In addition to being an acclaimed director, Xavier Dolan has also made a career for himself in front of the camera, as an accomplished actor. And it appears that, as he enters his 30s, the filmmaker is looking to make a major transition in his career.
“Actually I want to act in my 30s, that’s what I really want to do. I find it more rewarding and more liberating than directing movies,” said Dolan, in a new interview with Collider.
READ MORE: Xavier Dolan’s ‘Matthias Et Maxime’ Sparks A Magnetic Love Story [Cannes Review]
He later added, “It’s not because I don’t want to tell stories anymore, but because I find it harder and harder.”
The actor-filmmaker said that the time and energy that is required to write and direct a film means that he would spend most of his career developing films, when he could just act and work with artists on a more frequent basis.
But until the focus becomes acting, Dolan’s latest directorial effort, “Matthias & Maxime,” recently premiered at Cannes and was generally lauded by critics, who called the work a return to form for the filmmaker. “Matthias & Maxime” is the first film that Dolan has made since he screened “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” at last year’s TIFF. That film, in contrast, received mixed-to-bad reviews, with many wondering if the filmmaker had lost touch with what made him so acclaimed in the first place.
So, with the smaller-scale “Matthias & Maxime,” without the A-list cast that raised the expectations of ‘John F. Donovan,’ it would appear that Dolan has gone back to his roots, after the critical drubbing, to present a drama that is deeply personal and focused. But according to the director, that’s not the case at all.
“This movie is not in response to another one,” said the filmmaker. “It’s just a story I wanted to tell. I started writing it when I was shooting ‘Boy Erased’ in Atlanta in 2017, a year before ‘John F. Donovan’ was completed and premiered in TIFF.”
He added, “A lot of people think that I wanted to go back home, but I never left home…So Matthias & Maxime is not a film to reconcile myself or to come to terms with something. It was just a desire to shoot with friends, to be with friends and perhaps feel protected.”
In fact, Dolan admits that he has been a victim to believing the criticism and taking bad reviews to heart. Now, after the ‘John F. Donovan’ fiasco, which also included speculation that there were behind-the-scenes issues with Dolan, the filmmaker has emerged stronger and less influenced by public perception.
“I get so many compliments and also so many hateful reviews,” he said. “A lot of them are understandable; a lot of them are stupid. I spent ten years trying to find myself through the criticism of others and I don’t feel that necessity anymore.”
No theatrical release plan has been announced for “Matthias & Maxime,” but we’ll likely hear more about it in the months to come. In the meantime, you can see Dolan return to acting in the upcoming “It: Chapter Two.”
