn’t just come from pages and pages of text that had to be memorized. The media, including La Presse, spoke of “the first black actor to defend a solo performance in a major theater in Montreal.”
Bad theater performances don’t matter. But there, if I was shocked, people would have said: That’s why.
Anglesh Major
At one point during rehearsal, Anglesh Major “collapsed” during a routine. “You will tell me what happens,” his director Christian Fortin told him. Anglesh confessed: He was afraid of disappointing his community. “It’s not fuel,” Fortin replied. You are the character of a work. Stay indoors. »
Anglesh Major was praised by critics. Then he multiplied the roles until STAT, especially in Cérébrum, A Criminal Affair and Larry.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Anglesh Major backstage at the Bell Center
The Bell Center
On Friday evening, Anglesh Major even performed at the Bell Center for the 20th anniversary of Disques 7ième Ciel, the label owned by Koriass and FouKi, with which he released the mini-album Ephemeres in 2021.
Like many young people, Anglesh Major initially wanted to become a rapper. Instead of buying beats, he decided to produce them. He was later introduced to the Montreal scene as part of the Loop Sessions evenings at the Plaza exit.
One day he was in the studio with D4vid Lee when Imposs showed up unexpectedly a few hours later and offered him a collaboration. Imposs, this monument to Quebec rap and member of Muzion? Anglesh pinches himself again.
He also pinches himself knowing that his idol Timbaland follows him on Instagram and has even liked some of his posts. “I haven’t had the courage to write to him yet, but I want to be ready when he says to me: ‘Come away'”
“I’m making less music at the moment and I miss it,” says Anglesh Major.
In contrast, Anglesh Major does a lot of voice acting. The dream of the connoisseur of the martial art Muay Thai? He is entrusted with a very physical role, like the one played by his idol Denzel Washington.
It is thrown into the universe.
Who is Anglesh Major?
- The 32-year-old actor and musician appeared in several TV series this fall, including STAT, The Rebels and One Way: Survive.
- Anglesh Major is part of the cast of the play M’appelle Mohamed Ali, which will be performed at the Diamant Theater from April 25th to 27th, 2024.
- In 2021, he released a micro-album titled Ephemere.