Montreal's Evelyne Brochu becomes a spy in X-Company
New drama based on a real Ontario spy training camp
Evelyne Brochu, a Montreal actor with several lead roles in feature films, is taking on her second role in an English-Canadian television series.
“The boys and I knew we had something important in [our] hands, but you never know till you see it,” Brochu says of the new CBC Television series X-Company, premiering Feb. 18.
The boys she's referring to are Jack Laskey (Hatfields & McCoys), Warren Brown (Luther), Dustin Milligan (90210), Connor Price (Being Human), and Hugh Dillon (Flashpoint).
X-Company is based on a real spy training camp situated on a farm near Whitby, Ont. during the Second World War.
Brochu is the only woman in the team of five people plucked from their regular lives for spy training, before being sent on missions behind enemy lines in German-occupied France.
“There are a lot of fun facts about the camp, including that Ian Fleming who wrote the James Bond books trained there," she says.
“A lot of his cool James Bond inspirations came from that camp.”
Brochu’s character, Aurora, is a French-Canadian/Jewish-German undercover specialist.
Brochu calls her a “curious, bold, opinionated woman who worked as a journalist in Paris before the war.”
“The cool thing about Aurora is that she gets to become a lot of different people," she says.
"In episode three, she’s in a brothel. As a woman in a war, people can be less suspicious of you so you can get very close to the enemy. It’s dangerous and exciting.”
Brochu feels strongly about playing a strong female character in a television series.
“It needs to not be a trend and become a thing," she says.
"Women can’t only be the person only there to french kiss the hero after he’s won the game or won the war. Women are half of humanity. They’re part of history. They’re part of intimate stories and part of greater stories.”
Listen to Evelyne Brochu talk about X-Company, her role in Orphan Black, her lead role in a new feature film, Les loups by Sophie Deraspe and and how she feels art is an exercise in empathy with host Jeanette Kelly on Cinq à six, Saturday, Feb. 14 at 5 p.m. ET.
Les loups opens the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois Feb. 19.
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