Laughter, viruses, strange locations… There must have been many funny moments during the seven years of filming L’Échappée! On the occasion of a final meeting with some of the actors of the series, which ends this Monday for good, we asked them to tell us some snappy anecdotes that will stay with them when they think back on this landmark project. Laugh as you read their answers below!
While you are waiting for this last episode that will close for the residents of Sainte-Alice-de-Rimouski and their youth center, see here our hypotheses on the finale and read here our interview with the author Mylène Chollet who the Review by retraces this great adventure. Actress Charlotte Aubin (Jade Francoeur) also told us back in December that we should experience grief as this important page approaches. Read his loving words here.
The final episode of L’Échappée will air this Monday 27 March at 8pm on TVA.
Marie Soleil Dion (Sophie Cartier): “I laughed a lot with Jean-François Nadeau (aka Robin). We laughed a lot. We knew each other because we had improvised together at the LNI. We weren’t that close, we were just such colleagues. Then we became friends with “L’Échappée” and really had a lot of laughs. My biggest giggles on set are with Jean-François and Anick (Lemay). It’s hard to explain, but Jean-François is very tall and I’m short. At some point we were behind, we had to go forward, and the team didn’t have time to fix anything, to block me, so Jean-François had to bend down, “crouch”. We had to step out of the frame and he went “crouching” to look as tall as me. It didn’t show up on screen, but it was quite a laugh for us! Another time he broke his glasses…”
Anick Lemay (Noemie Francoeur): “In the first season, Jade (Charlotte Aubin) and Xavier (Félix-Antoine Duval) were supposed to get married, but eventually David Lelièvre (Patrick Hivon) appeared in the portrait and it all fell through. When they got married properly in the fourth or fifth season, poor Félix-Antoine who played Xavier was sick as a dog at the time of filming! But sick! We didn’t know what he had, but he had a fever that ruined everything. We gave him Tylenol, everything we could, and nothing happened. And it stunk! His breath was disgusting… But he was going to get married that day! Our poor Charlotte Aubin ruined her life. He was talking to us and we wanted to run away… And she had to kiss him! The next day we learned that he had scarlet fever [Une infection extrêmement contagieuse, NDLR]. Fortunately, those of us who were close to him had already had all of us. Felix-Antoine was pathetic. In our job you can’t be sick. “The Show Must Go On”, it really is! »
Steve Gagnon (Jean Simon Cardinal): “We shot in an old hotel, an abandoned slum, during the sixth season. On screen we made it a pretty charming place, pretty warm, where people do yoga… But it ended up being a disgusting, unsanitary place. Eventually someone wanted to take a nap as there were beds everywhere; we were in a hotel. The person lifted a sheet and there – because there were dead mice and feces everywhere, in the sockets, in the sinks… – there was a big pool of blood on the bed with tons of feces. A mouse probably gave birth there and the babies stayed there. The bed and mattress were des-tired! It smelled bad… While the place on screen was charming and warm. »
Chantal Fontaine (Gisele Bayeur): “I arrived in season five of L’Échappée in the middle of a pandemic. And there are faces on the set, technicians that I first saw without a mask at the “closing party”. [fête soulignant la fin d’un tournage, NDLR], lately! Crazy, after three years! 3 years! We think the eyes say it all, but no; the nose and the mouth also say a lot! It was very funny to say after three years: “My God, that’s what you look like!” Because the technicians were really masked the whole time. For three years we only saw her eyes. We had imagined halves of the face that didn’t correspond to reality at all! These people, if I hadn’t seen them at the wrap party, I would never have recognized them on the street! »
Kelly Depeault (Claudie Lyndsay): “I already set off a fire alarm on the set of ‘L’Échappée.’ In that scene, Noah Parker, who played Raphael, had to set off a false fire alarm. Between takes, I wondered how it felt to do Sling!” .(Kelly says, mimicking the gesture of pulling the alarm device.) So I did “Sling!” on the real one. And it went “Oui, ouin!” (it mimics the sound of a loud alarm). That’s when I cried and said, “It’s going to be expensive for the production!” (she exaggerates a crying voice). Otherwise it was ok. But don’t do it again! Or again when I was 15 [elle a commencé à jouer dans “L’Échappée” à 14 ans, NDLR], eventually I got fed up with my hair and cut it off. This is probably my first and last movie haircut mistake! At CCM [département de costumes, coiffure, maquillage, NDLR], they fell over. It wasn’t right, I just had “a blister”. It was horror! »
Noah Parker (Raphael Cloutier): “I remember a lot of very funny little moments. My character, Raphaël, was often a scapegoat because he pissed everyone off (laughs). There are scenes where Raphaël drank and defecated on laxatives, where he was hit with a brick wrapped in a pillowcase… All those moments made me realize how much the world hated that character. Then we learned to love it. I really liked this transition. It was good for me that Raphaël became more lovable, because for a year and a half I was the despicable little one from Quebec and I was recognized for that! (laughs)”
Felix Antoine Duval (Xavier Etienne): “Somewhere in season three we had several beautiful scenes together with Charlotte Aubin, who plays Jade. In one of them we were in the kitchen, we chatted and we were happy. Charlotte had just had her wisdom teeth removed; she had a squirrel mouth. Sometimes when we’re actors, we learn to follow our impulse for more spontaneity; When the scene ended we hugged and towards the end of the hug I looked at Charlotte and “bited” her. Under the impulse, I bit his cheek, like a “move” of lovers. Then I left, quite content with my spontaneity. And then I heard “Cut!”. I turned around and saw Charlotte on the verge of tears and wanting to “slap” me! I said, “My God, I’m sorry!” You weren’t allowed to do that…! »
“Then, as for Anick Lemay’s anecdote, when I was sick, people saw nothing but fire. It’s movie magic! On the morning of the shoot I arrive and I don’t “feel”. I ask the chef to make me a strong flu breaker, onion, ginger, garlic, lemon juice, “name it”. Then I drink, I drink, I tell myself we’re gonna break this. Finally nothing works. I’m in a wedding suit, sitting in a chair, curled up into a small ball, and I can feel the muscles in my thighs tremble. At “3,2,1 Aktion!” the wedding march departs, I put a smile on my face and as soon as it calls “Cut!” I collapse. The point of this story is that I had scarlet fever, a childhood disease that I had not yet realized…”
Press appointment for the finale of L’Échappée