To celebrate the 25the Film anniversary The young, Michel Charette, aka Léopold, hosts a special show bringing together the main players of Quebec's most popular garage league.
This one from ComediHa! produced meetings! and entitled Les Boys 25th Anniversary – It Won't Have Been Easy! airs this Sunday at 7:30 p.m. on TVA.
PHOTO BY BERTRAND EXERTIER, PROVIDED BY TVA
Michel Charette speaks of a “turning point” in his career. He was known in the industry for his role as Jean-Lou “Le Hot-Dog” Duval in Radio Enfer, but it was when he played Léopold that he gained wide recognition among the general public.
“Les Boys changed my life and my career, it gave birth to me.”
The actor from District 31 and the comedy Le Bonheur remembers being nervous and intimidated by the idea of playing the son of Rémy Girard, who was already a sacred monster of the seventh art.
In an interview with the QMI agency, he thanks his “mentor” Louis Saia, who fought “with all his might” for him to become Léopold. “Because the producer [Richard Goudreau, NDLR] “I didn’t know myself – that’s completely normal – and because I wasn’t known.”
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The Boys' 25th anniversary brings “Boysmania” back to life. All of Quebec wanted to see Les Boys, the first Quebec film to attract more than a million cinemagoers and the first to gross more than $4 million, for a total of $6 million. He was even the iceberg of the film Titanic in Quebec in December 1997.
In the special, directed by Sylvie Gagné, we feel the open camaraderie between the actors that delighted so many Quebecers in the five feature films and the television series (2007-2012).
Rémy Girard (Stan) and Pierre Lebeau (Méo), the hard core of the boys, jump on the ice during this meeting, as do Paul Houde (Fern), Patrick Huard (Ti-Guy), Patrick Labbé (Mario), Roc Lafortune (Julien), Marc Messier (Bob) and Yvan Ponton (Jean-Charles).
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The boys recall that their bond was almost instantaneous, that they often found it difficult not to laugh while filming, and that there was no ego war between them. Everyone wanted to make the best film, even Paul Houde, who lied that he had experience as a goalkeeper!
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Rémy Girard speaks of an “extraordinary story” and emphasizes that the boys in the team come from all walks of life and are not destined to be together in life. “It's hockey that brings them together,” he says, and that has appealed to people, including young people, who have realized that they too can “become winners.”
We offer striking scenes and lines – “mental toughness…mental toughness” or “mar-que-e-que-ting” – film errors and tell a number of anecdotes throughout the 90 minutes of the special, particularly those captured in make-up, if the boys get together.
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“We said to each other afterwards: 'We don't have to wait 10 years until we see each other again.' And Marc Messier told me: 'I didn't think the friendship between us was so strong. I somehow forgot that. “It’s clear to me that Les Boys is strong,” admitted Michel Charette.