20-Year-Old Xavier Dolan was a Cannes Sensation. Will Someone Finance His Next Movie?

[Laughing] Maybe.

But what's great about acting is that when it's done, it's done. When you're a director, you stay for one year, two years, and you have to promote [the film] and it's an industrial machine and it's exhausting. There's so many strings attached, so many things you need to fulfill the obligations of the profession. There are exhausting things about being an actor, too, but of all those jobs, the one that is my passion is acting. Of course, sometimes I'm bad, but you won't see that onscreen. [Laughs] There are quite a few scenes in I Killed My Mother where I'm very bad, but you can edit and choose scenes. When I direct, I'm a wreck. I'm like, what am I going to do, how am I going to fit these shots together? Finally, the answers will come, but when you're an actor, you don't have this very heavy and intense production, this stress like hell. Ugh. [Laughs] I'm sorry!

How do you remove yourself from the vanities inherent in being a actor when you're in the editing room with your editor?

There's a physical barrier to establish, there's a line to draw where you determine what is a good take regardless of whether you have a double chin or not. Sometimes I look at [scenes] and I'm like, "She's great and she's beautiful. He's great, and he's even more beautiful. I'm OK, and I look like shit." You have to see beyond those ego questions in editing. I can do it - I did it on I Killed My Mother -- and I'm gonna do it again. Being there and watching the movie for the umpteenth time, it taught me what to do and what to avoid. There are things I don't want to do, and things I want to repeat.

What would you repeat?

As a director, I thought some of the framings in I Killed My Mother were pretty interesting, and something of which I'm proud. I want to do this again. The introspective fantasy moments where you get to penetrate these people's minds, I love those cuts from one world to another, from dream to reality. It's something that doesn't require words, and it's always interesting to go so deep into one's mind. It's something I want to do on my next film -- that I'm going to do, actually.

And what were the difficult things you ran into as a first-time filmmaker?

When I went into the editing room, I realized that I had not directed a movie that considered the process of editing. Some scenes were impossible to edit. Some angles were bad. Some things didn't cut well. No movement in the image makes the editing very, very hard. Now, when I'm shooting, I'm trying to have this approach where I'm really thinking about how I'm going to edit this. "Will it cut well? Will it not shock anyone's eye?"

Finally, Xavier, I heard that you dubbed the voice of Stan in a French-Canadian version of South Park.

[Laughs] This channel here in Quebec wanted to appeal to people with this whole-new version of South Park. This version is dubbed from France with this slang, this argot that is very vulgar, and we actually like it very much. Then, though, this channel had the idea that instead of doing it with slang in France, we'd do it with slang from Quebec with language from our people and our nation. Sadly, it's been cancelled and it's not airing anymore. You know, though, I'm dubbing other things. I'm Jacob in Twilight.

You are? It's such a huge deal in America. Is there that sort of fervor in Canada?

Yeah, it's huge here. The actor's name is...Taylor Lautner?

Yes. He's become a huge underage heartthrob here in the past year.

Really. [A very long, off-the-record conversation ensues about Lautner and the Twilight franchise. To protect Dolan's job security in the dubbing profession, you'll simply have to use your imagination.] ♦

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