QUEBEC'S HOTTEST ACTOR AUG. 1992

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=130 BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> <IMG SRC="4757ad30.gif" border=0 width="122" height="211" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#F7F7FF"> <div> QUEBEC'S HOTTEST ACTOR AUG. 1992</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>THE TORONTO STAR AUGUST 6, 1992</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="47135e80.jpg" border=0 width="309" height="232" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="47329df0.jpg" border=0 width="297" height="223" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>MONTREAL (CP) - </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Quebec's hottest actor digs into his dessert, a tasty-looking mousse. "You want some?" he asks earnestly. "It's really good." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>His guest declines, pleading an allergy. Roy Dupuis smiles and shrugs.These days, not too many people in Quebec would turn down a chance to share dessert with Dupuis. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>He's Quebec's latest heart-throb. Walk into a magazine store and his face with its round-lens glasses, wavy dark hair and hint of beard stubble likely will be staring from the racks. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dupuis's name is familiar in TV and movie listings. On video, he can be seen in such films as In The Belly Of The Dragon and How To Make Love To A Negro Without Getting Tired, or in episodes of the popular Radio-Canada TV series Les Filles de Caleb (Caleb's Daughters). </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Anglophone audiences will meet him on a more regular basis this fall when the CBC begins broadcasting Emily, the translated version of the Caleb series. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>So how has all this fame affected the 28-year-old native of Amos, Que.?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"I take it day by day," Dupuis says with a shrug. "I think twice before I go out of my house and walk on the street," he adds, acknowledging that trips to the convenience store can turn into autograph-signing sessions. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dupuis began acting in high school. He'd planned to go into science but that changed when he saw a film about Moliere. "The day after I saw that movie, I left my physics class to go to a theatre class where all my friends were." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>From there it was the National Theatre School, some TV and theatre parts and, in 1988, his first film role in Michel Langlois's Sortie 234 (Exit 234). He most recently starred in Being at Home With Claude, an intense film about a homosexual prostitute who kills his lover in a moment of passion. (It will be screened at the Toronto film festival next month.) It was a tough role for the soft-spoken Dupuis, who hung out in the milieu for a month to get a feel for the character. He says he lost 25 pounds for the role. "That movie was very hard to do because it drained me," he recalls, pausing to acknowledge an admirer passing his table in the chic restaurant."If you maintain this kind of tension for 12 hours a day, at the end you don't have anything left." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"It was different for his role in Scoop, the often steamy TV series about reporters at a French-language newspaper in Montreal. "I had three days to jump from one (role) to the other."But Dupuis says that wasn't a real problem because his character, Michel Gagne, was a rookie reporter who didn't really know how the newsroom worked."I just had to sit there, smile and make typing motions." He laughs when told that Gagne leads a far more interesting life than most reporters. In the first season of Scoop, Gagne went undercover at a prison, travelled with a rock star and romanced a colleague - the publisher's daughter - into a sizzling encounter atop the boss's desk. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"Ah, well," Dupuis shrugs. "That's television."Dupuis, five-foot-ll and 170 pounds, describes himself as a "physical actor." He boxes in his spare time with buddy and former fighter Dino Clavet to stay in shape. He was also an avid hockey player. His acting influences include French author and actor Armand Gatti, Marlon Brando, Tim Robbins and James Dean, to whom he's often compared."Brando is the best," he said. "A master." </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Dupuis is the only actor in his family, the middle child between a younger brother and older sister. His father is a salesman for Canada Packers and his mother teaches piano. He studied the cello as a child, and now is getting reacquainted with his musical studies. This summer Dupuis has been kept busy with a couple of movie roles - Ressac (Backlash), about a family and their relationships, and Anna, the story of a cosmetics queen. And the new season of Scoop is being shot. Dupuis says he wouldn't mind trying comedy and wouldn't shun work outside Quebec. "If it's a chance to do a good role, sure." As friendly and open as he is in an interview, Dupuis is often characterized as an enigma - "between an angel and an animal," according to one writer. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>"I think that's nice," Dupuis says. "It means I have a big range for acting." </B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B> <IMG SRC="46e35260.gif" border=0 width="309" height="38" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"><IMG SRC="46f35260.gif" border=0 width="309" height="38" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>7 Jours Mar. 1992                                                                    </B><A HREF="id78.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="7 Jours Mar. 8, 92"><U><B><IMG SRC="15d4f200.gif" border=0 width="79" height="32" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>