Roy Dupuis
- Actor
- Producer
- Director
Roy Dupuis was born on April 21, 1963, in New Liskeard, Ontario. He
spent a significant portion of his childhood (from early infancy until
he was eleven years old) in Amos, which is in a region of Québec called
Abitibi. For the next three years, he lived in Kapuskasing, Ontario,
where he learned to speak English. His father (now deceased) was a
traveling salesman for Canada Packers, a meat company (now part of
Maple Leaf Foods). His mother is a piano teacher. He has a younger
brother and an older sister. When he was fourteen, after his parents
divorced, his mother moved the family to Sainte-Rose, Laval, Québec (in
the greater Montréal area), where he finished high school. After high
school, he studied acting in Montréal, at the National Theatre School
of Canada (L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada), graduating in 1986.
Acting was not Roy Dupuis' first career choice. He was studying physics
in high school, but seeing Ariane Mnouchkine's film
Molière (1978) interested him in acting.
His entry into drama school was accidental. A friend had been invited
to audition for admission to the National Theatre School of Canada, but
her counterpart, who had also been invited to audition, changed his
mind and backed out. She asked Roy Dupuis to take his place, and he
agreed to help out and went along, posing as the original candidate.
Although he himself was not really the one invited to audition, he
impressed the school's director so much that she invited him to apply
formally for admission to the school, and he was accepted. After his
graduation in 1986, and a few years of successful experience acting in
the theater, in 1988, he began to be offered substantial roles in films
and TV.
The relative anonymity that he enjoyed during those early years ended
when 80% of the population of Québec watched the enormously-popular
classic period serial drama
Les filles de Caleb (1990)
(Emilie), turning him into a celebrity overnight and gaining him
several awards for his performance as Emilie's husband, Ovila
Pronovost. His next major role was as a journalist in the Canadian TV
series Scoop (1992), which ran for four
seasons (1991 until 1995). In 1991 Dupuis also starred in his first
major film role, as the gay hustler, Yves, in Jean Beaudin's
internationally acclaimed
Being at Home with Claude (1992),
which was Canada's official selection at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
Other leading roles in French followed, and increasingly English
language roles too, including Becker in
Screamers (1995), his entry into
mainstream US cinema.
For the next five years, from 1996 to 2000, he spent most of his time
in Toronto, making the TV series Nikita (1997-2001), which was shown in
more than 50 countries around the world. When the final season finished
production at the end of 2000, Roy returned to Montréal, for a few
months' rest, before starting work again on French-Canadian projects
made closer to home. The TV mini-series
Le dernier chapitre (2002),
about biker gang warfare, was filmed in French and English versions
simultaneously. Then he teamed up again with "Chili's Blues" director
Charles Binamé to star as in the romantic role of Alexis Labranche, the
heroine's love interest, in a remake of another period Québec classic,
Séraphin: Heart of Stone (2002),
which became the province's highest-grossing film.
In 2003, he participated in multiple projects, combining leading roles
with occasional supporting roles. In Denys Arcand's
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
(The Barbarian Invasions), which has enjoyed even greater international
success than
Jesus of Montreal (1989),
Dupuis again played a minor part as a police drug-unit detective.
Released in 2004 to 2005 were six more films in which he performed. His
role as Alexandre in
Mémoires affectives (2004)
brought him his first major film-acting awards.
He recently reprised the part of French-Canadian hockey hero Maurice
"Rocket" Richard (for the third time) in the film
The Rocket (2005) directed
by Charles Binamé to large acclaim. He has also completed an
independent film,
That Beautiful Somewhere (2006),
which is based on the 1992 novel "Loon," by Bill Plumstead; screened in
major film festivals beginning in August 2006, it was broadcast on
Canadian pay television later in 2006 and opened in April 2006.
Beginning in June 2006, he began filming the film _Shake Hands with the
Devil (2006)_ on location in Kigali, Rwanda, a film about the Rwandan
Genocide, in which Dupuis portrays Roméo Dallaire, being based on
Dallaire's autobiographical memoir, in close consultation with
Dallaire. The main filming finished in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August
2006. After being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
on September 9, 2007, and the Atlantic Film Festival on September 13,
it opens on September 28, 2007.
In October 2006, in Québec, he began filming
Emotional Arithmetic (2007),
starring alongside Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer, Susan Sarandon,
and Max von Sydow. The film is the closing feature for the Toronto
International Film Festival on September 15, 2007.
Roy Dupuis lives in the countryside outside of Montréal. While, in the
past, he enjoyed sky-diving and still enjoys golf, he has become more
occupied with learning to sail and renovations on his home and
sailboats.
For over a decade, until June 2006, he actively supported the Mira
Foundation, which provides guide dogs for visually-impaired children
and adults and service dogs for those with other disabilities. A few
years ago, he co-founded the Rivers Foundation to protect the rivers of
Canada from exploitation by hydro-electric developments, serves as its
co-president, and concentrates considerable time on developing it when
he is not working professionally.
spent a significant portion of his childhood (from early infancy until
he was eleven years old) in Amos, which is in a region of Québec called
Abitibi. For the next three years, he lived in Kapuskasing, Ontario,
where he learned to speak English. His father (now deceased) was a
traveling salesman for Canada Packers, a meat company (now part of
Maple Leaf Foods). His mother is a piano teacher. He has a younger
brother and an older sister. When he was fourteen, after his parents
divorced, his mother moved the family to Sainte-Rose, Laval, Québec (in
the greater Montréal area), where he finished high school. After high
school, he studied acting in Montréal, at the National Theatre School
of Canada (L'École nationale de théâtre du Canada), graduating in 1986.
Acting was not Roy Dupuis' first career choice. He was studying physics
in high school, but seeing Ariane Mnouchkine's film
Molière (1978) interested him in acting.
His entry into drama school was accidental. A friend had been invited
to audition for admission to the National Theatre School of Canada, but
her counterpart, who had also been invited to audition, changed his
mind and backed out. She asked Roy Dupuis to take his place, and he
agreed to help out and went along, posing as the original candidate.
Although he himself was not really the one invited to audition, he
impressed the school's director so much that she invited him to apply
formally for admission to the school, and he was accepted. After his
graduation in 1986, and a few years of successful experience acting in
the theater, in 1988, he began to be offered substantial roles in films
and TV.
The relative anonymity that he enjoyed during those early years ended
when 80% of the population of Québec watched the enormously-popular
classic period serial drama
Les filles de Caleb (1990)
(Emilie), turning him into a celebrity overnight and gaining him
several awards for his performance as Emilie's husband, Ovila
Pronovost. His next major role was as a journalist in the Canadian TV
series Scoop (1992), which ran for four
seasons (1991 until 1995). In 1991 Dupuis also starred in his first
major film role, as the gay hustler, Yves, in Jean Beaudin's
internationally acclaimed
Being at Home with Claude (1992),
which was Canada's official selection at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.
Other leading roles in French followed, and increasingly English
language roles too, including Becker in
Screamers (1995), his entry into
mainstream US cinema.
For the next five years, from 1996 to 2000, he spent most of his time
in Toronto, making the TV series Nikita (1997-2001), which was shown in
more than 50 countries around the world. When the final season finished
production at the end of 2000, Roy returned to Montréal, for a few
months' rest, before starting work again on French-Canadian projects
made closer to home. The TV mini-series
Le dernier chapitre (2002),
about biker gang warfare, was filmed in French and English versions
simultaneously. Then he teamed up again with "Chili's Blues" director
Charles Binamé to star as in the romantic role of Alexis Labranche, the
heroine's love interest, in a remake of another period Québec classic,
Séraphin: Heart of Stone (2002),
which became the province's highest-grossing film.
In 2003, he participated in multiple projects, combining leading roles
with occasional supporting roles. In Denys Arcand's
The Barbarian Invasions (2003)
(The Barbarian Invasions), which has enjoyed even greater international
success than
Jesus of Montreal (1989),
Dupuis again played a minor part as a police drug-unit detective.
Released in 2004 to 2005 were six more films in which he performed. His
role as Alexandre in
Mémoires affectives (2004)
brought him his first major film-acting awards.
He recently reprised the part of French-Canadian hockey hero Maurice
"Rocket" Richard (for the third time) in the film
The Rocket (2005) directed
by Charles Binamé to large acclaim. He has also completed an
independent film,
That Beautiful Somewhere (2006),
which is based on the 1992 novel "Loon," by Bill Plumstead; screened in
major film festivals beginning in August 2006, it was broadcast on
Canadian pay television later in 2006 and opened in April 2006.
Beginning in June 2006, he began filming the film _Shake Hands with the
Devil (2006)_ on location in Kigali, Rwanda, a film about the Rwandan
Genocide, in which Dupuis portrays Roméo Dallaire, being based on
Dallaire's autobiographical memoir, in close consultation with
Dallaire. The main filming finished in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in August
2006. After being screened at the Toronto International Film Festival
on September 9, 2007, and the Atlantic Film Festival on September 13,
it opens on September 28, 2007.
In October 2006, in Québec, he began filming
Emotional Arithmetic (2007),
starring alongside Gabriel Byrne, Christopher Plummer, Susan Sarandon,
and Max von Sydow. The film is the closing feature for the Toronto
International Film Festival on September 15, 2007.
Roy Dupuis lives in the countryside outside of Montréal. While, in the
past, he enjoyed sky-diving and still enjoys golf, he has become more
occupied with learning to sail and renovations on his home and
sailboats.
For over a decade, until June 2006, he actively supported the Mira
Foundation, which provides guide dogs for visually-impaired children
and adults and service dogs for those with other disabilities. A few
years ago, he co-founded the Rivers Foundation to protect the rivers of
Canada from exploitation by hydro-electric developments, serves as its
co-president, and concentrates considerable time on developing it when
he is not working professionally.