Patrick Hivon described himself as “hyperactive” and as “someone who is impatient in life” and was often dissatisfied with his job as an actor, especially when he found that things were not moving fast enough for his liking. But as he turns 50 and after almost 25 years of experience on the small and big screen, the actor has learned to approach his work with more calm.
“It’s the experience that gave me this balance,” reveals Patrick Hivon in an interview with the Journal on the occasion of the release of the detective series “Surprising Detective: The Girl with Stone Eyes,” in which he plays the lead role.
“I have often been annoyed by this job. Because I didn’t have what I wanted or because things didn’t go the way I wanted. But today I realize that, although I am a very fast and impatient person in life, I see myself more as a marathon type.
“The nice thing about the experience is that you can’t dwell on it anymore because you’ve worked hard to acquire it,” he adds after a short silence.
“Now when I get great offers, I’m happier and I really naively take advantage of them like someone who gets a nice gift.”
Patrick Hivon, 48, says he is “very pleased” with the progress he has made (or in his case made) since leaving the National Theater School of Canada in 2000. “I didn’t expect to have such a career there. “I didn’t think I was entitled to this,” he says.
What makes him most proud is that he is still here after all these years.
“I am surprised and consider myself lucky to still be able to do this job. I thought I was sabotaging myself. I thought I was going to get nervous and say screw it, I’m getting out of this.
“What really helped me was when I learned to differentiate between the person I am and the man who goes to work. Because I see it that way, my job is much easier. I do my best and try to be as generous as possible.”
A thriller about the islands
PHOTO PROVIDED BY CLUB ILLICO
From the film “At the Origin of a Cry” by Robin Aubert to the drama series “The Night Where Laurier Gaudreault Awoke” by Xavier Dolan, Patrick Hivon has often subscribed to the characters of bums or skinned people. For the series “Surprising Detective: The Girl with the Stone Eyes,” which will be released on December 7th by Club illico, the actor had the chance to play what he described as “the first real police role of his career.”
“I had already played police officers, but those were roles that were not part of the investigation,” he explains.
“So it was a big challenge that we had to take on. I liked the thriller part of the series and also the way it was written and adapted for the screen. Everything holds together well. It’s not sensationalism for the sake of sensationalism. I found it believable and plausible and the characters were well drawn.”
Based on the novel “We always pay in the end”, the first volume of the popular series by author Jean Lemieux, which tells the investigations of the detective Surprenant, the series takes the viewer into the “closed and windy” world of the Magdalen Islands in autumn.
While the village of Cap-aux-Meules is shaken by the discovery of the body of the mayor’s daughter (Milya Corbeil Gauvreau), Detective Sergeant André Surprenant (Patrick Hivon) has to give up his vacation to solve this dirty murder with the help of his colleague Geneviève Savoie ( Catherine Brunet) and inexperienced police officers.
The series Yannick Savard (We, Caught) was filmed on the Magdalen Islands last spring, long before tourists stormed the archipelago in the summer months.
“I personally don’t believe in mass tourism, so I thought it was really fun to not be on the islands in the summer and be able to be with the people who live there all year round,” says Patrick Hivon.
“The islands we see in the series are not the islands of the postcards. The wind blows in the characters’ faces and their skin burns. It’s a harsh, sandy climate, everything is fragile there. I had fun showing that.”
As he tends to do with all the roles he plays on screen or stage, Patrick Hivon placed great emphasis on the flaws in Surprenant’s character.
“Yannick [Savard, le réalisateur] wanted to film real people, explains the actor. He wanted them to be police officers with hearts and feelings. It can’t be easy having to investigate the death of a young girl in a place where everyone knows everyone. It shakes up an entire community. Yannick placed a lot of emphasis on that and I really liked it. I have always found that it is in their flaws that we see the authenticity of the characters.”
The series “Surprising Detective: The Girl with the Stone Eyes” will be released on December 7th at Club illico.
Patrick Hivon in five remarkable roles
The room The tongue to tongue of the rock dogs (2001)
“This is a memorable moment for me because it was my first professional engagement. I loved the character. Over the years I have had extraordinary roles in the theater. There was Simon in Les Feluettes, Julien in Laurier Gaudreault… For me, theater is the ultimate expression for an actor. Except it takes a lot of courage. And I don’t always have one. I’m a bit of a coward in the theater. But for me, theater is the ultimate experience, for the actor but also for the audience.”
At the origin of a scream (2010)
“It is an important film for me. Filming with Robin Aubert was spiritual, like a pilgrimage. I couldn’t just have experiences like that because it would become banal. “It’s very rare for something like this to happen in a career.”
providence (2005)
“Providentially allowed me to learn a lot about acting in front of the camera. When you play the same character for seven years, you get to know him and you can afford to try certain things, always with the director’s approval.
The eye of the storm (2022)
“The nice thing about this role is that it brings out a crazier side of me that’s maybe more true to who I am in life.” It felt good to do that and it’s fun to see that People like to see me in such a role. It’s fun to change. However, I wouldn’t like to just do comedy. What I like most about my job is switching between genres while trying to stay true to them.”
The night Laurier Gaudreault woke up (2022)
“This series was intense at the end. Xavier [Dolan] is a very intense person. In addition, we defended something that we had already performed in the theater and a theater project that was very important to me. It was like a small station of the cross. You carry a cross and are crucified with it. It wasn’t always easy to carry. But I can’t complain that there was no meat around the bone. There were some in stock. It was an extraordinary playground.”