Ouvre ton jeu avec Marie-Claude Barrette - #108 Simon Boulerice | Ouvre ton jeu avec Marie-Claude Barrette

Episode Date: June 2, 2025

Simon est un artiste multidisciplinaire. Un auteur prolifique, un comédien, un danseur en plus d’écrire des séries pour la télévision. À travers cet épisode, il parle entres autres de l’intimidation qu’il a subi, de sa famille, de son amoureux ainsi que de sa passion pour son métier. Rencontre avec un homme passionné!━━━━━━━━━━━00:00:00 - Introduction00:19:20 - Cartes vertes00:39:43 - Cartes jaunes01:04:43 - Cartes rouges01:36:23 - Cartes Eros01:50:43 - Carte Opto-Réseau━━━━━━━━━━━L'épisode est également disponible sur Patreon, Spotify, Apple Podcasts et les plateformes d'écoute en ligne.Vous aimez Ouvre ton jeu? C'est à votre tour d'ouvrir votre jeu avec la version jeu de société. Disponible dès maintenant partout au Québec et au https://www.randolph.ca/produit/ouvre-ton-jeu-fr/?srsltid=AfmBOoo3YkPk-AkJ9iG2D822-C9cYxyRoVXZ8ddfCQG0rwu2_GneuqTT Visitez mon site web : https://www.marie-claude.com et découvrez l'univers enrichissant du MarieClub, pour en apprendre sur l'humain dans tous ses états et visionner les épisodes d'Ouvre ton jeu, une semaine d’avance. ━━━━━━━━━━━ Ouvre ton jeu est présenté par Karine Joncas, la référence en matière de soins pour la peau, disponible dans près de 1000 pharmacies au Québec. Visitez le https://www.karinejoncas.ca et obtenez 15% de rabais avec le code ouvretonjeu15.Grâce à Éros et compagnie et notre niveau rose, obtenez 15% avec le code rose15 au https://www.erosetcompagnie.com/?code=rose15Merci également à Opto-Réseau, nouveau partenaire d'Ouvre ton jeu. Visitez le https://www.opto-reseau.com pour prendre rendez-vous dans l'une de leurs 86 cliniques.

Hello everyone, welcome to Ouvre ton jeu, le podcast. Always very happy to see you again because I know that when I talk to you not long after, there is an guest who's going to arrive. And it's like the best thing professionally that I've been given to do. It's these interviews that surround the whole Open Your Game. There's Sylvie who talks to us about the table game, couple edition. She says, I listen to all your podcasts while driving. In my work, I am often taken to move from

La Gaspésie to the city, so I listen to the episodes in Raffaël. I also bought the couple game version. My husband is not the kind to express his emotions, but I can guarantee that with this game, he opens up a little more. I learn even more to discover it and I like what I see. We have very nice conversations. Hey, thank you Sylvie for sharing that. Because the Open Your Game couple, we can't really do it in podcast mode because it has to be between the two members of the couple. If I say that with a couple, it would seem that it wouldn't work. I don't really have to be between the two. But the idea was to really get to talk and especially to listen to the one or the one who has something to say and not to interrupt. I know it's a big couple challenge, but often we tend to say, yes, but it's not the same, it happened, yes, but I remember that.

And we interrupt because we have a lot of common lives. So to do that by saying, I'm going to listen to you until the end, and sometimes it allows you to understand each other better. And as she says, the man who shares his life, his partner, has more difficulty expressing himself, sometimes to answer these questions and to give the other person time one speak, suddenly the word comes and the person expresses itself. So much the better, because it was really Sylvie, what you said was the goal of the couple game. Justine tells us about Ingrid Saint-Pierre, she says, in every word of Ingrid, I travel even more into a unique universe. I admire her for embodying this form of softness, both delicate and so strong. This woman has the power to gather and inspire both the young and the younger. I adore her.

It reminds me that I would like to be a little like her. So thank you, Justine. Our partners, we introduce them to you each time because there are no podcasts without partners. Because in the podcast, there is no subsidy, there is no tax credit. It's not like on TV at all, it's another business model. And we, the partners, are what makes it possible to present our episodes completely free of charge on the different platforms where we present ballads and podcasts. So, our partners include Karine Jonquas, who has been there since the very beginning. And Karine offers 15% discount on all your online purchases.

Karine Jonquas's a cosmetics line. It has at least a thousand sales points across Quebec. And it's a Quebec entrepreneur who offers Quebec products. So we are very proud to have it in the gyrons, to open your game. We also have Eros et Compagnie, which has its level where we talk about Eros et Compagnie cards qui a son niveau où on parle les cartes Eros et compagnie, où c'est une belle façon de parler d'intimité, de sensualité, de sexualité, mais tout ça dans un cadre très, très respectueux. Des fois, ça peut être un peu... des fois, il y a des petits malaise, mais beaucoup moins que tout ce que j'aurais cru avant d'accepter d'avoir le niveau Eros et compagnie. C'est plutôt I would have believed before accepting the level EROS is accompanied. It's a rather bright level. And EROS also offers you 15% discount on all your online purchases with the promo code ROSE15.

We also have an Optoraiso partner. Optoraiso is 86 clinics across Quebec. And we also have Marie-Club, Espaces mieux être, which is the platform with which my team, which we set up several months ago, where we gathered and we gather every month different specialists, experts who come to address a theme and who guide us on several things in life. Basically, the idea is to always have a better life. So you can go to lemarclaude.com and if you take an annual subscription, then use the promo code CLUB10, it will give you 10% off. The team without which I would not be there. There would be no podcast either.

There is Caroline Dion at coordination, David Bourgeois at online. Jonathan Fréchette at digital creation, Etienne Laurendeau at capture, and Jérémie Boucher at social networks. Today, it's a guy I met on the set of Deux Filles le matin. He came often. We met again. We asked to do the shows together. I remember we did the show for Véronique Cloutier, I think it was for once. And I remember we had a chat while telling our stories. There's something between him and me that's sensitive. He's someone extremely brilliant, who's already leaving his mark, even if he's very young. He leaves his mark through his many writings, through his TV series that he made that are incredible. I can't wait to discover him even more, because every time I meet him, I learn something about him.

You know him, so he comes along. It's Simon Boulerice. So, place to Simon. And the kids don't talk about it. Why didn't you talk about it? The shame. The shame of saying, my parents are so disappointed to know that they put a little guy in the world who's not strong enough, who's not able to defend himself, who's not able to reply. I felt... I knew I was out of luck,

and I didn't find the... I didn't have those skills, and I was thinking, I'm just going to disappoint them. I had parents who worked a lot, really a lot, so they weren't really present at home, because my father had two jobs. He often worked at the factory at night, he was tired, and on top of that, he had the video club of my parents,

my mother, in a club my parents had bought. My father worked with him, so he worked pretty hard all the time. And I worked at the video club myself, it was a place where I was good. But I was good until someone came in. I was in my territory, and when one of my intimidators came in, I remember that I didn't want to walk around in the video club, I had to bring the little Velcro.

It was stressful for me if there were, because they were all guys who came to the video club of my parents. Open Your Game is presented by Karine Jonquard, the reference in skin care materials available in almost a thousand pharmacies in Quebec, and by the Marie-Claude, which is a space dedicated to the best-being, where you can find more than a hundred master classes, led by experts, available on Marie-Claude.com. The table games Open Your Original Game and the Couples edition are available everywhere in Quebec and on Randolph.ca. I told you about the game intro. I'm really happy to have my guest in front of me.

I think he's someone who pushes us to be better. When you look at everything he accomplishes, he also gives the taste to get to work either, among other in his case he is very inspiring, but also through his position through his TV series. He's really someone who takes more and more space on the cultural scene in Quebec, and also someone who is leaving a trace. At one point, I was listening to Richard Séguin, everyone was talking about him, and he quoted him! It's not even commonplace! So welcome, Simon Boulris! Hello Marie-Claude! Are you doing well? Yes, I'm really doing very well.

Did you hear him? I heard him. I jumped over at home and I was immensely touched because you have to imagine that the little boy, Simon, listened to Richard Séguin as a child and found that he was a true poet and therefore to be cited by a poet, well that's heartwarming. Do you remember what he cited about you? Yes, but me it's my relationship to beauty, I talked a lot about it, you know, I took several writers, including a painter Vincent Van Gogh who said, find beauty in everything you can. He had written that in a painter Vincent Van Gogh, who said, find beautiful everything you can. He wrote that in a letter to his brother Theo, and I think he quoted a moment where I was talking

about debunking the beauty around him. So I think that's the teaching I received from Vincent Van Gogh, and well, it's fruitful, I have to repeat. As Simon Boulerice said, I was wow, it looked like he had just been named the Canadian composer's pantheon. I had the impression that he had like your little pantheon in there. To be cited with so much conviction, bravo! And to be cited on something that I completely embrace, that is to say, to be able to marvel at the beauty that surrounds us, even though everything. Which is still a bit of my mantra, so it makes me happy.

Are you an intellectual, Simon? Hey, that's such a good question. I'll tell you that I've long thought I was a false intellectual, that I was an intellectual too guillorant, too candid. We could say that the candor can't stick with intellectualism, whereas today I'm 43 and yes, I'm an intellectual, and wonderful, an intellectual capable of being candid. And I think we need to make an important distinction between naivety and candor.

I've already heard a philosopher who said that the naïve is the person who will point a reverberator saying, it's the moon, while the candid will point saying, it's like the moon. It evokes the moon. It's a reverberator, but it evokes something else, more poetic. And so I'm a candid. I like to say, I know what it is.

I'm lucid, but lucid, morningée d'émerveillement donc je capable de me dire ça ressemble à la lune est ce qu'il ya des journées où tu serais pas capable de dire que ça ressemble à la lune probablement il ya des journées où je suis quelqu'un de très sauvage je sais que c'est un peu étonnant de dire ça mais je suis quelqu'un de très solitaire il y a des journées où je sors peu ces journées là je pense que mon émerveillement il est plus There are days when I go out little. These days, I think that my wonder is more circumscribed in my kitchen or in my dining room, and maybe less grandiloquent, probably. But I would tell you that the moment I meet people, it reactivates. So it's really by cohabiting with the human race that I wonder,

I wonder again in front of each of the people I meet. Tell me, how many books have you written? Because that's like a counter, it's endless, you always have to ask yourself because we're never on the same page. I've written 71 books. 71 books, but everything in there. There are youth albums, theater, poetry, more robust novels, everything. Do you have that one next to the other in a library in your house? Yes, in two places. I have a real office in which I never go, above which I really have all the copies of my books, the 71, and you know it's heavy on the tablets,

but in the dining room, that's where I write, that's where I am. It's the biggest window open to the world and I like to work there. It's the brightest part and I'm surrounded by books and I have the fridge very close, which is very convenient to write. You know, my big glass of water is always full and I have a library on which I have my books because I do a lot of conferences in schools, sometimes virtually. When it's far from Montreal and I can't get in because I don't have a driver's license. You don't have a license? I don't have a license, so sometimes I accept virtual conferences. Sometimes it's all schools that connect at the same time.

And I have all my books at hand to present them to the youngest and the oldest. So I have them in two places. And you work on your kitchen table. Yes, my kitchen table. Are you an austere writer? Yes. Yes, I'm a monocle writer. I like sobriety a lot.

I don't need much. I need a corner of a table, a small computer or a pen. And books, being surrounded by books for me is still a nuclear shelter, and a shelter also for creativity. So knowing the books at hand, they're not all read, I have about 5000 of them spread out everywhere in my apartment, they're not all read, but I had a teacher who said, a book, when you can stretch your hand, it's reassuring, it will be there when you need it. And then I have a little side, I have a lot of voluntary simplicity apart from books. I I have a bit of the side, I have a lot of voluntary simplicity,

apart from books. I have them all at home telling me, one day when I'm going to be able to read this book, it will be available in the pocket version and in the large format version. I have a bit of a book collector side. Your passion. I like what... I also like the experience of books.

So I have a love for used books, when there are traces of former readers and readers. And even when I find one of my books in a library, I always want to see what people have highlighted. And when there's nothing to highlight, it disappoints me. I go, oh my God, they didn't remember anything I wrote. For me, a book, it requires being alive, it requires leaving its mark. And I know that at home, there are people who say, but what does he do? Leave his trace in a book? But I'm like you, I put down some positive things, I underline,

I turn a page... You have to be smart. Yes, yes. I had a literature teacher, who accepted that his children made watercolors in his books. So the pages were gondolier. I thought it was so beautiful to see books filled with the traces of his children. And well, I've always liked that, I think. page était gondelé, je trouvais ça tellement beau de voir des livres remplis par la trace

de ses enfants. Pis bon, j'ai toujours aimé ça, je pense, mettre mes initiales quand je suis jaloux d'une phrase. Je m'approprie la phrase de quelqu'un d'autre en écrivant SB, c'est moi qui pense ça. Pis j'ai tout un système, une étoile, un cœur, des questionnements. J'aime beaucoup beaucoup laisser ma trace. Je pense que ça rend la lecture plus vivante, questions. I really like to leave my mark. I think it makes reading more alive, more active. So I even have the trouble of reading without a pen in my hand, without a highlighter, because I feel like I was coming back from the subway and looking for my highlighter and I found it. Otherwise, I would have just thought to myself, I must not lose this beautiful sentence that I read, but that I did not underline. Are you going to remember that you have read this beautiful sentence in that book?

Yes, yes, because I keep the books in my head. You speak. I reread them, I read them, I read the books a lot that I have read in my life. Now tell me, what was the path between what you just said and Big Brother? There are very few, but I was told that I could read Big Brother, and I listened to the advice, I brought several books, not enough. I read them all quickly because we have a lot of free time, and quickly, I was missing reading, so I didn't want to convince people who had more books.

It was a criterion to keep people. I want to read everything they brought as books. I would tell you that there is a side of me, yes I'm a bit of a fanatic, I'm a bit in my little bubble of height, but I like to rush and I like to meet the other. And I think I had the nostalgia for the troupe of theatre. Because I did a lot of theatre, but for ten years I did theatre as a young person. And I did the school of theatre too, the year of Joël Paris-Beaulieu, which was in Big Brother last year. And when I saw it,

I regretted saying no, because I was invited, I had refused by saying, it's not for me, I'm not strategic, I'm not going to be good. But when I saw that my friend Joël moi, je suis pas stratégique, je vois pas être bon. Mais là quand j'ai vu que mon ami Joel était là, j'ai eu une espèce de bouffée de nostalgie, puis je m'en suis voulu d'avoir dit non. J'aime ça essayer des choses dans la vie, puis je me suis dit oui je suis peut-être pas un gars stratégique, mais que serais-je dans une maison comme ça, ça peut juste être drôle. Moi j'ai quand même beaucoup d'autodérision dans la vie, puis je me disais, je vais trouver ça drôle que moi je fasse ça pour les deux petites of self-defeating in life and I said to myself, I'm going to find it funny that I do this for the two little weeks that I could spend there. I was sure to be quickly eliminated and I still did six weeks, a month and a half locked in the house. It was longer than I had expected, but I still liked it. I don't think I'll do it again, but I liked it because

I wanted to make new friends at 43, 42, I was 43 years old in the house and I really made new friends. There are people with whom I connected, with whom I made friends. And I think that a lot of people tell me, you'll see what you're going to create there, it's going to be for life. And I have the intuition that it's true, because it's something atypical that we live. To be cut off from the world for so long in a waterproof bubble. And I'm able to have my bubble waterproofed high. But there, introduce, accept so many people in my bubble, I liked that. Even if I didn't choose them, it's people I love. It's like a family.

It's a family. We didn't choose each other, we were together. There are some with whom you hear more, there are some who hear less. And we also saw that you were close to your emotions. Well, I knew that. I knew that, you know, I have easy tears, I have easy laughter. In fact, I'm in full bloom compared to all emotions, and I always thought it was an asset. I didn't always find that, but now I consider that it's really... That it's a plus.

It's a plus in my life. And well, it's for sure that crying at the first danger house that doesn't concern me. For François Lambert, who was someone I didn't think I liked so much, it surprised me and I asked myself, what's going on? I wouldn't have cried and it starts. But sometimes that's what I'm transported by my emotions. I had done an episode called To Win with France Beaudoin. And she started the show by reading a text that Michael Delisle had written to me.

I was so moved from the start. And when I watched the show, I thought, I think it's beautiful. I'm able to find it beautiful, even if it's me who... It's your wonder too. But it's the surprise to live something that goes beyond me. And I think it beautiful to be able to, not to be embarrassed to show these emotions. I think I fight them a little. I try to fight them, and I say, hey, I'm not capable. I let them go. And I decide in life when I do a lot of shooting sets, that I don't control that. The lamps will come, the laughter will come, and that's it. What a beautiful attitude. Are you ready to open your game? I open my game. But I have an open book in my mouth, you know.

So open your book. In your case, it's almost your book. We'll open my book. Green questions are general questions. Yellow questions are more specific questions. Red questions are personal questions. The question Spaceman is the question Patreon. Only Patreon members will hear the answer. The level of Eros and companions, we are talking about intimacy, sensuality and sexuality.

The Opterezo card is the sweet card of the game, it's with it that we land the plane, which will end the meeting. And the Joker, when you find that the questions begin, you're a little bit annoyed, you want to go somewhere else, because sometimes we arrive in areas that are more difficult, or whatever, you put a little bit tired, you want to go somewhere else because sometimes we arrive in the areas that are more difficult, or whatever, you put the card on the table, sometimes it's a pain, but I go to another one. It doesn't happen often that... No, it doesn't happen often, but it happens anyway. When it happens, it often happens with the heart, you know, it's like Joker, you know, it's like a pulse to say, okay, it's like if people say, okay, if I keep going, it's going to involve people, you know, something's going to happen.

For me, the only limit I would have, it could be to embark on a world that maybe doesn't want me to talk about. That's it. So sometimes, when we get to that, it's like a push to say no. So I'm going to ask you to put them on the table, you're going to give me five in the green level. You're like an old card. You're going to read my life. I'd love to read that. I like that. I don't read that often, but I really have an opening for these things. Which makes me doubt my intellectualism.

But intellectualism, I think we define it, depending on how. You don't have to look at the cards. No, but I looked without looking. Okay, I believe you, but it's a new way of doing it. That's just it. Look, perfect. And now I've chosen five. Five, exactly.

Do I turn them? You give them to me, no, I'm going to turn them. Because otherwise I wouldn't have the energy. No, that's not true. Five. I couldn't feel the energy of the cards. You don't need that. So there you go.

But you're going to leave with the game, so if you want, you'll answer with the people who are ready. On what character traits did you have to work? When I look in the mirror, I see. Which person made a difference in your life? To be good with me, I have to. And what do people reproach you the most often? You choose one. Oh, it's hard to choose just one because I love all those questions. But I'm going to go with the last one. It seems that it's always in the dark that I remember questions. What do people reproach me the most often? They reproach me a lot of things. At the theater school, they reproached me a lot for my youthful energy, my way of walking. They told me I walked like a clown, my voice not always placed very Nazi-like. I had reproaché beaucoup mon énergie juvénile. Ma façon de marcher, on me disait que je marchais comme un clown, ma voix pas toujours placée très naziarde, j'avais une énergie peut-être

un peu trop échevelée. Pis je le conçois qu'à la télé, quand on bouge beaucoup, quand quelqu'un se... j'ai vraiment une énergie débordante et ça peut agacer l'œil, surtout quand on est dans une télévision, on dirait que ça dépasse. Moi je dépasse des contours, je le sais's going over. I'm going over the line, I know it, I've always been like that. I always have the misery to melt into, not necessarily into the crowd, but into the kind of shell we're given, don't go over that. I tend to go on this line for, not by bravado or rebellion, but just because I'm more comfortable when I leave that place. You know, to go out. And so, I was very reproached.

That's my effervescent side, a little bit all-out, a little bit... How do you get reproached? Well, I think that at the Theatre School, it's normal because we try to create an actor as versatile as possible and therefore to create, to work on neutrality. And I'm not good at neutrality. My neutrality, you know, I do this game a lot in schools, I put five chairs of emotion, it's called the chairs of emotion, and then you have to play a very simple sentence. I eat a tender bar. And you give an intention in sadness, in joy, in anger, in fear and

at the very end there is neutrality and it's the card, it would be the most complicated chair for me, it's playing neutrality. It seems that my neutral is joyful. I have a teacher, Catherine Bégin, whom I liked a lot. Catherine told me, if you play joy, do nothing. She found that I was joyful or neutral, while I am nevertheless in the neutral at home. I am the joy, I do nothing. Because she thought I was happy with the neutral. But I have in my neutral, I'm really neutral, to show that when I'm in front of someone, my neutral changes by politeness, maybe, I don't know why, but I'm like very very lit,

and it can be annoying. Is it a sensibility? Is it hypersensibility to what surrounds you? Probably, and even if I say the word politeness, for me it seems to be with someone. The smile is imposed. It's the smile to introduce myself to someone, the greeting, and yet I'm very shy, but the smile is an entry door, and it's also a way of saying I'm unarmed, I'm open, it's curiosity to the other, it's empathy. je suis non armé, je suis ouvert, c'est la curiosité à l'autre, c'est l'empathie.

Donc j'avais tout ça. Puis je voulais te partager une phrase qui a changé ma vie, c'est une phrase de Cocteau, Jean Cocteau. J'étais en première année à l'école de théâtre, puis je trouvais ça dur. On me reprochait plein de choses. Puis j'étais tombé sur ce que le public te reproche, cultive-le, c'est toi. Et je jouais donc playing the infernal machine when I was at the end of my first year, and it was the year of the cuts. We were about thirty, and we kept twelve. So I had the sword of Damocles who was rocking my head during the whole first year, and I felt that I wasn't the favorite actor in my group. And this sentence, when I was reading everything I had on Cocteau pour me préparer à jouer parce que j'étais

un intellectuel donc j'avais tout lu. Un instinctif aurait juste simplement plongé dans les mots mais moi j'avais besoin de me documenter sur tout ce qui était Cocteau autant l'artiste en art visuel que le peigne que le réalisateur et que le dramaturge et quand je suis tombé sur cette phrase j'ai fait j'ai le droit d'être ce que je suis avec toutes mes imperfections puis mon côté échevelé effervescent ça peut être un atout puis je donne raison à Jean Cocteau parce que quand je suis sorti d'école de théâtre le premier rôle que j'ai décroché c'est un enfant dans une dans une pièce de théâtre j'ai joué pendant 10 ans théâtre jeunesse grâce à cette audition là avec Serge Marois, who was my mentor.

I'll make a video about both of them. But Serge gave me my first chance and Serge, he completely embraced what I was. In the audition, he saw my energy and he liked it. He liked that I was all tough, that I was too much, that I overcame the contours. He brought me back to the character, obviously I played a character, but I felt that my eclecticism and my effervescence was a asset to him. And so I give reason to Jean Cocteau that today I am hired for what I was reproached for when I was younger, my youthfulness, my overflowing side,

and even on the radio, I was told, you'll never do radio, you have a way too much of a nasality. Which is true, I really have a voice that comes out of my nose. And in my class, I really don't have the most beautiful voice in my class, but I'm the one who does more radio. And when, at the beginning, I had trouble hearing myself on the radio, because I did it for ten years, and then we're crazy, and we're lying with Marie-Louise Arsenault. And after that, there were other shows, I did a lot of them, and I learned to make peace with that voice, by saying, well, I'm distinctive. I'm

pale, there's a lot of humor, there's a lot of training in that voice, and I'm in peace with what I hear. And I think it's good in the audio-audio landscape to hear a voice like mine in the audio landscape. But I think it's interesting to recognize the person by the voice on the radio. And not to say, yeah, we know who's talking. Sometimes it can be generic. There are voices that are so formatted that it's interchangeable. Exactly. And I'm not formatted at all. No. When I see that, it seems like my phone is still open, which is a bit annoying. I'm going to take a sip of water. I'm going to take a sip of water.

I'm going to take a sip of water. Yes, that's it, I forgot to put it on so as not to disturb. It's a bit rude, sorry. It's unforgivable. It's unforgivable. I'm going to turn the table around. Ok, will you stay with me, Maitreyi? I'll stay with you. Oh, thank you, stay with me.

But that's it, I find that having a voice like yours, like I worked with Alex Perron on the radio, Alex also has a particular voice, but you listen to Alex and you immediately know that it's Alex. Yes, there is something reassuring about being in unknown territory, to make, I recognize this voice, it occupies such a place in the pen. It's reassuring to see that we recognize. Yes. And you know, if you say on the radio a voice that you recognize, you're going to stop. Yes, you're in unknown territory, it's like when I said to be surrounded by books, these reassurances are there, by hearing familiar voices, it brings us back home, voices that... I think we're a lot like that. I had the impression that at the beginning,

I could be disturbed because we didn't know at what angle to take me and there are a lot of people who approach me by saying, my God, when I discovered you, you were messing with me. They often tell me that. You know, a real complimar, my God, you were discovered you, you were gossing at me. I'm often told that. A real complimarbe, my God, you were gossing at me, but now I love you. I hear that a lot, now I love you. And it goes as far as, come eat at home. If you go to Saguenay, come eat at our place. I went from, you were getting on my nerves, to come eat at home. And I find it beautiful how, through, it's been maybe 10 years that I've done a little

more TV, and the first few years years were mostly with the show this year from Marc Labrèche and it could destabilize until, let's say, good evening good evening where I really felt the come eat at home. And when I receive that I say, but it's so beautiful. Yes and you're always the same person. I'm the same person, I haven't changed at all. But it's because we see you, I think that Simon, you have so much developed different expertise, that we see you from different angles. It's not that easy, I think, to see you in your entirety. It's true, I'm so many, and I'm so interested in many things, and I do many things.

So when I said earlier to put me in a box, what is it? Is it a novel author? Is it a young author? No, I also write a lot for radio. Is it a screenwriter? Is it a comedian? Is it a screenwriter? But I do all that. It's all the answers. And I want to do everything. I want to have all these possibilities. But you understand for us, it's a lot. Well, I understood. I understood. But that's what I think we get used to, the Quebeckers,

I mean the Quebeckers in general, but I have the impression that they go, ah yeah, now we know who he is, he's in the family. I have the impression that I'm a little bit the little cousin of many people. Everyone knows you. I like to be the little friendly cousin who comes into the family. But you surprise me all the time. Well, it's fun as it is, because the surprise, I think all artists have the guts to create the surprise. Because when there's no surprise, it's deeply boring. A TV series like a youth album, like, no matter the work we're preparing, and even a chronicle, if I don't have a surprise effect, it's flat.

So I've always been looking for that. To amaze myself, to amaze my audience or my reader. It's like your shirt. There are a lot of effects on it. I see, among other things, an apple heart. I see a tent. For those who listen to it on the audio, I can tell you that his shirt is full of colors, very entertaining. And I wore a shirt because I know how much you like it when I wear a little shirt. Yes, you know, because I dared to tell you one day. I say, I like it when you wear it like that. It looks good on you, it's beautiful, and it also shows your personality.

Yes. You can't be generic in the way you dress either. That's why I couldn't wear a white shirt on one side because I would get it dirty very quickly. I would put a nice sauce on it. But it's also not me. When you're wearing a dress, I often felt illegitimate to wear new clothes. I don't often inaugurate clothes. I like second-hand clothes a lot, for an ecological reason, but also for humility reasons. To tell myself, oh, well, the clothes are transferred, I went to the Renaissance store, and I like what is a bit atypical even in clothes.

But sometimes when I do filming, I turn around and they give me this nice shirt after a filming. But I love it and I feel like I inaugurated it, but I'm still fine in it. I'm worthy of this shirt. But I love inaugurating clothes. You see, I would have thought of inaugurating a place, but not inaugurating a dress. It's beautiful. Why not? Well, why not?

They'll inaugurate a dress. It's beautiful. Why not? Well, why not? Well, yeah! So here's my question I chose. On what character trait did you have to work? Did you have to work? Oh, I... hey, that is to say, I work too much sometimes, I was talking about effervescence even in work, to have a lot of projects that I put in front of me and learn to say no, because I said yes to everything. When I left the theater school, I also quickly understood that roles would not come, that I would not be offered for many reasons. It was perhaps a question of talent, but I also think that at the time there was a question of

where we were, I'm clearly homosexual. I think there are people who can amuse you, who can reduce, who can fight. I had the impression that I played the game from the start, I didn't hide anything. My first shows were a lot of self-fiction, and it was a question of homosexuality. So I think I didn't have as many opportunities as that. I created my own opportunities, but at the same time I wanted to be courted. An actor always wants to be courted, and I didn't have the kind of people to be courted. But when I was asked, it was always yes, no matter what. an actor always wants to be a little bit discounted, and I didn't have anyone to be discounted.

But when I was asked, it was always yes, no matter what it was. A humiliating contract? Yes, Mark Claude, I don't mind, I'll do all the mascots you want, because I feel like I'm loved, that I'm asked by you. So my effervescence and my desire to say yes to everything ended up exhausting me. And it ended up especially by bringing me to ask myself, but I'm not all that, you know, yes I'm multiple, but there are things that I adore much less, that represent me less, so I learned, and for me it's huge, to learn to say no. Earlier I told you, when I meet someone, the smile imposes, it's a form of politeness. Saying yes is a form of politeness.

It's like we do an improvisation, we say yes and we follow the other. But learning to say no, I'm not even... I'm really more talented. At first it hurt me. Now I'm able to say no without it hurting me. But there is still a form of guilt that persists. Because often when we come back to the charge, I'll say yes. Oh no, okay, yes first. The yes first, I'm at a point where I don't even want to say yes first. I try to listen to myself, because you know, the more we are requested, the more the requests come. It's an exponential effect. Yes, that's why there are periods where we are seen everywhere, and then it's calmer because in those periods, we are seen, so we want to see each other again.

I know it's... because people say, it's funny, that person was there, he was there, he was there. Yes, but it's because she's been releasing a book and then we heard it, we think it's good, we want... And it's hard to say no, because you also promote a lot of things, you know? There's that, and there's also, from a more emotional point of view, there's also the fear of saying, de ça, pis y'a aussi, un point de vue plus émotif, y'a aussi la peur de se dire, on va m'oublier. Moi, quand on m'a offer cette année-là, t'sais, j'ai passé l'audition, là j'ai vu que je rentrais dans la maison des gens pis que, pis je m'installais, pis j'aimais ça. Pis j'étais conscient que ça durerait peut-être pas. J'étais très conscient, ça pourrait être un, ça a été cinq ans de ma vie. Mais à travers ces cinq

années-là, il est arrivé d'autres projets, j'ai fait d'autres émissions au travers it could have been five years of my life. But through these five years, other projects came along. I did other shows through that. I became a collaborator at other shows. As much as Sucré-Sallé, as Bonsoir Bonsoir, which was quite rare to be the first. Yes, because the two shows, almost in competition in the two big channels, you know, the summer shows where we highlight culture among others. And I've been doing both for five years.

It's still a bit surprising that people accept me. But I feel as comfortable on TVA as I did on Télé-Québec, when I started, when I was on Radio-Canada, when I was on Crave Nouveau, where I have a lot of TV series, or at Big Brother. I feel... I had my professor from Classical Community, her name was Joanne Fontaine. You remember that, you're a colorful woman that I loved a lot. She wasn't an incredible teacher, because sometimes she wasn't a pedagogue, but I loved her so much. And she said sometimes, public guidance, public guidance. It means, you know, go charm the public.

And her jargon entered my heart, and often I say that, I'm a guidance side. I like that, you know, go to TVA, go to Radio-Canada, I'm a guide everywhere and I'm good everywhere. I feel at my place, it's like I'm inviting myself, or at least I feel invited, I don't invite myself there, I feel invited, but I take my ease everywhere, being myself. But I think it's okay with everything you do, you do so many things, it's like, we can just see like an angle at the same time, so single angle, but it's the same thing. You don't stop at one thing, you don't stop at one audience, one broadcaster. You want to talk to the world. There's no barrier between the world, what clientele, what age, you want to talk to the world. Exactly. When I started writing Salé, I was born a lot of this year that was a little more pointed.

I talked a lot about literature, sometimes more pointed, really. Not elitist, but because I'm very popular too. I really embrace my popular side, my pop culture. But you can be elitist too. I can be elitist too. My favorite author is Violette Le Duc, who is really not someone very popular. I talk about her a lot. And I like to have these references from her to Violette Le Duc in the same sentence.

That's me. And so, when I started on Création Lair, they told me, you're not the guy from Télé-Québec. No, but the guy from TVA is here. I spent my whole life at TVA. I listened to Chamber en Ville religiously when I was young. It's in my blood, it's in my DNA. I listened, I was curious about my childhood.

I read everything, I listened to everything I could listen to. I'm multiple, and so I find myself on my X. So we don't need to say we don't want the guy from Télé-Québec. No, we want Simon. We want that guy who will burn everything. To curiosity, who has preserved wonder, who is capable of being in front of an artist who receives, and to be sincerely amazed, surprised, and willing to assimilate what the other person offers. I like to hear that, Simon, because sometimes people blame me for being admirable of other people's talent. And I don't censor myself. I'm not saying what others will say. No, I'm saying what I think of the person in front of me.

I like talent, I like the rigor, I like people who work, I like people who take me to areas that I almost discover myself. So when I'm in front of myself, I can't be neutral. I don't like this neutral position. I totally agree. I was told a lot when I started this year, we said, the fan, the fan is my... But I don't think I'm a fan, I think I'm admirable. Yes! It's a big difference.

I'm able to admire the work of the other, but without... Fanaticism is something that's not healthy at all, and I admire it in a very healthy way. Apart from when I put my initials in the margin where I'm jealous. But at the same time, if you met that person who wrote that sentence, you would be admiring that person. But completely, if I put my initials in it's because I agree that I like the idea that... No, but we need people like you because... There's no cynicism. No.

There's so much cynicism elsewhere, so many people who are cynical that sometimes we're not used to just opening up to the other without... Because cynicism is a form of judgment in there, people leaving. Totally. I love irony. I love irony, it's not the same thing I'm able to mock by saying the opposite, by humor. Cynicism is really the opposite of what I am. Completely. For me, cynicism is like a black veil over something. It's not something that will make me smile, cynicism. We will never move forward being cynical. We'll just step back. Wait, I put my phone on not to disturb. Simon, what's wrong with my weight? I'm on not to disturb. I'm going to go into airplane mode. The next step is to put it in the aquarium.

Well, listen, there's someone who wants to talk to us about the other side. A well marbled rib eye sizzling on the barbecue? A well marbled rib eye sizzling on the barbecue that was carefully selected by an Instacart shopper and delivered to your door? A well marbled rib eye you ordered without even leaving the kiddie pool? Whatever groceries your summer calls for, Instacart has you covered. Download the Instacart app and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first 3 orders. Service fees, exclusions and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over deliver. delivery fees on your first three orders, service fees, exclusions and terms apply. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver.

Niveau jaune, Simon, tu vas m'en donner quatre, s'il te plaît. Je les regarderai pas, j'ai appris mes erreurs. Ben non, c'est pas grave, c'est pas grave. J't'en donne cinq, c'est ça, parfait. Oui, non, quatre, il y en a cinq. Non, mais je me dis si quelqu'un voyait tantôt, je suis sûre qu'il aurait dit oui, mais là il a brancé à l'envers. Fait que non, non, non, là, you went the other way around perfectly correct.

So you choose one, I choose one. What is your biggest complex? What did you not receive from your parents and what did you miss? What is the biggest challenge you had to face? And when did you take risks in your life? have you taken risks in your life? Well listen, at what point have you taken risks in your life? I think Big Brother is a real risk. It's a real risk because I wasn't in a bad light. And I think that for some... In the mind of people, Big Brother can be...

We want to... We're less demanding, we want to go and meet in front of the cameras. I didn't have that desire, and even if it's going to blow up, and it's going to blow up, the interest we have in my opinion, I'm sure it will happen. And I think I've been so focused on other things than my media presence, that I really think I'm going to lie, because I'm going to bet on the writing that is already in my life and that is constant. It's constant in my life. So, doing Big Brother, accepting Big Brother, was getting out of my savagery. It's the word I use because I'm really wild when I work. I'm a little bit, I don't see anyone. I'm a lot in silence. You might think I'm just listening to Rihanna. Yes, I listen to it to stretch my body a little, but in general I'm in silence, in front of my computer, surrounded by books, reading lots of things at the same time.

And when my lover arrives in the kitchen, sometimes I'm like, what do you want? I can be very stupid because I'm in a bubble of creativity. And it's very... it's very absorbing. So putting myself in Big Brother, a show where I'm always filming, where I don't have access to my creativity, that was hard. I think it's the hardest part, it's a challenge for me to put on pause my creative enthusiasm and to accept to play a game that would take up all the space in my life. But I was a playful guy. I liked to play games. I liked to play games when, let's say, cultural games.

There, it was a strategic game. I'm convinced I'm not a very strategic guy in life. I'm not good at lying. And I'm not very good at keeping secrets either. So it was really a real challenge for me. And I find that I'm happy, let's say, at the end of my life, I would be happy to have said, I would have done a reality show, which is me who is a big consumer of reality shows, but who thought it was never projected in there, never, never. You didn't see yourself when you listened to Big Brother, you didn't say anything.

No, no, I didn't have the fantasy of being projected in there. You won't see Survivor Quebec. Oh boy, no, no, no, no. I love watching it, but I couldn't go do that, it's impossible. I'm still a little dazed, you know, I'm... My sleep is the most important thing, because to create so much, I put a lot of effort into it. Sleep is super important in my life, it's very healing. And Big Brother, it scared me to sleep in a dormitory with people who were snoring. I found that complicated, really.

And well, I recovered well. When I went out, I really slept a lot. What did you find the most difficult about this experience? I know it's a mess, but it's really sleep. It's the thing I feared the most difficult part of this experience? I know it's a nightmare, but it's really sleep. It's the thing I was most afraid of. Before I went home, I met a psychologist. And can you believe it, I'd never seen a psychologist in my life. It had never happened to me. It wasn't out of lack of interest.

It's like I had the impression that I didn't feel like I lacked in terms of saying things. Because writing was so easy for me, or spontaneous, I don't know if it's been easy, but it's been quite natural to go into writing and reveal everything, my dark sides, reveal things that aren't beautiful. So I'm not so convinced that writing is necessarily therapeutic, but I think it can be. And in my case, even when I write total fiction, I repair things, I free things. So I had the impression that I didn't have time to want to meet a psychologist because I had seen danger the most through writing. And then I said, hey, I have a great opportunity. And she said to me, what's your biggest challenge? And I said all the time, sleep.

And she said, yes, I understand sleep, but no, it's sleep. I love people, it's going to be fine. I'm not afraid of what I'm going to say. I'm a civilized person. I don't think I'm going to hurt someone, that would surprise me. And I'm ready to be hit. I know that's the game. And I'm going to find that funny.

And I found that funny. When I saw the episodes, I didn't find it painful. I didn't have any injury or rejection, so much so that I was very rejected. I felt so much loved that I didn't have that anymore. I was cotized. We don't write on open pleads, but I don't think I could have gone there with open arms either. I understand. I've been told a lot that Big Brother is like a recreation course, but as an adult. And the adult in me is solid. Even more solid than I think. So you didn't continue to consult afterwards? No.

No. And that doesn't mean that... But for the moment... For the moment, I would say that everything that has changed is that it has interrupted my creativity, and then I had the misery of getting myself back in the bath. It's been a few months since I left, and my creativity is not as much worn out as before.

So I need... I think it's simple. Yes, you were telling me! It's simple because it was almost unhealthy to create, to have... I had 8 projects that I was coming from the front, and my day started early, ended late, and I liked that, not seeing the time go by, and having 3 shoots in a day, and writing in public transport. That's my life. I'm always making money.

And since I left, I'm not making any money. I just want to read and do my pacha. And I think it's a good thing. My boyfriend is very happy about that. He said he felt that it would change my rhythm and it did. So I put myself in danger and it affected my creativity and it's a good thing. Well, I hope it will come back. But I don't want it to come back like before. There will be the before and the after. I think your body liked that.

My body liked that. My body said, you can be in the indolence. What I didn't live for a long time, I told you I like to say yes. Even when I say no, there are a lot of yes that I said. So it means to answer a lot of requests. And it also means to go towards a form of exhaustion, or a form of... what's the first thing you put aside? It's your relationship life. It's your family and friends. So I was really a workaholic. I'm a hard worker and even when I learned the word, I was like, ah, it's me, I'm a procrastinator. The opposite of a procrastinator.

So when I'm told, in two weeks, you have a schedule, I'm going to do it as soon as possible. I have a schedule for the hello, I learned it yesterday, I delivered it three hours later. I chose my subject. I understand why we also need a schedule everywhere. Well, because I'm efficient. Because you're efficient, you're relevant.

I mean, you have good schedules and it's rare. What you just said, usually, you're relevant. I mean, you have good chronicles, and you know, it's rare. What you just said, usually, we're good, I have three hours left. But I think that's normal, and I think it's simple to be like that, but... But yeah, but it's reassuring for the teams to be like you. Because if you ask Simon, you'll see him. You'll see him. But you'll have less than before. But it's simple, so much the better!

The question you chose, what is your biggest complex? It can be as intellectual as it can be physical. I'm going to go with physical, it's a shame. It seems that I have a lot of love for myself, for everything that is my vivacity of mind. Yet, no, I have many, many gaps. I know I'm not the smartest person, really not. But I have an emotional, sensitive, really developed intelligence, which allows me to write a lot. But you know, I'm not someone very analytical,

like my lover, I'm an engineer, and when I see his mind, I'm like, Oh my God, he's less instinctive than me, but I'm not complexed by that. While physically, yes, I have physical complexes, but even then, I'm more and more at peace with my physical complexes. Even, well, I have small hands, I have good dancing thighs, I did a lot of ballet when I was young, I have really muscular thighs. I saw people with really small thighs and I have a lot of food problems in high school. I was a very round kid from 3rd to 6th year. I was very round. I don't think I was that unhappy. But I was uncomfortable with the way others looked at me. Sometimes you know how it is when you hear someone say something that makes you feel better.

There was a great aunt, we were at my grandmother's house, and she said, My God, he looks like Eve, my uncle, Eve, in more fat. I remember how she said, in more fat. The word fat stayed with me for so long, and I was obsessed with it. I don't want it, there was no evil. She was right, I was Eve in more fat, but it played in my head for so long. When I got to high school, I changed school. It had been a year that I was trying to lose weight and it didn't work. So I had real food problems before I got to high school.

I had bulimia and anorexia. I went to school really thin, telling myself, we're going to stop laughing at myself. Because at school, I was called a lot of beautiful balls. You know, beautiful rice balls, beautiful balls, it was predictable, but it was hurtful. It was still hurtful. Today, I would be much more in peace than they call me beautiful balls.

But my name is the little rice ball, and I love that. But that, it was hard. So I went to school thinking it was going to save me, and finally it was homophobia for five years. But really harsh homophobia, really deafening. It wasn't in front of everyone hurtful words, but it was very... There's a guy, and that's going to haunt me all my life. He was passing by me in my ear and he said all the time, c'est tellement pernicieux ça Marie-Claude quand t'entends chaque matin quelqu'un

qui te sourit, fait un beau sourire et qui t'humilie de façon sournoise parce que c'est pas, je vivais ça un peu dans le secret pis c'était pas une personne, il y en avait plusieurs mais lui c'est que c'était chaque matin pis chaque fois qu'on se croisait dans le corridor c'était la même chose pis le pire c'est que c'était pas un, secret. And it wasn't one person. There were several, but for him it was every morning. And every time we crossed the corridor, it was the same thing. And the worst thing is that it wasn't a... I'd like to say, oh, it was a guy who was stupid. No, it was a guy who was brilliant, who did beautiful studies. I stalked him on Facebook recently. I said, oh, the beautiful family. I watch his girls and I watch... Would you like to call him? I'm writing about him right now because I think a lot about it because I think I've repaired a lot. But you see, once I was at an

exhibition called Les Échangeistes with Penelope McQuade, and I had talked about the intimidation I had experienced in relation to homophobia, which is not a complex, but in relation to the complex was first my body. And I had talked about that, the intimidation I had experienced, and she contacted me saying, « Hey, am I the one who intimidated you? » It looked like the hat could do me. She felt the hat and I said, « Am I lying? »

« No, I'm going to tell her. » « Yes, it concerns you and many others, but yes, I remember very well what you told me, where and how it made me cry. Then she apologized. We didn't know how to talk on the phone, but she wrote to me and I just said, I see that you have two beautiful boys, I just hope that it will stop this chain of hate. I just hope that you will be vigilant so that they don't reproduce what you could do in my place.

You're someone who intimidated you at school. Someone intimidated me at school. Someone intimidated me at school. So I'm convinced that this guy, the guy I was talking about, I'm convinced we'll have a good discussion. Probably he would like it, and for him, I hope. You say it's okay, but would it still be a repairer? Yes.

Because it's a wound you're carrying. Surely. It would be a repairer. I don't think I'm broken. But... It would just cuterize a little more. It would just... It's like a little glove.

It's like a little glove to be sure there's less scars. Because I'm convinced it's closed. I'm not... I'm not as fragile as that. It's like a little He's aware of what he's done. He does it every day. It came out of his mouth, from his head. And I don't even know if he's aware of it. Sometimes I wonder if... But you're in high school. I'm in high school. Well, if you say it every day, I'll say it can't be. It can't be that he sees you and he says, hey, it can't be. I mean, we can't be, unless we're amnesic, but those who intimidated him, they're doing it.

Yeah, yeah. amnesic, but those who intimidated the star, what they did. Yes, yes. You see, I was hurt once in my fifth year with a boy because I laughed at his weight while I was myself fat. I just wanted to move, to just be tickled. And I made everyone laugh in the recreation class and I thought about it for years. And I finally apologized, I finally apologized to him. I think we don't forget... I dare to believe that when you're shy, you know you've crossed a line. I had crossed it that time.

I often think about how I was hurt with him, just so that the follow spot wasn't on me. I moved the projector. Look, I'm not alone. I imitated him. I made everyone laugh, look I'm not alone. I imitated him, and it made the world laugh, and I want it. What we can ask, the guy who said that every morning, what was he looking for with that? What was his satisfaction in that, in the repetition? I think having the top is to have, necessarily it's to say, I have the upper hand over him. Because he hit where it hurt.

He knew that... I would have liked to have some distribution. I hear a lot of stories, like Mona de Grenoble or so on. People who are able to have a live distribution, and to be able to be stale. I was a moron. We could think that writing was my thing, and that the word, I was rather used to the word, I was unable to reply to anything else than

... it was like it was marmonized, it was just overlooked, disillusioned. It seems I have pain as much for what I lived but also for the way I managed to say it to no one and, I find it sad, I find it infinitely sad, and I'm not there anymore, naturally, I'm really gone, but this little Simon, I'm like, my God, he's so stupid, my God, and at the same time, that, it created the artist that I became, because to isolate myself, to withdraw from the recess class, and from the cafeteria, which were my two anxio-genetic places, I was in all the committees. I did the mural committee, so I was painting in the school at dinner time. I was in the committee, I was at the library,

I worked at the library during all the dinners, and so being surrounded by books, for me, I associated that with protection, already there. You were safe with the books. du dîner et donc être entouré de livres. Pour moi, j'ai associé ça à la protection, déjà là. C'est en sécurité avec les livres. Donc, ça m'a protégé d'une certaine façon, mais en même temps, ça m'a éloigné des autres. J'avais peur de la race humaine. Je doutais de la bienveillance ambiante. Puis, mais j'ai eu des profs et c'est pour ça que tu, on dirait que, cette carte-là, on dirait que les gens qui m'ont marqué, ça sera tout le temps les professeurs. And that's why it looks like the people who marked me, it will always be the teachers. The teachers who saw, who... I even had a teacher, that's incredible.

I just want to put it in context, we're in the 90s and we talk very little, there's no word of intimidation. And there's not even... when we talk about homophobia, it seems like there's no punishment. It's all impunity. We could say, hey, I'm not going to repeat the words, but it was hurting all the time. And I have a ecology teacher who, for her, it was an end of not receiving. Who one day, she hears a word, she says, sorry. And she made the guy come outside in the corridor. And she said,

excuse me, it's unacceptable. I remember I was in pain, I said, but he's not going to apologize for that, it's so normal. I remember she said that to me. So she was the one who said, no, it's unacceptable. And that teacher was one of the people who did me good. One morning at school, I was doing an exposition on monkeys. In the recess, a boy came with a Jolouis cake and crushed me in the hair.

Crushed like he was singing to me. It was almost tender. He was like a shampoo with the cake wrapped. I know I have a book to go do my exhibition, I'm going to go to Longueuil, I'm from Saint-Rémy, and then I'm like, what's going to happen? And then Odette sees me and she says, I'm going to do you a shampoo. She washed my hair in the ecology lab with soap, and I saw her so moved, and it was like my daily life, it wasn't that bad, it was just the situation, it's not the right day to do this to me.

It's horrible. And it's through these eyes that I learned to set limits. To do... I didn't accept that. So, it's a lot of teachers who talked to me because I wasn't well-mannered, because I wasn't strong enough. Did you talk about it at home? No. No. That means that there are people who listen to us, who may have children who live that. Yes.

And the children don't talk about it. Why didn't you talk about it? The shame. The shame of saying, my parents will be so disappointed to know that they put a little guy in the world who is not strong enough, who is not able to defend himself, who's not able to reply. I felt, I knew I was a loser and I didn't find the... I didn't have those skills and I said to myself, I'm just going to disappoint them. I had parents who worked a lot, really a lot, so they weren't that present at home because my father had two jobs, he often worked at the factory at night, he was tired. And then, on top of that, he had the video club of my parents. My mother worked in a video club she had bought. My father worked with him, so he worked pretty much all the time. And besides, I myself worked at the video club. It was a place where I was good.

But I was good until someone came in. I was in my territory, and when one of my intimidators came in, I remember that I didn't want to walk around in the video club. I had to bring my little toys, my Velcro. It stressed me out if there was, because they were all guys who came to my parents' video club, and I had to go and bring them. And I was scared, even on my own field. It was my field. Was your fear an engine? I mean, not an engine, but it's something you often felt. The fear that you lived. I mean, not a motor, but it's something you often felt. Oh yes.

The fear that you lived a lot with yourself. Yes. Every day. Getting up to go to school, it was... It was ready to be a villain. Always, always. Until in her fifth grade. In her fifth grade, I felt that... The wind was turning. But it's long. It's long. It's so long. It's so long. And there are so many people who say, it's going to be like this all my life.

I used to tell myself all the time, I don't know where it comes from. I used to say, it's temporary, the beautiful things will come. And I don't know where it comes from. It's instinctive, I used to say, the beautiful things will come. I was convinced of that. And forced to admit that I was right, the beautiful things really came.

But there are plenty of people, there are plenty of children who say, it's not that. And I had to admit that I was right, the good things really came. But there are lots of people, lots of children who don't say that. They don't have resilience. I don't know what it is. It's like an amazing conviction that comes out of nowhere. It's almost like a candor to say things come out of nowhere. My life won't be like that. My life won't be like that. I called my mother and she told me, and it really struck me.

You're living the most beautiful years of my life, and you'll see that after that it's suffocating, and I was like, what? That scared me. These are the most beautiful years of my life, right now. I felt like it couldn't be, there's a part of me that can't be. And when I arrived in the Ségèbre, I was like, it's possible to be surrounded by people like me,

and people who share the passions that live in me, and above all, to feel that live in me, and above all to feel loved in my circle, I felt protected when I arrived in the Ségép. It was a turning point. And right away, I dressed myself as I wanted, I was totally myself, I was more preoccupied by all the complexes that lived in me, to hide everything that could go beyond. All my life I tried to hide as little as possible, to take as little space as possible, and habitait de cacher tout ce qui pouvait dépasser. Toute ma vie j'ai essayé de masquer de le plus petit possible, d'être le plus, de prendre le moins de place possible, pis là j'ai explosé. Comme si t'es complexe, il venait pas de l'intérieur, il venait de l'extérieur. Il était dans le regard des autres.

Complètement. Complètement parce que moi j'étais plutôt en paix, hein, avec même, tu sais quand quand je regarde, mon père avait une cam camera, you know, little mini DVs. He was filming at Christmas and I see myself there, guided by it. Hello! My father was filming, I was always making wheels and greeting. I was so happy to live, my God. And I was watching myself on TV, my father was filming, and I was watching myself. And I was in peace with this guy. I found myself funny, I found myself nice and it's in the eyes of others that I'm like,

oh no, I'm not cool. It's in the eyes of others. In the eyes of others. And when your parents found out that you were being intimidated, how did they react? I think they knew it retrospectively. Really after... It was over, they knew it. It was over, I was't in that school anymore. I wasn't a teenager anymore. I was 17 years old.

I left when I was 17 to go to the CEGEP. I arrived in Montreal, at the CEGEP in Saint-Laurent. And then it was over. And I think that's maybe more where they knew. With hindsight, should you have talked about it while you were living it? Yes, yes. Surely, because it was too much for nothing. I don't know what they would have done to my parents, but my parents are loving people. They would have done the thing... they would have reacted. They would have reacted. I don't know how they would have reacted, but I know that... they would have reacted. I think I should have said it.

I think I should have said it. I don't think I'm that sure. I didn't want to bother them either. And I like it. There's a part of me, it's not nice to say, there's a part of me that's happy, that's happy about this part, not bothering them with that, saying they have their adult life,

or they have accounts to pay, I feel they're worried about the video club. Having a business is demanding. I saw it with my parents, it was draining them. And my father worked so hard, so I was a witness to all that. So you were in the background after the video club? Yes. The priorities of your parents. Yes, I didn't want to disturb them. I never wanted to disturb them. I went to to disturb. You're still like that?

Oh yes. Can you be disturbed? Not too much. Disturbing in the private life, I don't have many friends. Or I would run. You know the famous, we call you at night and you run. And vice versa. I feel like I have maybe four or five friends. That I would take a taxi and I would run.

But there are a lot of people people I would be like, oh... I might not answer, you know, but my phone is always closed anyway. I like that. I like that. Not being always reachable. My phone is always on silent mode. Always airplane mode. I'm really airplane mode all the time. I go to the theater a lot and I'm so scared that it bothers me that I always put airplane mode. I prefer to miss calls. But the difference is that I don't have children.

When you have children, you have like a... I think you're alert. I don't have that. You're always on the wake-up call mode. I don't have that wake-up call. So it means, don't bother me. What can we do? What's so urgent? I understand. There's no one who depends on you.

Exactly. No, it's true that children change the situation. We'd say that all of a sudden, you have to be accessible everywhere. Red level, Simon? Yes! Order yours on the Tim's app today at participating restaurants in Canada for a limited time. And, oh, here, change of idea, this one. Thank you. What did you have to give up during your life? Okay. How do you manage to heal from intimidation? Did you neglect certain aspects of your life?

And look, I want us to get out of the next question, we're going to put them in the cards. Perfect, we're going to put them in the cards. Because how did you experience anorexia? Ah, hey, it's funny because it c'est celle-là que j'ai voulu prendre en premier. Pis je me suis comme rétracté, enfin je vais être, oh non pas celle-là, mais... Pis je vois c'est celle-là. OK, mais moi je vais répondre à celle-là en premier, OK? Ouais. Ouais. Celle-là étant, ouais, as-tu négligé certains aspects de your life? Yes. Yes? There's a part of me, I'm not a party guy. I know I look like one.

You look festive. I'm a festive guy. Let's say there's a Rihanna who's going to play. I like Rihanna. For me, it's like the incarnation of, we dance as if no one was watching us. We don't dance pretty, not pretty. I love that. Dance for fun.

And I like that. It represents me. Dancing, you put your bag on the table and you dance like it's not a day, and you counterfeit what people will think of you. I have a lot of that in me. But nevertheless, I am a guy who is very Casani. And so, my opinion of young man, there are a lot of people who are 18, 19 years old, they go out a lot in bars, they have a party. This freedom, for me it's like the quintessence of, there's no tomorrow. I've never been in there. And it's like sometimes, when I see it through the door, I live it through the door,

watching a TV series, I'm jealous, I'm envious. I'm envious of doing, hey, I'm going to pass by because I don't like alcohol. It's not because I tolerate alcohol, I don't like alcohol. I've never tasted it. I don't like losing control. I'm, let's say, really, vodka, it's possible because it's not too tasty. Vodka, canberra, I drink, I go crazy, I'm like Obelix, I fell in alcohol when I was a baby because I don't have an episode anymore. So maybe I felt like I would be monstrous in that environment. So I didn't go, I didn't get in, I drink alcohol, I party and I go home at 4am. I didn't have that life. I have the nostalgia of that time that I shouldn't have lived more.

I was wise, I turned a lot towards my books and I lived everything by procuration. I had the impression that at 17-18, I had been passing by great works. I didn't know, I had a teacher who said, my three favorite authors are Kundera, Kafka and Kirouac. I said, I don't know any of them, it's terrible. I read the three writers during the week. I was like that, I was a good student, but it wasn't to be a good student. But at the same time, you had a great curiosity. It was my curiosity to do wow. We were talking about a movie, I hadn't seen it, there was a video clip at the Cégep.

I watched all the movies, I saw everything. I remember, I spent the evenings while others were going to celebrate. I was doing my culture. You weren't, I sent the three bars that we should know. I didn't know the bars. You tell me which bar, which cafe, which restaurant. I didn't know, I was at home listening to movies and reading books. I was thinking about it, so I have the impression that I neglected frivolity. Yeah.

And I love frivolity in life, I find it beautiful and I think I lived it through procreation, through the works and I write about it myself. I relive, me often in my stories, I wrote a series where there are lots of parties and I haven't really lived any parties. I think I lived two and now I'm projecting myself in those parties when I was young. I lived some of them, professionals, at Marie-Louise Arsenault's. But Marie-Louise Arsenault, it was two parties a year and it was the only time I really went to parties. And when it ended, can you believe that for, I don't know, five years, I didn't drink a drop of alcohol for 5 years, because that's when I drank once a year. Jean-Paul Daoum made me a free cup.

You're a dear friend of your free cup. I was a princess, and I was making split-mouthed splits. There was a column at Marlouise Arsenault's, I was dancing the dance column. The dance photo genre? The dance photo. It was a vulgarity without a name. I started dating date my guy, he got in the car and saw me dancing with the column, the dance

poto, and he was like, what is that? He's a mini engineer, he's like that Simon, who is never like that because I don't drink, but I'm disappointed. You had the age, you had the period of life. I thought about it. I thought about that frivolity. In the meantime, I may have had less of a day off. I almost didn't have any. I think I may have had a day off, that's all. I've never vomited because I drank too much alcohol. I find myself plain, wise, wise, plain, between the two of them. But there are little moments where I had fun. I still had fun in life, but frivolity, I find that I've destroyed it too much. You let it go.

There are so many writers, let's say Bukowski, who go far in their dark side. I know I could never embody that height. And yet I have a lot of black people and I invest them in these black areas. But I would like to be trash. I don't have that in me, but I would like to try a little more. Let's be trash. That's good. I can't, I don't have that in me. But I would have liked to try a little more the Simon Trash. Ah, that's good. You neglected that in your life. I neglected that, can you believe it? I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed.

Actually, we're answering a single question in the red, but I was still interested in hearing about how you lived anorexia. Because we talk less about the masculine of anorexia. Absolutely. Me, the second era, 1, 2, 3, I'm in a spiral of... every night, I would go hungry. The dinner of the evening, I ate it with my family. When we eat together, once we were all family together because of of the order of my parents. And this meal, it's the only one I ate in the family, otherwise I didn't eat. Or I barely ate, and everything I ate, I would throw up. And I was proud to fall asleep, with an empty stomach. I remember that, I used to tell myself all the time, I'm proud, and I'm so beautiful, I'm proud. No food, but pride. I had a stomach ache, I used to tell myself all the time, I'm full of pride, and I'm too proud, I'm full of pride. No food, but pride.

I had a stomach ache, I wasn't well, I was often dizzy, and I was performing at school, I defined myself a lot by performance. It's a cliché that we hear a lot, but often there's that, there's the control, having control of your life on that part, on your body, and on the notes, on the performance school. I defined myself a lot by that. I was so not good at friendship, I had little friendship, I had little leisure, I had no outdoor leisure, I didn't have a driver's license either, so I was very confined at home. In Saint-Rémy,

where I was, there was no bus to escape to Montreal, it was not a possibility. I was always at home. Just kidding, when my parents wanted to fuck me, they said, you're going to leave your room. It was always my sanctuary, and it was my protection. It was the place where I danced. I danced in my room, I drew in my room, I wrote, I read. It was an artistic place. So there were a lot of secrets.

My parents didn't know what I was living, that I was getting into a bad mood. They knew it really well after. You lived a lot of things in silence. My parents didn't know what I was going through, that I was going to get into a bad mood, they didn't know. You lived a lot of things in silence. Yes, all alone with myself all the time, and even my big sister. My sister guessed certain things. She was no longer present. But she had a lot of friendships, she had a life, she was very efficient at school, but she had a huge social life. immensely rich. Puis j'étais... je pense que j'en via aussi ça. Comment être tellement doué en amitié? Moi je sais pas comment me tourner vers l'autre. Je sais pas comment être accepté par l'autre. J'avais l'impression que j'avais rien qui pouvait séduire en amitié. Encore moins un jour

sensuellement. Pour moi c'était pas une possibilité. Donc disparaître, être le plus petit possible, c'était ma voie de sortie. Et donc ça a duré longtemps. Puis je l'ai nommé une seule fois, disappear, to be as small as possible, that was my way of getting out. And so it lasted a long time, and I named her only once, in high school. There was a girl in my class where we suspected she had food disorders and she was part of a network of friends. They weren't big friends, but they were people I loved a lot. I always had the impression that I didn't like them more than they liked me, but well, I gravitated around them. It was like my circle of friends. And one day, there's a girl who, that's what we tell her, I felt like I liked them more than they liked me, but I was gravitating around them. It was like my circle of friends.

One day, there was a girl who... That's what we told her, Were you too malnourished? She said no. She didn't really have it, but she was worried. And then I felt like I was, by Claude, envious of the interest they had in her place, to be concerned about her health.

While I, next to her, nobody was worried about my health, while I, on the other side, nobody was concerned about my health, and I wanted to do better. There's me behind, who's been living, I've been living this for three years, and I haven't told anyone. So I named her one of our friends in common, and my friend who was absolutely brilliant, very open, she said to me, but that's not possible, you're a guy. You know, her reaction is, that's not possible, to be a guy. It reveals that we are in the 90s. I don't think it would be the same today, but we are in 96, 97. For her, it's not possible. And I've like, I've like decreased, I've done your name, you're right. But I found it hard, that reaction. Because you opened up your vulnerability, you opened opening up about your intimacy, something you had never seen before.

I think that maybe, it was like a small call to help, to call in front of her, and maybe there was a discussion with a teacher. Because you knew it wasn't going well. I knew it wasn't going well, and I was getting weaker and weaker, and I was very small, I weighed about 110 pounds. But in your head, what space did it take? I wasn't feeling well, and I was getting weaker and weaker, and I was very small. I weighed about 110 pounds. But in your head, what space did it take? All. All space. I only thought about that. I only thought about getting rid of myself. I didn't want to be seen. I didn't want to...

You wanted to die? Did you understand that it could go there? Yes. it could go there. Yes. Yes. I wrote a sentence when I was in high school. This sentence, I think it's... I'm not in this universe anymore, but it's a sentence that I still find very beautiful

because it's honest and there's no fioriture. I wrote in a note that I had read to my teacher. I had quoted all those who made me suffer and I'm going to buy a new life. And even today I find that the words chosen are of great simplicity and are just. Codized, bought back. And when I read, when I think about it, buy me a life, I think there's a part of this life is not for me, this life makes me unhappy. There will be something else. Thank you.

There will be something else. You know, when I was telling you about my conviction, the good things will come. It's related to that. There was a part of me who said, it'sest les moments où j'étais plus faible, où j'ai pensé au suicide. Je me rappelle une fois, là, j'étais devant le miroir, pis je me détestais, pis j'avais pris un couteau qui était pas le couteau le plus coupant, mais je pense que c'était juste, je me regardais en me disant, est-ce que je pourrais passer à l'action? C'était juste peut-être une journée de the most sharp knife, but I think it was just... I was looking at myself and saying, could I just get to the point? It was just... maybe a day or two where there was just no sense of how I had to deal with hatred. And I think about that again, and my God,

it's not in my nature. You know, for me to have gotten this far, I tell myself, I can understand human dismay so much when we don't have the conviction that the beautiful things will come. I feel privileged to be made up of that, to be able to say to myself, the beautiful things will come. Imagine the young people who don't have that tool and who live the violence I've lived through during those years. And anotherest... et puis, une autre chose à lier à ça, je l'ai souvent dit en entrevue, puis je trouve ça drôle de dire que Georges Saint-Pierre était mon collègue de classe au secondaire. C'est tout le temps étonnant. Puis un jour, j'entends Georges Saint-Pierre qui dit qu'il a vécu de

l'intimidation à l'école. Probablement plus au primaire qu'au secondaire, parce que moi, je l'ai côtoyé juste au secondaire, puis j'ai pas été témoin de ça. Puis à un moment donné, je me suis dit, I was just with him in high school and I wasn't a witness to that. Then one day I thought to myself, who am I to think that he didn't go through that? I don't even know what... I think it was obvious that I was going through that, but maybe sometimes we're in silos and we don't know what the other is going through. I have the impression that George had a kind of flamboyant high school, fun arrogance, he was good, he was sporty, he was...

But he ripped it off. It's crazy, it means all the people who rip it off, that we don't notice. So maybe I was just constantly in the bar, and the people I was around didn't see anything. That's why I say, you have to name. You have must name. We must name. Yes, the campaigns against intimidation. I know there are a lot of people who roll their eyes and say, well, in my time, there was no... But in your time, you were maybe unhappy and it wasn't... Yes, you learned to defend yourself

otherwise, but there are some who are not able to defend themselves otherwise. And it's not because you defend yourself that it's going to stop. Exactly. It's not the solution either. I'm so happy when, a few years ago, I made the note because I'm not You're saying it's going to stop. Exactly. It's not the solution either. I'm so happy when, a few years ago, I made the observation, because I'm not speaking of Interlink, I'm speaking with two other colleagues. Interlink who was in Gué, listen, I didn't know that when I was a young person.

I would have called, I would have called, but I didn't know that. So I would have loved to have that contact. But I didn't know that. J'aurais tellement aimé ça, avoir ce contact-là, mais je connaissais pas ça. Tu étais seule avec tout ça. J'étais seule. Avec un drame. Tu sais quand t'es prêt à penser que peut-être la souffrance pour y mettre fin, c'est s'enlever la vie. Puis tu sais, j'avais dit dernièrement, aujourd'hui dans les écoles secondaires, c'est l'homophobe It's taking your life away. And you know, I said recently, today in high school,

it's the homophobe that we point fingers at, and not the homosexual. I really had the impression that we were there, and it's true, we were there. And then what has been terrorizing me for two, three years is the resentment. It's the return of the balancer.

There, we hear in the newspapers, we read that the word gay comes back, that the insult, it becomes an insult, to treat the word in F. We use all that. And it's true. I write a lot about young people, about youth, and I turn with these young people. And I hear comments, I see, and these are people in the cultural environment, and there's still this return to something that polluted my adolescence, and when I say to myself, I don't want other young people to live what I lived in the 90s, in 2025, it can't be, let's see, will it stop?

And it seems like it gives me the desire, ça me donne le souffle pour prolonger l'engagement avec Interlink notamment pis aussi prendre parole dans la sphère publique et à travers l'écriture. Pour moi, l'écriture c'est une façon, autant les séries télé là, on dit tout le temps on écoute plus la télé, je regrette mais quand j'écris une série télé, ça résonne dans le coeur du monde, je reçois plein de retours. Peut-être encore plus que les romans, c'est que les romans circulent, la pérennité est comme, It resonates in the heart of the world. I receive a lot of feedback. Maybe even more so that the novels circulate. The Pérénité is like... it can always last a novel. While a TV series is like marked in time and it lasts.

There are a lot of people who watch it at the same time and it has an impact. But your TV series are a bit like... Talk for Talk, I think. Well, it's a nice compliment because I grew up talking to talk. And I liked that, those discussions around a taboo subject. Me, to see seropositives on TV when I was young, when it was very taboo. Yes, we were afraid of that. Hey, we were afraid of that.

It's terrible what I'm going to say to the secondary school, they asked me who wants to do volunteer work with seropositives, and I had raised my hand. Then I went and I said to myself, well, I'm probably going to catch him. For you, I knew how it was going to happen, but I said to myself, I'm homosexual, I'm going to end up catching him anyway. I was like... You had abdicated. I had abdicated, but it was the time. In the 80s, we were so afraid of AIDS.

It meant my desire. Desire equals danger. I grew up with that fear. The fear of sensuality, the fear of my sexuality, the fear of assuming myself. So there was no spontaneity? No, none. And I remember seeing them and saying, my God, it was such a beautiful world. And then seeing that on TV, which didn't happen often à la télé, ce qui arrivait pas souvent, sérieux chapeau, Jeannette Bertrand. Chapeau d'avoir ouvert ses bras. T'sais là, qu'on se sente qu'on vient à la noce, on dirait que c'est elle qui a inventé ça. Moi, c'est une expression que j'utilise tout le temps. Qu'on se sente qu'on vient à la noce. Dans tous mes livres,

j'ai tout le temps ce souhait-là. Que tout le monde se sente qu'on vient à ma noce. Pis c'est elle qui a instauré ça. Et j'ai comme l'impression qu'elle a dû avoir une And it's she who started it. And I have the impression that she must have had an influence in the sense that when I think about what you presented to us in the series, I have Chouchou that comes to mind, where it's the forbidden love between a teacher and his student, and the student is minor, we agree, We agree. But she could have done that, Janet. You understand? Decline how it's going on, because we don't even know as a TV viewer how we are positioned in relation to the relationship. In the sense that we would no longer want him to get caught, but at the same time we know it's bad. We see her with her... You know, all this, we don't want her husband to go into the room because he's going to see her. And it's all our morality that is at stake, you understand? And it's to understand what one and the other feel, despite the prohibition. And I had, that's important for me, I had empathy for my two heroes.

Their two tracks, I loved them, and the two were hurting each other, naturally, but I learned through writing the existence of critical empathy. That we can put ourselves in someone's shoes and nevertheless reproach behaviors or recognize the... to what extent the person has crossed a limit. We can still, despite everything, not throw the person into oblivion. limit, on peut quand même malgré tout ne pas jeter la personne dans les oubliettes. Ça me plaisait quand même plutôt d'aller dans toutes ces zones grises-là. Pis en général, c'est des zones qui m'attire beaucoup. Toute la nuance. Là, mon prochain sujet, on fait un nouveau projet avec l'équipe de production de Chouchou. On fait encore

un huit fois une heure. Ça s'appelle Je te tiens, and we're in the universe of sex workers. We have a lot of demonized, with reason, sex workers, for many, I think there are obvious reasons, but there are also words of empowerment, of women in particular who say to what extent their feminism also incarnates embodied in prostitution, in this power relationship, in the limits when there is no proxenete in the surroundings. I found that interesting, and especially when I discovered the existence of sexual assistants. So these are people who work with people who have limitations, disabilities in particular. I find it a... I find the right to tenderness and the right to intimacy really important.

It's illegal to have recourse to that in Quebec, but the right to intimacy when a person has no physical contact at all, it's such an interesting subject, and it's a taboo subject, naturally, but it seems like there's a part of me who is very careless when I talk about a subject. I find that exciting. But because it exists. It exists and I want to hear about it so I want to tell those stories that are maybe not seductive on paper to make it, it's slippery. Before Chouchou came out, people were saying to me, my God, what a slippery terrain! Yes, but it's interesting to go on a terrain that's not aseptic and that's not... I like it.

And we like it too. And just to finish with the anorexia, how do you get out of it? When you feel loved. I think I didn't feel loved at the level of what I deserved. And when I arrived in the Segep, I started eating more healthy. Naturally, I think that when you live with food disorders during the year, there's always a part of your brain that's worried about that. There's always... It's a scar, I think, it stays. But the feeling of being loved, oh my God,

eating in a hurry... The best, the most beautiful thing my God, eating in a gang. And the best, the most beautiful thing that happened to me in my life is my chum, Philippe, who is the most generous, the most brilliant, the most loving guy. He's a guy who loves delicacy, in silence. He's not flamboyant at all. He's very sober. He cooks a lot. When he cooks, I know he loves me. I finish the plate. I always finish the plate with him. We eat together, we're fine. It's just simple. What is his profound need, he knows everything about me. I feel like he's the person I'm best friends with. I'm always that Jocelyn is my best friend, but Philippe, he knows

everything, he knows everything. I think it's a kind of mutual security, tenderness. We are very much in the tenderness of everyday life, Philippe and I. And the most beautiful gesture I've been able to do in the last few weeks, is when I went out with Big Brother, he made me a diary of everything I missed. Of the 43 days I missed. And every day, he wrote to me how he felt, and everything I missed. Let's say, Kim Yarashevsky died. I was not by passing by, I didn't know, we were cut off from the crowd. Henri kicked off the stage at the Redauvers.

No, not for real, I'm not, you know, but also the little bag of powder from Old El Paso in the closet makes me want to cry, because it makes me think of you, because I love the little powder from the pacifier. So, this Philippe, it's this delicacy to name love simply with the heart all the time. And you know, he would say the first, I'm not an author, he writes so well, he's in a truth all the time. His little post-its, he leaves me, because he works one week on two at the Nouveau. So when he leaves in the morning, he often

leaves on Monday morning or Tuesday morning, when I wake up he leaves very early. I wake up much later than him and I always have my post-it. And I kept them all, these are my signatures. In all my books at home, I have some, I think of you, shit for your Wednesday project because that's what I'm coming during my week. And I'm already looking forward to my return. All these words are signs. It's love everywhere in my bed. And how long have you been together? It's been more than eight years. More than eight years. And can you believe it, Mère Claude? I find that funny. When I went out Big Brother, for four days, we were in a hotel. Because we don't have to be seen before our

release, before it's announced on TV. So I went to the hotel with a baby, and then she told me, the producer wants to meet you. And it's a surprise, it's Philippe who just landed, and they didn't tell me, Philippe is supposed to be at the Nounavut, but they warned him before he left. He didn't take the plane, he came to see me at the hotel. And I'm thinking, I'm going to meet the producer. I shook his hand. Hello! It's my chum, Calis, who's in my face, and I don't recognize him, Marie-Claude, it's terrible!

It's terrible, I'm like, oh! And he's like, well, let's see, Simon, Simon, it's me! I'm so sorry! He had a different tux, what's that? It's your tux, let's see, What's that? I don't recognize you. Hey, it's... It wasn't expected. I didn't recognize you after 8 years of relationship.

So it reveals to what point Big Brother, a half cut month, yes, it can be deformed. I was deformed. But you know what? I said to myself, he's the same handsome, the producer. Objectively, I found my chum handsome. I said, oh, he's a handsome man. producer. Objectively, I found my chum handsome. I was like, oh, he's a handsome man.

Christ, he's your chum, you're so lucky. It's crazy, huh? So that's it. My chum is the tenderness on a daily basis. And he takes care of me, my God, he takes care of me. You know, I'm not good at many things. I'm like, incapable. Just on the level of finances.

He wears that, he takes care of my finances. I was like, oh! Earlier, we were on my rear before I left, and he said, I'm going to take care of it. I was like, he takes care of my rear. Oh, he's married. Do you want to get married? No, I've never dreamed of that, marriage. And also, I know it's banal, but I'm a metal-phobe. So, the metal, I can't touch metal. So, I know it's banal, but I'm a metal-phobic. So, I can't touch metal. So, wearing... I know it's... You're the first person I meet who's a metal-phobic.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, I didn't even know it existed, actually. It exists. And you're a mining engineer. Yeah, but he doesn't wear his bag. Because engineers usually wear their little bags. And I told him, if you had worn your little bag, it wouldn't have worked.

I wouldn't have been able to kiss someone who wears a bag. I could just think of that. There's a bag, a bag, a bag. Are fonctionner. J'aurais pas pu embrasser quelqu'un qui porte une bague. J'peux juste penser à ça. Y'a une bague, une bague, une bague. T'énerves-tu que j'ai une bague? Euh, un peu. T'es mon amour. Non, non, non. T'in, je n'ai plus. Je n'ai plus de bague, j'ai cassé mes boucles d'oreilles. Non, écoute, c'est pas si pire. C'est pas si pire. T'sais, c'est juste que quand je touche,

maintenant, quelqu'un qui a une bague, je suis capable. Mais mes doigts se rappellent, va te laver, va te laver, va te laver. Pis c'est aussi la sensation du métal sur la peau. J'aime ça, il n'a rien wash yourself. And it's also the sensation of metal on the skin. I like that, it has nothing to do with it. I never leave my home. So you couldn't get married because of the bank. Well, for a long time, it was my reason. It's really a gnawing reason. I like the idea of ​​engaging, you know, but...

I would rather want to have a party, you know, to have a party, a celebration of our love. But that, but not an official commitment like that. It's more of a tacit commitment. I want it to last, that's all. Let's celebrate our love and our complicity. But marriage itself is not something that... You were writing a book, a biography, the chapter on your love story, what would it be called? It's funny because I have La Morse, it's Géocalysée l'amour, which is a poem per poem that I published about ten years ago. And I made a TV series after that, a web series that I also did. We'll surely talk about it in the ERA. You were a little bit

daring in your web series. Yes, I was very daring. And that's like the search, I who don't go to bars, dating apps. It was a buffet at will, and it was a happy vertigo like unpleasant. You know, the kind of buffet at will is exciting until it hurts the heart of everything is possible. And so you can only be unhappy if you think all the time that there is better elsewhere. And there is a lot of that in dating apps. There's also good. And my chum, I met him on Tinder. And so, I will never demonize these apps. There are a lot of people like me who are not talented in a bar.

I don't know how to place my voice when there's music. For real, people never hear me. When there's loud music, I couldn't cruise enough. Probably I'm not good at cruising. I'm not very comfortable cruising. So I just take a flat 7up. I wouldn't be comfortable in a bar. So for me, dating apps were a way to turn to the other. And Philippe, I arrived at his place and it was like, Oh my God, I hope he's going to be interested in me.

Right away, I felt I liked his voice, I liked his calm. I found him beautiful. Of course, it plays a lot of beauty, it's still seducing, so I found him beautiful, but I especially liked how I felt in front of him. I felt so peaceful. The first thing I said was, can I put my boots in your dryer? Because it was raining so hard when I was out of the subway. I was at his place and I had my boots all wet.

And he said, well, yes. So I took my boots off in front of him. And we put my boots in his dryer. And it started really funny like that. Put my boots in his dryer. So what would be the title of a chapter that would describe your love? It could be called Just Philippe or just... Or Just My Boots in His Dryer. Or just my good, dry teeth.

Yes, I love that! That's what I love about him. That's very him. I'm going to warm your feet. I'm going to give you a napkin. He is very devoted. And it seems that he likes to be the person who supports himself. He's a supporter.

He's not a careerist. He has a beautiful career., he has a nice career, but he has been very useful professionally. He saw my life change completely. I was doing a little TV, a little. I was doing radio, eight years ago. It's been a little more than eight years since we've been together. And as soon as we started going out together, I went to the audition for that year and it worked. He was at the first stage of all my important moments. The effervescence. Being invited to the World's End Direct.

I went there once alone. He was in the audience, he was very shy. He would never have sung in Milan. But when I was kidnapped for the World's End Direct of the time of the holidays, the World's End Direct of the time of the holidays, that's it, he danced in a mascot. I just published a novel called Crying in the Mascots.

And then, France Baudoin, to salute this book, she put me on her head, I had written it. Yes, I remember. Philippe, Simon's lover. And I didn't know I had that. I didn't even understand. There's so much to do in the live of the universe, it's to watch. And then, he has a panda dancing in my face. And I'm like, okay. I don't know understand. There's so much to do, it's like a mess, it's for watching. And then he has a panda dancing in my face and I'm like, okay, I don't know who it is, he's pretty cute.

I look everywhere, it's... At the end of the choreography, he pulls his head back and it's Monchum. Monchum... In the background of a mascot. In the background of a mascot, Monchum who is so pudgy. And Monchum especially, who's in a rather macho environment, and who's never done a coming out at his job. Never, ever, everyone wants to introduce girls to him at his job, he does...

He never said... He's very pudgy in his private life, unlike me. He's very in the retention, but there, in front of 3 million viewers, he showed that he loved his colleagues, if that's not a proof of love, in a mask, in addition, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in a mask, in, but my most beautiful surprise is my man who danced in a mascot for me and who repeated a choreography. I didn't even really look at him. I found that so generous because I know him. I know what it means to him. It's beautiful. What a beautiful story. when you can't. Don't let life's challenges stand in the way of your success. Protect what you've built today. Visit CanadaLife.com slash business protection to learn more. Canada Life. Insurance, investments, advice. The first time someone would get wasted. There you go. My shag. Okay.

Give me three please. Perfect. It's funny, I put them all the time. At the beginning there were six. I thought there were too many. I went to four. Thank you. How did your sexual life evolve over time? What place do you give to your intimate life? Are you comfortable with nudity?

There are two that interest me. Go ahead! I'm going to go with how my sexual life evolved over time. We go back to what I told you at the beginning. I thought I would never have sensuality in life, that I would never have a relationship, I thought I would not have the right to that life. I didn't find myself pretty enough. I also thought that illness would be the burden of all the... At the time, I grew up with that. I came in the 80s, I came with AIDS, the existence of AIDS, so...

For me, living my sexuality was condemning myself, probably. So when we have this journey, there's this fear. I didn't have the spontaneity to put my desire in action quickly. I was late. It was late. I was a late bloomer. Late sexual floration. It happened late. I think I was not far from 20 about 20, 19, 20 years old. I would have wanted it so much, I had a desire for secondary school, but I was constantly afraid. And so I lived that more at the age of 19, 20. But when I started my re-load, watch out, I started and I liked it. pis j'ai aimé ça. Ça veut pas dire que j'ai tout fait, j'étais vraiment dans quelque chose d'un peu sécurisant. Donc j'avais une sexualité toujours protégée, mais une sexualité jetable. J'en ai vécu beaucoup.

Avec les applications. Des histoires d'un soir. Des histoires d'un soir j'en ai vécu beaucoup. Et c'était pas jetable au complet parce que il me restait toujours quelque chose de ces rencontres-là. And it wasn't a complete table because I still had something left from those meetings. Even when it wasn't necessarily the ad night, I was always talking. For me, I never was able to do anonymous sexuality. We were talking in advance, in advance, and even sometimes during. I'm someone who doesn't like talking during, but hey, that's more controversial. But you know, we take a break, my kind. And that's life. And then you say, life, we eat something.

But I liked that, the discussions, I liked meeting the other. It was still a meeting, yes, it was fateful, but... And at some point, there's something that suffocates in there, hence the existence of my... I called it love. It was a bit of a state, the state of the places, it's... Yeah, well, I have a bit of a high heart sometimes. There were sad moments. There was a lot of sadness. A lot of...

It's a character who is inconsolable at one point, and who is not filled with sexuality. It's not completely me, it's part of me. There was a part of me in it. And so, I would tell you that when Philippe arrived in my life, it's not my first lover far from there, but it's my lover far from the most stable, my most healthy relationship, the most constant, the most... And so, our sexuality really evolved over time, it has really slowed down. And it's tenderness that gives the most to Philippe. We're really in something very, very tender and it's a hand placed in the right place at the right time. It's in the smallness, it's in the delicacy. And it's funny because I've lived, I said I wasn't wild, but I still...

numerically, I wasn't very wise. But it seems that with Philippe, there's something, there's a delicacy that's installed in my life and in the bed. It's maybe, there's a maturity, surely, but it's something very simple. I like that, I like how it evolves. My deserts are always there. I'm a guy who has crossed the desert and I've often used them, sublimated by writing. A lot of teenagers, when you're a teenager and you live by procreation, you write by procreation,

well, I still have unreserved deserts and I find that being unfulfilled is not a bad thing. So I sublime them a lot in writing, in my characters who live things. So I feel like sometimes I lived in amorses, or I lived things anyway, I lived things a little more killy at the time, but never much, but it was like the am mors that fed me in writing. So I like to say that everything can be sublimated, and even being very contented is not just a bad thing, I think. Earlier, you were talking about... did you neglect certain aspects of your life? And you were more of a Casani than you could have been. casani alors que tu aurais pu t'éclater. Mais sexuellement, est-ce que tu as négligé cette partie-là ou justement d'avoir osé aller vers les autres comme tu le fais? À partir du moment où

j'ai su que je pouvais éveiller le désir, ça a été une carte cachée, qui était insoupçonnée dans ma vie. J'ai fait, ah, je peux éveiller le désir advantage of it, I can... I didn't think I'd have that, I never saw myself as... I know I'm a little bit of a jerk. When I dance... Yes, there's a childish side when I dance, but there's also a side... Speaking of the colon dance at Marlouise Arsenault, the pole dance... I can be lubricated with a pole. It's like I'm in total abandonment.

There's something about... When you see someone dancing in abandonment, I offer myself. It's like I have no more... my spine is very flexible, the part of the air, I'm in the fullness of the body. And it seems like I had that in me when I was a teenager. I danced a little bit lubricated. It was a lot fed up with video clips. I watched a lot of Music Plus, and I liked lacy dances a bit. And it seemed that when I saw that I could arouse desire,

and to respond to that desire, it was really fun. I had much wilder years, and I feel like I encapsulated a lot of human encounters that have served me in Jokel's and L'amour, but in everything I've written afterwards, because I'm wiser. But this life, this period of my life, it's almost a decade, even a little more, where I've lived more delirious experiences, without alcohol. I've always been conscious. Alcohol has never been... I've never fallen in love with the effects of alcohol or drugs.

So you've never regretted it or you're never awake to say, where am I? Never. Never. Everything has always been unconscious. And I have nothing against those who try. I know there are many sexual methods that can introduce drugs, alcohol, it depends on the people. But you didn't need that. I didn't need that. Sometimes it's the loss of control, the loss of emissions,, abandonment. Abandonment is easy for me. I offer myself quickly. You know, I offer myself in all levels. You want me to open up, I'm going to open up. You want me to... I like to make people happy, I like to... But you're someone very charming. I'm someone very charming.

Yes. I'm going to detach another one to prove it to you. You're done. Finally... Are you a stripper? Yes, but is that so? Are you comfortable with nudity? Yes and no. Because as you know, my adolescence has been complicated. My relationship with the body is always going to be a bit conflictual.

Nevertheless, I did things... I've already danced for Dave St-Pierre. So Dave St-Pierre, this choreographer who put naked bodies on stage, I participated in it. des choses, j'ai déjà dansé pour Dave St-Pierre. Alors Dave St-Pierre, ce chorégraphe qui mettaient des corps nus sur scène, j'y ai participé, j'ai fait un spectacle avec lui, on était nombreux, mais être... I think it's the celebration of my body, to have accepted to do this show naked on stage. And even in Géocalyser l'amour, I had a lot of scenes where I was very naked. There are scenes where I'm naked, literally. It's very explicit. It's very explicit.

It's very explicit. There are people who... I was surprised, because it's you who plays in it more. I was like, oh la la la la la la la. It's funny because we say to ourselves, the guy from Bonsoir Bonsoir is also that. But I am both. And I find it fun to say yes. You mix us all up.

Yes, that's it. A young author, I'm often seen as a young author in tenderness, but when you listen to Jokel Zellamour, there are a lot of people who have done it, but I'm destabilized. I don't expect that from you. I find it fun to tell myself that I'm also that. But you're also an actor! I'm also an actor! I played a lot in this series, I'm in each scene. Well yes! Yes, in this series, I'm in every scene. Yes. And what's fun is that I was playing my own role and a character. Because I was directed by a director who had views, who had his own vision of the character,

who wasn't always with what I would have done spontaneously. And I liked that, directing myself and bringing me to an area that wasn't quite mine, even if it was my body, my words. When I listened to the web series, I was really delighted to see, it's something different. And it was a success. Listen, I think I won about ten awards in festivals, people who don't know me there. And you know, I, who am mostly seen as an author, I have gained a lot of awards in interpretation in Argentina, in Italy. People don't know me there, but it's just that I still think that I defended my Simon well. My Simon was well defended.

In your release. In my release. Because there was still a lot of release in those scenes. And that's something we hadn't seen often or not seen at all. A lot of vulnerability. I've always said that I like to make my vulnerabilities shine in writing, but in the game as much as possible. At the theater school, there was a girl in my class who was the best. She was overwhelming.

And often in the notes, she had the lowest notes. And it confronted me, I didn't have very good notes. I was always next to her and I always said to myself, she's got 70 and everyone has 90. Well, I have 73, it's a good thing. I'm getting closer to my beautiful Sarah, which I find so good. So that's in the second year that I remember telling myself, I don't have the same grid. My grid is sincere. I'm not saying the others aren't sincere, that's not it. But it seems that I buy a lot of imperfection,

postion, something that is wrong, a sound that is not clear, it doesn't bother me when it's sincere. More than a beautiful voice, with an articulation and... you know, when everything is an impeccable elucidation, if it's not supported by the heart, by the emotion, by... I prefer someone who postions, who is all tough, but who makes me live something, and Sarah, she upsets me every time she plays, and I aspired to that. I'm going go into the humor, not the jokes. It's really funny. And in the drama, I think in Jocelyn's Love, I had all of that. I allowed myself to go far into all the vulgarities, as much in the humor. Sometimes I feel like,

it's funny, there are scenes where I'm present, but it doesn't even matter. And far in the emotion too. It really helped for me, when I finished the shooting, because it was already a 15 days of shooting, but you know, all the time, I have a kind of nostalgia to do, ah, I'm going to relive this.

I really liked it, to put the writing aside and just play, to be at the service of a project that included me, but I was just at the service of the director. Who you were completely confident. I was confident. I let myself be and I liked that. And I would also like that by the future, to be a little more, you know, playing small roles in to rest my creativity. It's another part of creativity, but just being at the service

of someone else's texts and the universe of someone else. And then the series, you know, I went to Cannes all recently. Well yes, well yes. I went to Cannes and it's in the series when I was talking to the director before we shot in September, and I said to myself, I would like to play the policeman. The police investigator who is not hungry and then he says to me, yes, but you don't want to play the teacher in a drama? Yes, but I find that in Sixth Degree, I played something that was close, yeah, but you don't want to play the teacher in a drama? Yes, but I think that in 6th grade, I played something close to that, I played the French teacher.

No, the policeman didn't do that, and I felt it in his eyes. I'm not sure he can play that. I know I can play that. Because I'm telling myself, a policeman, it's not like the classic policeman we've seen a thousand times. I told you, the frame, it's killing me. Why a policeman must absolutely have this physique, this voice? I could be a policeman too. So I said no, I would like to play the investigator and especially he's a not-finish guy. So it's my first not-finish. He's not not-finish, he's not terrible but he's not very smart. And the pleasure I had on the set, I loved that. And Eric, the director, saw that it worked and he took me in his arms and said, Thank you, thank you. It reassured them. I thought it was fun. I knew I had that in me.

I knew I could play something that... But you had the assurance to say it. Yes. Or the unconsciousness. In fact, it's like I'm even unnerved in life. I say, I can play that. I trust myself. You have an assurance. You're myself. You have an insurance? You're right, I have an insurance. Yes, I'm full-bodied. You're full-bodied, you have insurance, and you show up naked.

I find that you're very... The last question, Simon. The question on your network. When you look at your life, what was the most beautiful period? What was the most beautiful period? I would like to say that it's presently, and it's true that I live a grandiose moment because I feel like my ex. I do a lot of things. I told you that I like multiplicity. I do a lot of things. I define myself by all this. I embrace all this. But my arrival in the Ségépe at 17,

there was something magical about it because I think it's the passage to... There's not much that's within my reach. And then I get on board and I say to myself, No, everything is possible. I'll never relive that understanding. It's the first time I've said to myself that everything will be possible for me. Do you have the impression that you left your survival mode? At 17, you're absolutely right, that's exactly what happened. I arrived and I said, I couldn't take the obsession or fear of seeing what they would say to say behind my back. Where is the cake coming from? Are we going to crush another cake in my hair? I didn't have that fear

at all and I never found that fear again. I never had the fear of being attacked after that. It's like there was something, it didn't belong to me anymore. It was not that life anymore. I bought a life back. I had pay for all those who made me suffer. I bought a new life. But how did you pay for all those who made you suffer? Finally, you see, you tell me, would you like to call the guy? Yes. I don't know yet. It's like I didn't get to pay the end. I made money differently. I paid differently by betting on everything that inhabited me. I bet on myself. I won. I really won business. I really bet on myself for real.

It's like these people forced you to live in your head, with your creativity. Completely. Because it wasn't with them that you were going to get something. I populated, as I had few friends, I populated my loneliness differently, with books, with my imagination, a lot with my heart too. And I said I put it on me because I tried everything, you know, my carelessness or my insurance, my way of doing, if I think, shows many times. I did the oral contests all my life, the had to do it. I went to many shows, I did

oratory contests all my life, drawing contests, I tried all the contests, I lost a lot of them, I won a lot of them too. But you know, you could have done nothing about it. Yes. Always wanting to erase you. You went far away from... It's true, I wanted to erase myself completely. And it seems that that's why my most beautiful period was the moment when I refused to get rid of myself.

You were drawn to it. I started eating again, healthy. I felt solid with my colleagues. Then I drew new contours, a new life. I bought myself a new life. And it seems that the momentum that I got at that age, at 17, I got to 43, and my swing is not over. I like to say that, my swing is not over. I was still in the air. It's like for 5 years in high school, I was holding on, I was holding on,

and then I was like crazy in my, you know, the guard, you lift the barrier, and then I did, wow, everything is possible, I explode. I mean, I'm not saying that it's okay to explode, but I'm not saying that. I explode, I'm a volcano. Everything is possible, and my swing is not over. I want it to continue, and maybe one day I'll fall again, but I tell myself, the trampoline is here. The trampoline, I'll bounce back. If I go back down, I'll bounce back.

Thank you Simon Boulerice. What a great meeting. I knew it. I knew it was going to happen. Another one! Another one! Listen, you're going to... I'm getting rid of all my metal, you see? We'll have nothing left. We'll have nothing left, it's continuing.

It's a stripper, a stripper, joker. Get your ass out of here! Thank you very much, really. And thank you very much for being there. And we'll see you in the next podcast. Bye bye! This episode was presented by Karine Jonka, the reference in care for care reference in Quebec, and by the Marie-Club, a space dedicated to the best-being.

Table Tennis Open Your Game, original edition and couple edition are available everywhere in stores and on Randolph.ca. you