In Bungalow, second feature film – very caustic – by Lawrence Côté-Collins, Sonia Cordeau has the opportunity to offer another facet of her talent as an actress, in addition to holding her first major role in the cinema. She couldn’t be happier. Encounter.
When she first read the script for Bungalow, it was to prepare for her audition. At this stage, Sonia Cordeau could not yet visually imagine what this feature film would become, so much the abundant and colorful universe of Lawrence Côté-Collins cannot be described in black characters on a white page between too narrow margins. The obvious, however, immediately jumped in his face.
“I’ve never wanted anything so much!” “, exclaims the one who already had a few secondary roles in the cinema, the most recent being the one she held in The Time Harvester (Francis Leclerc). “All of this happened when I was on Stéphane Rousseau’s talk show [Le show de Rousseau à V], a bit of a difficult time for me because I felt out of place at all. But when I read this screenplay [co-written by Lawrence Côté-Collins and Alexandre Auger], I immediately saw myself in it. »
In this new feature film by Lawrence Côté-Collins, a director who has so far made her mark in more underground cinema (Écartée, her first feature film, won the Bronze audience award at the Fantasia festival in 2016), Sonia Cordeau embodies Sarah, a renovation obsessed who, along with her partner (Guillaume Cyr), buys a completely dilapidated bungalow to make it her dream home. Of course, the fantasy will quickly turn into a nightmare, even worse than we could have imagined…
“I was reading this script and I felt like I was hearing myself speak!” says the actress. I would have liked to write it so much, for what it says about the consumer society, about the desire – or not – to start a family, about couple relationships. We are dealing here with themes that I would also like to deal with in my creation. »
Even if the two women did not know each other before Sonia Cordeau showed up at the audition, the complicity was almost instantaneous because there are so many points in common between them. Lawrence Côté-Collins sees the character of Sarah as an alter ego. Although the setting is completely shattered and Bungalow takes on the form of a comedy where the humor is laced with black, Sonia Cordeau sees Sarah from an essentially dramatic angle.
Having participated in the adventure of the Appendices alongside her studies at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique, Sonia Cordeau is now delighted to be able to take a new step by playing a character with whom she has real affinities.
“As Sarah is a bit of an extension of Lawrence, it is true that a special bond has been created between us, adds the actress. I watched him a lot anyway! At the same time, I made it my business and I felt that Lawrence had confidence in what I was doing. The shooting took place two years ago, in the midst of a pandemic. We were then able to see how much we resembled each other, although my nature was more reserved. We talked a lot during our walks. We shared the same existential questions, the same concerns. The shooting conditions were very particular, but I considered myself so lucky to be able to act. In that movie too! »
Coming from a family where culture has always held a special place, Sonia Cordeau chose to practice this profession the day she saw how her father reacted to the stories told to him in the cinema or on television. And, more broadly, how this emotion could be transmitted to an audience.
“I was like, oh wow! You can provoke that in people, reach them that way. I believe that the trigger for my desire to become an actress is in my father’s eye. I first studied visual arts in CEGEP because, unconsciously, I felt the need to explore something else before working on myself. Then I went to register at the Conservatory and they accepted me. If that hadn’t been the case, I really don’t know what else I could have done. »
Having never stopped working, sometimes writing her own projects, this great admirer of horror films, who finds it increasingly difficult to satisfy her need for thrills, because she now knows the workings of them too well, would like to write a great romantic comedy à la When Harry Met Sally, another cinematographic genre of which she is fond. In the meantime, Sonia Cordeau hopes for a real encounter between the world of Lawrence Côté-Collins and the public.
“I really believe in it,” she said. I am convinced that Bungalow will be able to appeal to all audiences, because it addresses themes that concern everyone. Thanks to this film, I really feel like I’m part of a work, of an artist’s vision. And I hope that’s just the beginning. I now have the movie bug! »
