“Mégantic” and “Disobeir, Chantale Daigle's choice”: meaningful projects for Julie Trépanier

MISE & Agrave; DAY

It was in Vancouver that actress Julie Trépanier took her first steps in the theatre. Five years after her return to Quebec, she took part in two major projects launched in quick succession, the series Mégantic and < strong>Disobey: Chantale Daigle's choice.

It's quite a launching pad for the one we saw also in Classé secret as well as in the webseries Fourchette. Perfectly bilingual, the 34-year-old woman films in both languages, but is happy to “have taken the gamble of coming home”.

In Mégantic, she camps Annick, a woman who escaped certain death during the train tragedy that killed 47 people on July 6, 2013, in this Estrie community. Annick has to deal with the guilt and support her friend Corine (Catherine Paquin-Béchard), who is very affected by this immeasurable tragedy.

Julie Trépanier was “shocked by the story and by the narrative framework of [her] character” in this series inspired by real events.

“What I find beautiful about my character in Mégantic is that Annick has the strength to be there for others, for her friend Corine. The strength to keep her cool, to keep her head above water, to ask for forgiveness… But what touched me the most was that she continues to love Corine despite everything.

Julie Trépanier, who has an incredible screen presence, did not approach Annick thinking she was a brave woman. “I don't know a woman who isn't strong. I don't know a woman who doesn't have to be strong. Strength manifests itself in many ways.”

Director Alexis Durand-Brault seems to have enjoyed working with her on Mégantic, as he later called her back for him. to entrust the role of trade unionist and feminist activist Lise Moisan in Disobeir: Chantale Daigle's choice.

The actress was confident on both sets, a feeling she attributes in part to this “extremely intuitive director”.

“Mégantic was a big first role for me. Alexis pushed me, like when my character has a panic attack. He told me to go further and he was really with me in that.”

For Disobeir: Chantale Daigle's Choice, she was able to go back in time until 1989, when she was barely 1 year old. “I play Lise Moisan in this other extremely meaningful project. Ms. Moisan, whom I could not speak to, created the magazine Life in pink. She is an organizer, a woman in the field, capable of mobilizing. It's impressive what the women have managed to do around Chantale Daigle to support her.”

Rachel Graton plays her character's blonde and the other women who help Chantale Daigle (Éléonore Loiselle) in her fight all the way to the Supreme Court for the right to have an abortion are embodied by Émilie Bibeau, Marie-Claude St-Laurent and Andréanne Théberge.

“We had some great scenes at the movement's headquarters, there were only female actors and extras, they were all dressed like they were back in the day, there were rotary phones, typists, people were smoking, It was really 'fun'”, testified Julie Trépanier.

“I really liked that Annick didn't have a filter. It comes out like it comes out, it comes out like that, it comes from the heart. For Lise Moisan, we feel the group, the solidarity and the importance of belonging to something bigger than ourselves. It took a lot of courage to come out openly as a lesbian at the time, and for a woman to enter into a position of power, to have a voice that carries publicly, to get involved in important decision-making processes, to demand her place in society.”

The Mégantic series is available on Club illico while the Disobeir: Chantale Daigle's Choice series is launched on Crave on March 8 for International Women's Day.