Mental notes
Québécois actor and writer Florence Longpré opens up about mental health in her latest series, Empathie (Empathy), which she created and also stars in as a psychiatrist caring for others while dealing with her own mounting depression.
Empathie (Empathy), a new Québecois drama for streamer Crave, opens with a striking image: a troupe of ballerinas dancing in a deserted street. At first, their connection to the central storyline is unclear.
Series creator and writer Florence Longpré stars as Suzanne, a former criminologist turned psychiatrist who starts a new job at the Mount Royal Psychiatric Institute. There she meets Mortimer (Thomas Ngijol), an intriguing intervention officer with whom she becomes friends, and a group of patients who each have stories that can be both heartbreaking and confronting.
Yet while viewers enter this world through the eyes of Suzanne, the character is also dealing with mental health issues of her own – dramatised through ballerina sequences that are both perfectly poised and flawed, and come to symbolise Suzanne’s inner struggles.
“It’s difficult to describe, but what was interesting for me writing and then acting [in the series] is the main character, Suzanne,” Longpré tells DQ. “She’s a psychiatrist and she helps people with a mental health issues and some illnesses, but she has some herself. That was a very interesting to write and play, and it demonstrates that everyone could be touched by that. That was one of my favourite things to experience in this project.”
Suzanne’s health issues date back to a “very traumatic experience” that leaves her struggling to emerge from depression – something the character describes as a feeling of “unbelievable heaviness, a burden of sadness” that is always with her, following her – as the black-clad ballerinas do in a literal sense.
Going back to work becomes the next step for her to “get out of the water,” the writer continues. “She becomes very attached to and friendly with Mortimer, who’s also working at the institute and has a very empathic approach, but not for himself. So they’re going to help each other.”
Then there’s the array of patients they meet during the course of their duties in a facility Longpré likens to a blend of hospital and prison, where staff must deal with the juxtaposition of the fact the patients have committed horrible crimes, yet have been led to commit them by their illnesses and conditions.
“That’s the difficulty of it,” she says. “We have empathy for them, but it’s weird because we know what they did. It’s very challenging for the public who will watch it because you become very attached to a character and the series then flashes back and you understand why they are sick. You understand the circumstances of their lives. It’s confronting sometimes to watch it.”
That leads to the show’s title – and where audience empathy might lie at the end of the series. “It’s very meta,” Longpré says, “but just to look at a movie or consume some fiction, you feel empathy. It’s the principle of this art. You watch some fiction and it touches you. You have feelings for something that doesn’t really exist, so it’s the act of empathy just to watch it.”
An on-screen star in Québec thanks to roles in True North, Like-moi! and La confrerie, Empathy marks Longpré’s fourth series as a writer, following Le temps des framboises (Last Summer of the Raspberries), Audrey est revenue (Audrey’s Back) and M’entends-tu? (Can You Hear Me?). She also starred in Audrey est revenue and Can You Hear Me?.
Her writing career stretches back to her time in theatre, meaning she has always combined acting and writing roles in some capacity. It’s only more recently that she switched to writing television. “Writing is very long, so I say no to other roles. Then sometimes when I have the urge to act, I will decide to act in one of my shows,” she says. “But sometimes I just write, like Le temps des framboises. But I like both, so sometimes I say, ‘Yeah, I want to act.’”
As a writer, Longpré says she can be “really disciplined” when it’s time to turn in a draft, “which is strange for me,” she jokes. “What is hard to do is open your computer and just do it. It’s not romantic like people say. It’s tough and it’s complicated. You just have to do it.
“It’s [sometimes] very fun too, because you experiment with some very cool moments. But you’re alone with yourself and some people you just invented, like they exist. It’s weird. Sometimes, after a day of working, I catch up with my friends and get a beer. They are all chatting about their day, and it comes to me and I have nothing to say because I’m alone all day with people who don’t exist. It’s a lonely life sometimes, but it’s also a gift.”
Work on Empathy – which balances its sensitive subject matter with touches of humour – began three years ago, at the same time as she was finishing Le temps des framboises, a drama about a widow who inherits the family farm. Longpré wrote the show with Suzie Bouchard.
For this latest project, Longpré conducted a lot of research and worked with two real-life psychiatrists to ensure authenticity. The ballerina sequences then emerged from discussions that compared a person’s mental health to a balancing act.
“Sometimes you’re off balance and sometimes you’re balanced, so the ballerina came from this idea,” she says. “I was searching for a cinematographic way to explain that, and I had the idea of a ballerina for the balance and the strength and the delicateness. My first idea was the ballerina and, after that, the character came to me.”
As a writer who also acts, Longpré values the chance to create original series because “there’s a lot of shit out there. There’s a lot of reactions of, ‘Oh my God, I don’t want to do that ever.’” She also enjoys “slow TV,” where the story follows the character and not the other way around.
But she knows when to choose her battles and fight for the things she values most in the series she creates. “When it’s important, it’s important and I will fight for it and I will win,” she says. “Sometimes for a small issue, I can say, ‘OK, I will change it. It’s OK,’ but I try to go with what is very important for me and for the director and fight for it.”
Behind the scenes on Empathy, Longpré reunited with director Guillaume Lonergan, with whom she has partnered on all four series she has written. “I think I will work with him for many years,” she says. “There’s a lot of trust and love, and he listens. It’s weird, but I’m a young woman and I experienced a lot of difficulty when I was younger. He was the first to sit with me and listen. He liked what I wrote too and it speaks to him, so it’s very fun, and he’s a fun guy too. I love working with him and we can disagree and it’s OK. It’s a very precious collaboration.”
Lonergan was onboard Empathy from the first script, and proved to be a valuable sounding board as Longpré developed the story and wrote the rest of the series. “What I like about the way he works is, if I write, ‘There is a ballerina in the show,’ he will do it. He won’t ask questions,” she adds. “Often he says to me, ‘I’m not here to say to you what you have to write.’ I’m here to say to you, ‘Are we gonna do it?’ and it’s so cool.”
Writing and starring in the series proved to be “tricky,” however, as Longpré admits it’s tough to “erase the writer” when she’s on set. Playing Suzanne was also “very tough,” she says, “because there’s a lot of very deep things to play in Empathy, so I have to go very deep inside of me to play that.
“There was difficulty because there are a lot of medical words. That was tricky sometimes. When I was tired, I invented some words! But it’s a very cool character too, and I think she taught me something. She has a very sarcastic way of seeing life, and a lot of heart too. It was cool to play that.”
Produced by Trio Orange in collaboration with broadcaster Bell Media, Empathy is now set to debute in Québec on streamer Crave on April 10. Before then, the show will receive its world premiere in competition at Series Mania in Lille on Monday. Trio Orange is also handling international distribution.
“Fingers crossed, I hope people like it and enjoy it,” Longpré adds. “It will speak to everybody at this point because mental health issues are everywhere.”
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tagged in: Bell Media, Crave, Empathie, Empathy, Florence Longpré, Trio Orange