“Arlette”: the great return of Maripier Morin

BETTING À DAY

For two years, Maripier Morin has taken charge of his life. Discreet, but active, she focused her energies on her family, her therapy as well as charitable activities in the fight against addiction. The one who is now a mother is also preparing to take the top of the poster for the film Arlette, an additional step in a journey dotted pitfalls. 

During a press meeting held a few days before the release of his new film, Arlette,Maripier Morin did not evade questions about the scandal that shook the province in July 2020, when Safia Nolin published, on social networks, allegations of sexual assault and harassment against her; nor on the testimonies of five other people, the following year, who reported inappropriate behavior, gestures and remarks from the former presenter. 

Because, in two years, Maripier Morin has evolved, progressed, worked on herself, which she continues to do today. “I took my responsibility, I made my journey. […] When this affair came out, I said: ''I had problematic behavior, I will go and do my homework and I will come back''. She explained that she began “a process of integrity and honesty. […] I am an alcoholic, drug addict and still in therapy, but that does not excuse my actions. But my responsibility is that it never happens again. […] People say: ''She puts it all on the back of alcohol''. It is not true. It contextualizes, it explains better why I did this, because I would never have done this on an empty stomach. Except that doesn't excuse.”

< p>As soon as she read the script of 'Arlette,in October 2020, she wanted to get this role with all her might. “Right away, I made a lot of parallels. I was upset. It made me live so much business, ”she recalls. And she prepared for the auditions. “I felt it inside me, I felt that I had things to sort out thanks to this film.”

An exorcism

The parallels between Arlette, a young woman appointed Minister of Culture and who must learn to deal with the misogyny and verbal violence of the political world, and the former star host are unmistakable. 

“Yes , the film was a therapy for me”, she underlined. The relationship to the image explored in Arlette,this “constant quest to be seen, to exist, to be constantly better, perfect, made me sick. I found it beautiful to exorcise that through a character. Even today, social media is super toxic to me. I am still trying to re-establish my relationship with the image.” And, during filming, her psychologist even gave her a daily challenge, to “look in the mirror and say, 'You were good today.'”

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If she had the strength to get up after the scandal, after being let go by her sponsors, it was thanks to the figure skating that she practiced for 16 years. “Learning to fall… I think it's the most resilient sport in the world because you just fall. This past as an athlete will have allowed me to have the necessary resilience to say that I had fallen very, very low, that it had really hurt, but that it was perhaps necessary to get up and have the life that I I want to have.”

And it is far from easy, even today. “It is a wish to have a healthy relationship with my job. I haven't gotten there, not at all. Yesterday, I was really stressed and my boyfriend reminded me that I had called him when I was in therapy by verbalizing for the first time that I did not exist, she delivers, crying. Today, I am faced with this: if people don't like the film… I have to be able to create a distance between my value as a human being and my work.” 

Does she think she will ever be forgiven? “It's not me who decides. The public will decide. If the public goes to see the film, if people are curious and want to, that will mean that I have the right to do my job.

Arlette >hits screens across the province on August 5.

QUOTES

“I want to be optimistic . I chose the light, I chose that the rest of my life was going to be beautiful and happy. The worst thing that could have happened to me at 33, the moment it happened, would have been to become bitter.”

“I couldn't wait to put the focus on something other than me and to focus on a more important role which is raising a child.”

“I don't go through all this if I don't have a psychologist, if I'm not followed, if my boyfriend isn't there, if my parents aren't there too, crawling beside me.”

“Anything that comes with motherhood is extraordinary. You learn and relearn a lot of things. I've always had both hands tight on the stick wanting to be in control and there, I no longer control anything. Letting go is a cursed beautiful school. And my daughter teaches me that every day.”