Brownstein: ‘actor whisperer’ Jean-Marc Vallée was a remarkable talent

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The world of cinema is in shock with the unexpected news of the death of Jean-Marc Vallée at the age of 58.

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One of the most talented filmmakers to ever emerge from these places, the Montreal native was also one of the kindest, most generous, and ever loyal to those on the local scene with whom he began his career in the early 1990s.

Vallée died this weekend in his chalet outside of Quebec City. The cause of death is believed to have been a heart attack.

Like fellow Québec director Denis Villeneuve, Vallée was among the most sought-after talents in the world of cinema. It had the touch you can’t teach. Although he often disputed it, he was known as the “whispering actor.” One can take the word of people like Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams, who endorsed Vallée’s ability to make the best of his performances.

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Vallée’s Quebec feature film offerings, including Liste noir and CRAZY, caught the eye of Hollywood and beyond. It was his 2009 film The Young Victoria, based on Queen Victoria’s early life and starring Emily Blunt, that confirmed that he was ready for the world stage.

For someone whose roots were far removed from the US, Vallée had an uncanny ability to penetrate the American belly and remove its gritty layers, more so than many directors from the South. He did film magic at Dallas Buyers Club and Wild, and on the small screen in the seminal series Big Little Lies and Sharp Objects. He struck a compelling comic note in Demolition, starring Gyllenhaal. Viewers were often shocked by his work, but they were always fascinated.

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“Although I didn’t grow up there, my goal is to become the most American that an American can be in a movie,” Vallée told me in a 2018 Montreal Gazette interview. “I’m in the details. I want to know more about the cultures I film, which is why I surround myself with my American collaborators.

“I suppose because I am a foreigner, an outsider, I want to do good. Maybe I do more homework than a local could do. The goal is to capture a documentary style: reality, imperfections and everything. “

Almost everything Vallée touched in Hollywood turned to gold. There was Oscars for McConaughey and Leto in Dallas Buyers Club, and Emmy for limited series, Kidman, Laura Dern, Alexander Skarsgård and Vallée himself in Big Little Lies.

Vallée left Montreal to do most of his films and television series in recent years, but continued to do post-production work in the city with local technicians he knew and trusted.

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One of his closest associates and friends was Montreal sound mixer Gavin Fernandes, who contributed to most of Vallée’s projects. They started the business together and stayed together over the years.

“At first I thought his death was just some kind of weird internet joke,” Fernandes told the Gazette on Monday. “Once confirmed, it went through the butter like a hot knife. It is so surreal. It’s been a horrible 24 hours since we found out. “

Fernandes was looking forward to Vallée’s next project, a biopic about John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

“I had just delivered the script for John and Yoko, and I was going to start shooting it in February,” Fernandes said. “We celebrated it with our small group from Montreal of five crew members in November. My son and I had a pre-Christmas dinner together with Jean-Marc in December. We talked last week and sent the typical boy crap to each other in the usual way we did all the time.

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“This was a huge shock. It is never a good time for something like this. But at least he was in a good place at the time. When we finished Sharp Objects, I was more exhausted than ever. He had done three major HBO series (Sharp Objects and the two seasons of Big Little Lies), right after the movie Demolition, all in five years. Plus, he had all kinds of other projects scheduled. He was so passionate about everything he did. He was a true artist. “

Vallée never held back. He was tireless behind the camera and expected the same from others.

“He always told us at the beginning of a project that we would step out of our comfort zone. I remember one day I said to him: ‘Dude, we’re so far out of our comfort zone that I don’t think we can find our way back,’ “joked Fernandes.

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“He always pushed us, but it was always the right thing to do for the project. He had vision. He was a great storyteller. Each and every actor he worked with said that his process with Jean-Marc was transformative. He was that chess player who always thought 20 moves ahead. It was on another level. “

On a personal level, Vallée was exceptionally supportive of Fernandes’ late wife, Teresa Dellar, the driving force and co-founder of the West Island Palliative Care Residence (now called Teresa Dellar Palliative Care Residence). Vallée attended three fundraising galas for the residence, contributed numerous items to its auctions, purchased entire gala tables for friends and family, and also made significant financial donations.

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“Jean-Marc was so generous. After Teresa gave him a tour of the residence, he was completely, 100 percent locked up. She never denied her or me anything. One year when he was in Los Angeles working, I suggested that he make a video for the gala, but he told me that he was engaged and was coming. He came back for a few days because he was engaged to Teresa. It was a no-brainer for him. So it was with all of us, always giving and sharing his success with us.

“You can’t put the kind of emotion on the screen without being so sensitive. I can’t say enough about him. He was such a special man. “

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