Roy Dupuis Interview

Saturday April 8, 2000
National Post (Canadian Newspaper)

Roy Dupuis - The actor who plays the mysterious, seductive
Michael on Nikita talks to Jane L. Thompson about not
getting married and home renovation.

When you get angry or passionate, do you immediately speak
in French?

No, I rarely lose it in any way. I've never really lost it,
yet. I try to be controlled and logical, reasonable. You
have to study the situation from the outside, pull yourself
out of it; most of the time it's nothing. I'm not about to
die because I'm not eating well. So it can be dealt with in
another way.

Do you get weird fan mail?

Sometimes it's weird, sometimes it's great. Sometimes
there's amazing stuff. They tell me their life stories, and
it's interesting. There are movies in there. More women
than men write, for sure. But, actually, I think more women
write fan mail, even to Peta [Wilson], or other actresses I
know.

What makes a woman sexy?

That's personal, first of all. For me, what makes a woman
sexy, at first, of course, is the exterior appearance; for
me, her eyes mostly, hands. And what really makes a woman
sexy for me is originality and intelligence. That turns me
on.

Are you married?

No, I don't believe in marriage. I don't get how you can
say I'll be there all my life, and base a love relationship
on that. I think it's a lie, that's all. Right now, the
woman I'm with thinks pretty much the same way that I do.
And, pretty much with all the women that I've been with,
marriage as never a concern. For me, making children is
like marriage. Just to choose or decide to have a child
with this woman, it's a statement that "I think I could be
there for a while at least, and it will happen." I'd like
it to.

You're renovating your farmhouse in Quebec?

That's mostly what I do in the summer, when I'm off the
show. It's an 1840 farmhouse. I've taken off most of the
gyproc that was in the kitchen and found it was plaster
before. So I found the original recipe and redid the
plaster inside. I built a porch in the front garden, and I
integrated a round patio. It's all cedar and turnposts and
balconies, and a copper roof. I'm pretty proud of it. It's
the first thing I've really built.

Would you ever move to LA?

No, this house took me six years to find. This house is
also... a dream. I want it to stay in the family; if I have
children... so they know where they come from and they have
the land, a contact to the earth. I find it very important.

You're writing a film. Is it for a Quebec audience?

No, for me. I don't put a border on what I'm writing. Of
course, I think the best way to be international is to be
yourself; that's what interests people - differences, other
ways of seeing.

What do you do with your down time?

I read, I write, I get some CD-Roms and check out
historical things, and sailing information. I also go on
the Internet. Now, I want to redo my bathroom, so I'm going
through every bath I can find. I like those old ceramic
ones. I've got a spa, a hot tub, out in the middle of a
hayfield. We go in there, and then dive in the snow.