Roy Dupuis has agreed to reprise his role as Christophe L’Allier in the new series À cœur beating – the sequel to Toute la vie – because the subject of male and spousal violence has touched him personally.
In his youth, the actor of “Filles de Caleb”, “Scoop” and “Mémoires Affectives” was the victim of violence at the hands of his father in Abitibi, a difficult past for which he sought help by undergoing a long psychoanalysis.
“I had an abusive father, so I knew from birth it was part of my life,” he told QMI Agency. I spent my entire childhood “dealing” with a hurt man who had a problem with violence. The statistics are clear: 50% of the children who are hit hit their own children.”
Inasmuch as “we are what we learn” and that “everything is transmitted,” Roy Dupuis was concerned about the possibility of being violent toward his children if he had any. “I’m not a violent person, I’ve never really fought. When I was with Celine [Bonnier]we thought maybe starting a family and that was one of the reasons I went to psychoanalysis, because of the alcohol and also because I knew the statistics.
His psychoanalysis allowed him to get a big step closer to his father, who himself had been abused in his childhood. “I got to know him, where he was, what he was doing, and I learned to respect him in the sense that my father’s father was much worse at being violent. My father had walked part of the way, even if he was very violent, without going into details.
Prior to his work at the Marie Labrecque school in All Life, Christophe had worked with violent men. It is therefore a homecoming for him in the story of the author Danielle Trottier.
“Christophe himself had issues with violence growing up, issues that he dealt with and controlled. For him, violence is a disorder that we can and must treat, otherwise we are going in circles. Dealing only with the victims does not eliminate violence, the disease of violence. Prevention is important, so we also need to give funds to organizations that help men.”
According to the 59-year-old actor, the show will make us recognize that interventions with violent men are necessary and that the legal system also needs to adapt. “That’s the main reason why I agreed to continue with Christophe.”
“One of the big questions we ask on the show is where does the violence start? It doesn’t have to be a slap in the face, it can be verbal, through a quest for power, etc.
Christophe, who now works in the suburbs for the Center for the Prevention of Violence (CPV) organization, will do battle with Crown Attorney Gabrielle Laflamme (Eve Landry), who finds the penalties imposed on violent men are not severe enough.
“Christophe thinks that as long as we don’t deal with violence and violent men, we’re going in circles. Efforts must be made to understand human behavior, in this case male violence, if we really don’t want to have victims anymore,” concluded the traveling actor, who “just loves life. [l]was surprised compared to where [il est] done in this job”.