PARTNERS IN CRIME
Patrick Huard, Colm Feore arrive at Théâtre Maisonneuve for the première of Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 on Tuesday and talk to John Meagher about the bilingual comedy.
When Bon Cop, Bad Cop came out in 2006, it struck a chord with Quebecers and Canadians in the rest of the country who enjoyed watching the two main characters — an anglo cop from Ontario and a franco cop from Quebec — poke fun at each other and this country’s cultural and linguistic sensitivities.
Actors Patrick Huard and Colm Feore are reprising their roles from the original in Bon Cop, Bad Cop 2, which opens May 12.
At Tuesday’s red-carpet première at Théâtre Maisonneuve in Montreal, both actors talked about how the original flick gave moviegoers something to laugh — and think — about.
“The (public) took ownership of it,” Feore told the Montreal Gazette. “It’s their movie and they recognized themselves in it. They recognized their town, they recognized their personal lives of trying to get along bilingually. We know people who are married to people who speak a different language. So it was our real life, instead of an imported one.”
Huard said he got the idea for a bilingual comedy years ago while presenting at the Genie Awards.
“I was asked to do some jokes both in French and in English,” Huard recalled. “Of course, when I was making jokes in French, I was making fun of the anglos and vice versa. And I was expecting to have the crowd laughing — your turn to laugh, my turn to laugh — but that’s not what happened. Everybody laughed at all of the jokes.
“Then I realized, maybe that’s where we should start: with selfdeprecation.”
“But Pat also had the courage to risk offending everybody on both sides,” added Feore. “I think that’s very important. Because the French take it on the chin just as much as the anglos do and that that’s why, strangely enough, they leave the cinema together going, ‘Hey, I get it now, I half understood that.’”
Quebec entertainer Gregory Charles said it was refreshing to see a lighthearted approach to our linguistic differences.
“This is not like Serbia. Seriously, we have to keep things in context,” Charles said. “OK, so we find differences and we don’t speak the same language, and we don’t have quite the same Hollywood culture. But it’s mild, seriously, when you compare it.”
Charles hopes there will be more Canadian movies of a bilingual, bicultural genre.
“Considering the great divide between French and English, Quebec and the rest of Canada, it’s surprising that we don’t do more of this,” he said.
“At some point that next generation will say, ‘You guys were insane.’ I mean this is funny stuff. Sugar Sammy makes it funny, and he’s gone one step further because it’s now about colours and race.”
Singer René Simard said much the same thing.
“And that movie was done in a very intelligent way. Let’s laugh about each other!”