Evelyne Brochu on 'French Girl,' her Quebec meets NYC rom-com
She tells Tom Power about her easy chemistry with co-stars Zach Braff and Vanessa Hudgens
For Evelyne Brochu, there's something deeply familiar about the Quebecois characters in French Girl, a new rom-com in which she plays a chef who returns home to Quebec city from New York with an American boyfriend in tow.
"There's something sensual and goofy and real and joyful and warm hearted and light spirited that I see in the Quebec families that I know and love" she tells Tom Power in an interview on Q. "I definitely see my mom in the mom character."
The movie follows Sophie, played by Brochu, who, when offered a chef position at a restaurant in Quebec City, returns to her parents' home, with boyfriend Gordon, played by Zach Braff. Gordon also meets Ruby, played by Vanessa Hudgens. He shortly learns of Sophie and Ruby's past relationship and deals with an unexpected love triangle.
Brochu was super nervous when meeting her co-star for the first time at a restaurant in Quebec. "I'm a huge Zach Braff fan, since Garden State" she says. "But obviously he was such a gentleman, so warm and so into the movie. I think when you have something in common, like a project that everybody can't wait to jump into, that made it super easy."
For Brochu, chemistry with Braff was easy to come by: "Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't. I think it's important for a rom-com that it does, and in our case it did. It was pretty magical."
Directors James A. Woods and Nicolas Wright describe this movie as a love letter to the province of Quebec. Brochu identified very quickly with the main character. "I'm someone's French Girl — a woman who's married to an Anglo guy."' The actor did her best to be cast as the French girl, because the script truly resonated with her "I went all in. I'm also from Quebec city, it's my hometown".
When meeting the directors, she wanted them to know about her personal ties to the story. Like Sophie's character, Evelyne is very close to her grandmother.
Also, a good part of the movie is shot at the Chateau Frontenac, and it was the castle of her dreams when she was younger she told them. "I said it all because I felt something like [this] doesn't happen that often," recounts Evelyne, about playing a character who is as similar to her as Sophie. She describes the connection between the directors and her as automatic. "We just clicked and I think they felt that I got them. And then I definitely felt like they got me," she shares.
Evelyne Brochu's appreciation for the movie also comes from its depiction of a family such as the Tremblays. "There was something, in the way it looks at Quebec women, especially in Quebec families, that was so tender and it matched so much."
"I just couldn't wait to be a part of that [project] with such amazing actors as Luc Picard and Isabelle Vincent," who play her father and mother in the movie. "So it was a dream family. You kind of want to be in that family. You want to spend Christmas with the Tremblays."
Filming the movie was a very joyful experience for the actor, who "had just finished a really deep and intense series. We were outside, we were laughing. There was a lot of improv on set — a lot of that liveliness that you get from the movie, especially with the big family scenes. They were so fun to do. I just felt like I was at a party for, you know, 16 hour days."
The full interview with Evelyne Brochu is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Evelyne Brochu produced by Alphonsine Sefu and Cora Nijhawan
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