Lakay Nou will be broadcast on ICI Télé from April 15 to June 17, 2024.

Actor Frédéric Pierre has been thinking about this beautiful series for more than twenty years. He is co-author with actress Catherine Souffront, presenter Angelo Cadet and Marie-Hélène Lebeau-Taschereau. In the case of the latter, he found it dangerous that we always saw the same dramas of her community on screen.

Show the Haitian joy of life

The aim of the series is to “ Black Joy “. It is the positive affirmation of our identity. It is a term we use to talk about our joy in life. This famous resilience that we often show Haitians is a positive affirmation of our existenceexplains Frédéric Pierre.

We thought it would be nice to laugh with a Haitian family. We know our uncles, our aunts, our cousins. They are delicious characters.

Catherine Souffront adds that members of the Haitian community speak and sing loudly as a family. We are happy to be together. This joy that comes from the community is what makes up most of the table. We see a lot of our suffering in the media. It is legitimate to talk about it, but this joy that lives within us and this musicality are part of us.

We laugh at our misfortuneclarifies Mireille Mételus. All opportunities are good to come together, to discuss, to talk, to singadds Fayolle Jean.

The peculiarities of the Haitian community

Fayolle Jean and Mireille Mételus, like their characters, immigrated to Quebec from Haiti. The couple talks about the different inspirations for the realistic parenting game.

Several situations distinguish the Haitian community from others, especially the ideas of success, happiness and later development. Frédéric Pierre emphasizes that this was one of the main discussions during the writing of the series. And it’s wonderful for the comedy to have that pressure of two characters in their 40s asking their parents for permission and being afraid to tell them that they’re going to change careers.

He adds that the people who advised them on the screenwriting process when they first started found these stories a little implausible.

Catherine Souffront experienced a little of the same as her lawyer in the series. In fact, the young woman left her job as a Crown Prosecutor shortly before the pandemic to become an actress. A transition that was not easy. come out. The artist in me was completely buried. And I don’t know why I was ashamed.”,”text”:”I experienced it a bit like imagining what it would be like to come out. The artist in me was completely buried. And I don’t know why I was ashamedI experienced it a bit like imagining what kind of come out. The artist in me was completely buried. And I don’t know why I was ashamedshe said, explaining how she had told her parents.

I realized that the idea of ​​happiness did not have the same value for them as it did for me.

More variety on the small screen?

In recent years, the characters in Quebec series seem to be more diverse. Make the actresses and comedians of Lakay Nou notice it?

I think so. We’re coming out of a time where there’s a lot of diversity in advertising, and that’s a good thing. The next step is for us to see the change in fiction.

In 2011, Frédéric Pierre was at Everyone is talking about it for the first time. When we asked him if it was difficult for a black actor to play roles on Quebec television, he replied that it was a privilege. Just because I work a lot doesn’t mean it’s representative. Television is not representative of the environment we live in. I keep saying it and I’ll keep saying it until she doeshe replied at the time.

What does he think about it today, almost 15 years later? The train is moving and we are definitely on the right track.

Mireille Mételus says she was under pressure and that, although she didn’t have to change careers, she had to work several jobs at the same time. Fayolle Jean is happy that Radio-Canada is taking an important step with this series.

A new production house

For this series, Frédéric Pierre also founded a new production house, Les Productions Jumelage, whose aim is the professional development of artisans and artists in the television sector from different backgrounds.

In addition, Catherine Souffront speaks with great emotion and tears in her eyes about how lucky she is that during the filming of the series her make-up and hair were done by people who know her skin and hair.

Fayolle Jean has no complaints about the other productions. But on set, it made me happy from start to finish.

The history of Lakay Nou

The challenge for the writers of the series was to place this family in the context of Quebec. It wasn’t easy in the beginning, our stories were very convoluted. If you exclude everyone from your references, it won’t workemphasizes Frédéric Pierre.

Frédéric Pierre and Catherine Souffront play the characters of Henri Honoré and Myrlande Prospère, a couple in their forties whose three children aged between 10 and 20 (Catherine-Audrey Volcy, Stanley Exantus, Kiara Gaudin) are the pure fruits of Quebecois culture. Moreover, the three young actresses shine in their respective roles.

Fayolle Jean and Mireille Mételus play Henri’s parents, who are omnipresent in her life. Myrlande’s parents, played by Marcel Joseph and Yardly Kavanagh, come from the Haitian bourgeoisie and have difficulty explaining their daughter’s life choices.

The story begins when Henri has to move the bookstore he inherited from his father because the building has been sold. He then decides to open a restaurant serving Haitian dishes, much to his father’s dismay. Myrlande, for her part, receives an offer that is hard to refuse in her career as a lawyer.

In addition to Frédéric Pierre, Catherine Souffront, Fayolle Jean and Mireille Mételus, the cast includes Richardson Zéphir, Maxime de Cotret, Sam-Éloi Girard, François Chénier, Erich Preach, Jean-François Nadeau, Michelle Furtado, Bruno Henry and Marc Fournier. The production is by Ricardo Trogi.

Seek Lakay Nou online on Tou.tv Extra

Lakay Nou will be broadcast on ICI Télé from April 15 to June 17, 2024.

You can find the interview with the actresses here Everyone is talking about it :