“Making films takes a lot of time and a lot of energy,” says Xavier Dolan. “And you wake up one morning and it’s been eight years and you’ve not taken a break, not once.”
OMG. Xavier Dolan is wearing a scarf! He's drinking tea! He's offering me a cup! For once, I'm just a little starstruck. I'm now part of a rarefied audience. The much-admired Québécois auteur doesn't do too many interviews. After all, when would he find the time? Aged just 27, he has amassed dozens of screen credits as an actor, and hundreds more as the francophone Québécois voice of such characters as Ron Weasley, Twilight's Jacob Black, Hunger Games' Peeta and South Park's Stan Marsh.
He can recall working as long ago as 1993: “I was four,” he says. “And I wasn’t an extra exactly. But I was a family member of a big TV family. I remember a scene when we were all eating. I remember a scene set in a church very well. I remember the young man who was taking care of me on set. Once I started I didn’t want to stop. Even though I was very young. I knew. I just loved it.”
Truth is, I'm a dropout, who is embarrassed by my cultural education many times a week. Many times a day.
He's about to start work on his seventh feature, The Death and Life of John F Donovan, his first anglophone movie, starring Kit Harington and Jessica Chastain. His first feature, How I Killed My Mother – an autobiographical tale about a blustery gay teen and his tricky relationship with a conservative mother – premiered in the Directors Fortnight at Cannes back in 2009. It received an eight-minute standing ovation. He wrote it when he was just 16 and financed it with monies made as a child star.
‘A lot of questions’
“The director of a film I made when I was seven noticed I asked a lot of questions about everything,” says Dolan. “And he pointed at the director’s chair and said: ‘in 20 years, you’re going to be sitting there.’ But that wasn’t clear to me at all. I wanted to be an actor. I became a director because I wanted to have the artistic authority to cast whoever I wanted in the lead role. I wrote my first film because I wanted to act again. I missed acting, I missed expressing things physically and emotionally.”
Between writing, directing and starring in movies, there's also the music videos he made for French band Indochine, for Adele's Hello. We could keep going. It must be odd, having presided over such a vast body of work, to seldom read his own name without the epithets "wunderkind" or "enfant terrible" attached.
“I know people love to use those words,” he nods. “But I’m not an enfant terrible. I’m a human being reacting. I’m honest about what I do and how I feel. And many people mix that up with pretension. Or wrongful ambition. It’s not what it is. I just happen to be someone with a very precise idea of what he wants and what he likes and what he doesn’t like.”
He shrugs, almost apologetically. “I may not be smart, but I’m honest.”
He speaks quietly, politely, with a manner that is difficult to reconcile with the profession that, in caricatures at least, requires a megaphone. It's impossible to imagine him hanging around with his own creations or being heard among the loud, dysfunctional families of his movieverse, especially the trashy inhabitants of his sixth and newest feature, It's Only the End of the World.
Irish family
“So I’m half-Irish, half-Egyptian,” he explains. “My Egyptian family moved from Cairo to Montreal in the early 1960s. My Irish family settled five generations ago. So I guess I’m a combination of diametrically opposed sets of codes. On the Egyptian side, I’m used to people screaming at each other across a table. Not in an aggressive way. It’s just that they are talking at each other loudly but not really listening to each other. On the other side, my mom’s family are less hot-tempered. But it’s true. I’m drawn to clashing loud parents and strong-tempered characters. Particularly women.”
He wasn't spoiled as a child, but his career meant that he was always comfortable. His directorial career, meanwhile, resembles a cakewalk. The epic transsexual romance of Laurence Anyways (2012), the sadistic suspense of Tom at the Farm (2013) and the riotous dysfunction of Mommy (2015) all feel like career-making statements from a much older cinematic master.
But how? Dolan didn't start watching movies until he was 15. His knowledge of the medium, he admits, is scattershot, and he can cite only a handful of influential movies, including James Cameron's Titanic and Jane Campion's The Piano.
"At first, it was confusing and frustrating to be called out on my influences by people who assumed they knew my tastes," he says. "I've had so few mentors and seen so few serious films. I've never watched Kurosawa. I've never seen Fanny and Alexander or 2001. I used to lie about it because I felt so embarrassed. Truth is, I'm a dropout, who is embarrassed by my cultural education many times a week. Many times a day. I'm trying to catch up. Yet there are so many films to watch but also so many films to make."
Rulebook
Without question, Dolan's lack of formal film education underscores much of his brilliance. A scholar of the medium would never tear up the rulebook as he does with the dance sequences of Laurence and Tom, or that unbelievably audacious trick with aspect ratio in Mommy. These marvellous moments have earned him rave notices and many, many awards.
In 2014, Dolan's Mommy shared the Jury Prize (with no less a recipient than Jean-Luc Godard) at Cannes. Last year, a Cannes jury headed by George Miller awarded the Grand Prix to It's Only the End of the World. The critics, however, were not universally as keen on Dolan's family drama in which a young gay playwright (Gaspard Ulliel), visits his tempestuous family (peopled by Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel) after a lengthy absence.
Art is a way of communicating and contacting others. So when there are misunderstandings or the communication is flawed, it can be frustrating
“I’ve always read reviews and it has always been very educational,” says Dolan on the film’s detractors. “It’s challenging, of course, but useful. This time around, it has been different. I decided it would be healthier to stop reading. You’re either an emotionally open or emotionally shut person. It’s either/or. But you have to be emotionally open to create art and stories. You can’t just shut it out. So reviews can hurt.”
Number one
That hardly matters. The same film debuted at number one at the French box office and sold 1,034,477 tickets.
“And the responses on Twitter have been so emotional,” adds Dolan. “It’s confusing. I’m not sure what I want. Do I want the approval of certain sophisticated critics? Or would I rather be understood by the public? I don’t think I would ever change in order to please anyone.
“But there are times when you feel lonely. Art is a way of communicating and contacting others. So when there are misunderstandings or the communication is flawed, it can be frustrating.”
– It’s Only the End of the World is on release
