Show Biz Chez Nous: Montrealer relishes a killer role
MONTREAL - François Arnaud has spent a lot of time in Los Angeles in recent months and, in a chat over coffees the other morning, he talked of how downright disconcerting it was to see his face on the side of buses and on highway billboards all over L.A.
“It’s not something I thought about before, the whole promotion thing, and it’s not the side of the work that I’m particularly interested in,” said the soft-spoken 25-year-old Montreal actor. “But at the same time, you want people to take interest in the work, and I’m proud of the series. It’s a bit strange to see my face everywhere in Los Angeles. It is a bit crazy to think that it’s me. But at the same time, it’s not. It’s the character and he’s so different from me.”
The character is Cesare Borgia, one of the main men in The Borgias, the much-hyped new series from Oscar-winning Irish writer-director Neil Jordan. The Borgias – which debuted on Showtime in the U.S. and Bravo in Canada April 3 – is a nine-part Canadian-Hungarian-Irish co-production chronicling the mostly nefarious machinations going on inside the Vatican in 15th-century Rome. Its first instalment on Bravo was the most-watched episode of a series on the channel in seven years and its top-rated Canadian production ever.
Billed as a cross between Machiavelli’s The Prince and The Godfather, the promotional tag line is that The Borgias are “the original crime family,” and that’s a pretty good description. Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons is family patriarch Rodrigo Borgia, who will stop at nothing to take control of the papal throne. But if anything, his son Cesare is even more ruthless.
There is a priceless moment in the two-hour premiere episode where the dad, slimy as he is, freaks when he realizes Cesare has murdered a cardinal on his behalf.
Arnaud’s Cesare is one of the three principal characters here, along with his father and rival cardinal
Della Rovere, played with much style by Bon Cop Bad Cop star Colm Feore.
Nabbing the role is quite a coup for Arnaud, who has never appeared in any major English-language projects before and wasn’t even the best-known of Québécois actors up until now. He’s been seen in a few TV series, notably the drama Yamaska and the Patrick Huard comedy Taxi-22, and in the romantic film Les Grandes chaleurs.
His international career was kick-started by Xavier Dolan’s J’ai tué ma mère, the no-budget picture in which Arnaud played Dolan’s lover. The film travelled the world, often enough with Arnaud along for the ride, and, after a couple of stops at festivals in Southern California, the young actor signed with a Hollywood agent. That’s when things started to happen.
So he’s spent the past months doing meetings, talking with casting directors and filmmakers in Hollywood, and, though he’s excited by the opportunities, he has mixed feelings about L.A.
“L.A. is a funny city,” said Arnaud. “It’s exciting for movies and television, but I’m really glad I still have Montreal to go back to.”
Arnaud has done a few auditions in L.A., but he can’t sign for anything right now because he has to wait to see if Showtime renews The Borgias for a second season. He expects to hear within a few days. If that happens, he’ll be back shooting with Jordan and Irons this summer, likely in Hungary again.
To get the part in The Borgias, he auditioned in London in front of Jordan and seasoned casting agent Susie Figgis, going through a couple of scenes with Irons. It sounds daunting to audition with one of Britain’s finer actors but Arnaud says you just have to forget that.
“You always have to fight against that, because you’re playing a scene with a character, not with Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons. I have to believe it’s my father, and that I have to stand up to him.”
Arnaud was excited to do The Borgias, and not just because of the high-profile company he’d be keeping. He also loved having the chance to play such a juicy role, as a complex, tormented but oddly appealing murderer.
“It’s wonderful to be able to try to understand a guy like Cesare from the inside. Obviously, as an actor, if you’re going to portray him, you can’t judge him. As horrible as he might be, what’s interesting is to see what inside myself could make me do that. The way Neil wrote the character, he’s a very layered person. He’s different when he’s with his sister. He’s not just a ruthless killer. He’s not just a pervert. He develops a really strong taste for power and gets corrupt along the way. But he still loves his family very much and has a strong sense of loyalty. But obviously when you start killing, you become a killer.”
