On the other end of the phone, Dino Tavarone pauses and sighs, “Ah Michel… he was like a brother.”
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If you listen to him, there’s no denying that meeting Michel Côté on the set of Omertà almost three decades ago changed Dino Tavarone’s life.
In the interview, the one who played Giuseppe Scarfo is visibly upset. “I feel like a ghost, like an automaton. I forget things, I don’t know what to do. i have his picture Here. Before me.”
That doesn’t stop him from unraveling anecdotes one after another about who was a mentor. He will be eternally grateful to her for reassuring him during the first scene they shot together.
- Director and screenwriter Luc Dionne pays tribute to Michel Côté in Sophie Durocher’s show via QUB radio :
“When I started Omertà I had all these great actors in front of me. I was nothing. I was a restaurant owner. We were at a coffee shop and he had to come over and introduce himself. He probably sensed that I was nervous. He had maybe three words to say and he was wrong. I’m sure he did it on purpose. He said: Tabarnouche, I was wrong. It gave me a lot of courage. I said to myself, if Michel Côté could be wrong…”
When Dino Tavarone was filming his documentary “Mon ami Dino” a few years ago, Michel Côté did not hesitate to heed his old friend’s call.
“He gave a lot to everyone. You needed something, Michel was there. Always. When I did Mon ami Dino he said yes and it wasn’t even paid for. Ah, Michael!…»