When one door closes, another opens. Like many actors who have to face the (sometimes harsh) realities of the profession, Catherine Trudeau has often heard this saying. She also mentions it to try to put the cancellation of Perfect Moments into perspective. “That door, I wasn’t ready for it to close. »
Five months after filming her last scenes with Denis Bernard, Marie-Thérèse Fortin, Émile Proulx-Cloutier and Jean-François Pronovost, Catherine Trudeau still has not overcome her grief. Not completely, at least. In an interview, she talks about her acceptance speech at the most recent Gémeaux awards, which she delivered on stage after winning the trophy for best leading role – annual drama series, emphasizing how much she enjoys “entering the homes” of 720,000 viewers each week through the character of Catherine Thomas, a mother, partner, daughter, sister and friend whom she saw as her alter ego.
In three weeks, TVA will broadcast the grand finale of the work by Marc Robitaille, a series that we thought was set to last for a long time, in September 2021, just before it goes on air. It was also the hope of the team. But after two and a half seasons, the adventures of the Thomas clan will be taken off the air.
“It’s not frustrating; It’s rather bittersweet, says Catherine Trudeau. I felt like the show was taking off. We all have this feeling of leaving the ship when we haven’t quite finished the journey. »
“I was happy,” she continues in a soft but resigned voice. I wasn’t done yet. We weren’t there yet. There were still many beautiful things to say, beautiful stories to tell. »
Catherine Trudeau’s disappointment is understandable. After making an impression in several series, but always defending peripheral characters (Lyne-la-pas-fine in Les invincibles, Marie Rousseau in Ruptures, Chantal in Mirador), she finally appeared at the top of the credits of a series broadcast during prime time.
At 48, she doesn’t know when – or even if – she will be able to repeat the experience.
By losing The Perfect Moments, Catherine Trudeau also loses a professional “predictability” that she greatly valued, including predefined filming periods and – obviously – a regular income. Because although she chose to be an actress, and therefore to work as a freelancer, Catherine Trudeau prefers stability.
Fortunately, she found it away from the spotlight.
This constant quest for balance forces Catherine Trudeau to cultivate a certain letting go which helps her to go through, without worrying too much, the fluctuations of a career as a performer which has lasted for almost 25 years, the anniversary that she will celebrate next spring (she graduated from the Montreal Conservatory of Dramatic Art in 1999).
“I am privileged: I have never stopped working. It’s my job, I love it. But if it has to stop tomorrow, if there is no longer room for me in the industry, because there are lots of other people arriving or because there are fewer roles for girls my age, I’m going to do other things. This job is not my whole life. »
Among the avenues that she could explore full time if the call to play ever stopped ringing, Catherine Trudeau cites children’s literature. She has also just launched the second volume of Folleécole (published by La Bagnole), her new novel aimed at children aged 6 to 8. Another work is already on the way.
Writing has always played a big role in the actress’s world. As a young teenager, she wrote stories based on Anne of Green Gables. “It was always girls with horses, in a field, with a country house! “, she recalls, laughing.
Spokeswoman for the Prix des libraires du Québec from 2006 to 2011, then for the Prix jeunesse des libraires du Québec from 2012 to 2022, Catherine Trudeau became a children’s author in a very organic way, she says. Today, she speaks with emotion about the messages she receives from parents who see their child starting to read alone with their books.
“Parents tell me: “Ah, I hear him laughing in his room!” And when their child comes out, they say, “Is everything okay? Are you laughing to yourself?” And the child answers: “No, no, no. It’s good. I was reading Mad School.” »
“I’m super proud to know that, for a small generation, perhaps, of little men and women in Quebec, I will have written their first series of books with Jean-Philippe Morasse on the drawings. Because our first books that we read alone, we all remember them. You might be Tintin. Me, it’s Martine. »
Catherine Trudeau will appear in the credits of another series in 2024: This is how I love you, which will bow out after three seasons. The actress filmed her scenes last summer. She will play the role of a person named Gysèle, whom she succinctly describes as “a worker in the field of communications”.
“It’s really hello,” she insists. I’m coming for a little visit. You won’t even really have time to realize that I’m going to be gone! »
Although it is a small role, Catherine Trudeau found her Invincibles (François Létourneau and Patrice Robitaille, who produce this final brood of eight episodes) with great pleasure.
In the spring, Catherine Trudeau will tread the stage at the Théâtre du Nouveau Monde alongside Marc Messier in Le père by Florian Zeller, a play which paints the portrait of a man who loses his bearings, his memory and his sense of reality. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin in January. “It’s both funny and disturbing,” announces Catherine Trudeau. It’s a great text. It’s very clever. »
If these projects represent the kind of doors that will open for the actress in the post-Perfect Moments era, what comes next shouldn’t worry anyone.
