In the Just Between You and Me podcast series, journalist Dominic Tardif talks to his guests as if they were only among themselves, without a microphone. Anecdotes, reflections, confidences: these long meetings are all opportunities to take time off from the news and imagine that we have plenty of time.
Aboard the car, heading to the offices of La Presse, Guy A. Lepage’s companion, Mélanie Campeau, offered her lover one piece of advice: “You have the right to say whatever you want, han, but be nice. »
“She often tells me that,” says Guy A. Lepage. Because Madame doesn’t find her husband nice? Rather because he doesn’t feel obligated to be at all, although usually he is. “I don’t find that to be a fault. Because if I give you a compliment, it’s a real compliment. I am not a stubborn. If I’m nice to you, it’s because I think you’re nice and you deserve it. »
This is one of the many reasons why Guy A. Lepage is the ideal guest for a long interview of the kind he agreed to grant me. In other words: his wardrobe contains very few pairs of white gloves. Which doesn’t mean that RBO’s proverbial fine pitch isn’t elegant.
Throughout the promotional tour preceding the return to the air of Un garz, une fille, last March, its creator made it a point of honor to specify that it was the day after an interview that he granted to me about the 25th anniversary of the mythical series that the idea of a sequel came to him, which he would not have needed to point out at all. Disappointment: the author confirmed to me, however, that my essential contribution would not be rewarded with a check.
Guy A. Lepage therefore has an uncompromising relationship with the truth, not tolerating white lies or unnecessarily euphemizing formulations. It happens that the host of Everyone talks about it frankly confesses to the politicians he hosts on Sunday evening that he would not vote for them under any pretext, “zero fucking chance”.
“And I think they appreciate that,” he adds.
“I’ve been saying I’ve been living on borrowed time for almost 20 years,” says Guy A. Lepage. At 43, the comedian receives two major awards, including a grand prize from the Academy, Gemini, the kind of reward crowning the end of a trajectory. Powerful vertigo. The comedian thinks for a moment to draw a line under his career, until he emerges from his torpor. Detail that is not one: at 40, his mother was struck by a fatal aneurysm.
“The day before, she, no more than I, didn’t know it was going to happen,” he recalls. Do this, it gives you an urgency to do things and try things out. Because you say to yourself, I don’t know [what the future holds for me]. Sometimes I meet people who say, “Ah, I’m 30, I’d like to retire at 55.” Hey, man, ostie, if you can travel and cram, take advantage of it, because you don’t really know what’s going to happen at 55. »
Guy A. Lepage, who turns 63 in August, will pilot the 20th season of Tout le monde en parle (TLMEP) in the fall, a contract that we had to convince him to accept, but which he intends to leave without hang on, he promises, “as soon as I lose the taste, as soon as the employer loses the taste or as soon as the public loses the taste”.
He is well aware that he is one of the “two or three most privileged members of the Union des artistes”. “All my life I’ve done just the projects I wanted, the way I wanted, with next to no hassle. »
If he had to leave TLMEP, Guy A. Lepage could devote himself entirely to his duties as president of the Clique du Plateau, this (obviously) fictitious small group with which his critics associate him, who held him responsible for all the evils of the world. on Twitter, a social network he left in April. “I just want to clarify one thing,” he says, more amused than annoyed. Pretty much every decision that’s been made on the Plateau for 20 years, I’m against. »
Being called a bobo also amuses him infinitely, because in his head, Guy A. Lepage has never ceased to be this guy from Hochelaga-Maisonneuve whose family moved 19 times when he was a child.
And if he likes to proclaim that he is an upstart, a loaded word to say the least, it is simply because he is. “What is an upstart?” “, he asks. “He’s someone who came out of one medium and into the next. That’s just it, an upstart. »
Would Guy A. Lepage like to add anything to this interview, which would remain just between him and me? “In my opinion, my three most beautiful projects are my children,” he said in a flight about his role as a father, which almost brought a tear to your journalist. “Worse that should be it for everyone.” »
“When we started shooting the new Un gar, une fille, I said to my girlfriend, Mélanie Campeau, who is a producer: ‘Sylvie, she’s my girlfriend from 9 to 5. You’ll see, it’s special.” When we watch something, she comes and sits on me. We touch each other. You never say to yourself, “There at such a time, I’m going to put my hand on your hips.” It’s natural. […] She’s the queen on set, I want everyone to be nice to her and take care of her, because when she’s happy she’s spectacularly good, whereas when she’s unhappy she is just very, very good. »
“Now when they have touchy topics, they get briefed by their team. One day, a minister forgot his or her pre-Everyone talks about it briefing document. I think there were 48 pages and besides, there were a lot of questions in there that were way too technical that we would never have asked. »
“Power, you have to use it, you don’t have to abuse it. It must be of some use. But you don’t use that to settle accounts, you don’t use that to be capricious. Me, when people do that around me, it irritates me deeply, and I’m always the first to tell them to stop it immediately. »
