The theft of six million pounds of maple syrup in 2011 and 2012 was the basis for the black-comedy series, debuting Friday.
Guillaume Cyr admits he was a little nervous when he first got the call to audition for The Sticky, a new Amazon Prime black-comedy series inspired by the true-life story of what has been called the Great Canadian Maple Syrup Heist.
That’s the theft of nearly $19 million worth of maple syrup in 2011 and 2012 in the small Quebec town of St-Louis-de-Blandford, northeast of Montreal. The series premières on Amazon Prime on Friday.
Cyr is a seasoned Québécois actor, best known for starring in the hit 2013 movie Louis Cyr, but he had never before worked in English.
“I’m glad this opportunity came along at this point in my career where I already have enough experience that I won’t be gobbled up by the Hollywood machine,” Cyr said in a recent interview in the offices of the publicity company promoting the series here.
“I was really stressed. But when I showed up on set the first day, I realized that no matter what the budget is of the production, it remains the same profession. You stand at the spot marked with an X, the camera is there, you say words to another actor and you live the scene.
“And it’s a myth about American actors when people say, ‘Oh my god, they have crazy egos, they’re so hard to work with.’ I didn’t feel anything like that. Margo and Chris greeted me with open arms right away and it wasn’t ever like I was the apprentice and they were the big stars. It was always like everyone was equal.”
Margo and Chris are Margo Martindale and Chris Diamantopoulos, who play Ruth Landry and Mike Byrne. Ruth and Mike, along with Remy Bouchard, a schleppy security guard played by Cyr, try to steal millions of dollars worth of maple syrup. It’s inspired by the famous Quebec heist, but as a title card makes clear right at the start, this is “absolutely not” the true story. It’s a fictional dramatic comedy inspired by the crime. The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis, who is also one of the executive producers, in a small role.
The syrup in the warehouse was part of a reserve that was kept by the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers. In years when the harvest was particularly abundant, the association would stockpile syrup in the reserve so as to avoid diluting the market and lowering the price of maple syrup.
Sutherland said this week that Sheridan did 11 rewrites on the project, but that eventually Sony decided not to push ahead with it.
Cyr told The Sticky’s creators, Brian Donovan and Ed Herro, that he wanted to get a dialect coach, but the writer-producers said they wanted to keep his accent just like it was. There’s a bit of French dialogue in the six-part series and the Quebecers in the cast all maintain their accents, so there’s no mistaking that the action is taking place in French Canada. The supporting cast includes Suzanne Clément, Guy Nadon, Mickaël Gouin and Marc Beaupré.
“But I’m aware what you see is a Quebec that doesn’t exist,” Cyr said, “in the sense that there’s way more English spoken than there would be in the life of Remy Bouchard. But it’s a show for the whole world. But when I see the show, I hear our accents, I hear the Québécois swear words we were able to get into the dialogue, the bit of French we managed to get in there, and so throughout the show we feel like we’re in Quebec even if the dialogue is 80 per cent English.”
In a Zoom interview from Los Angeles, Donovan and Herro said they were very impressed by the quality of the francophone Quebec actors and they wanted to make every effort to give the series as much of a Québécois feel as possible.
“They were incredibly talented, incredibly professional,” Donovan said. “They all had a community amongst themselves. Guy Nadon had taught half of our cast in acting classes at various times. At times they expressed feeling self-conscious about not being great with the English language, but they were great for us. It really didn’t hinder us at all. In fact, it was a huge positive because we wanted to make a show that felt like Quebec for real. And that required these actors and the way that it looks. We really wanted to get it right. Honestly, it was nothing but a plus. They made the show way more interesting.”
Added Herro: “If you told me they’d all done 100 projects in English, I’d believe you. They all were pros.”
Both of the creators said they don’t think it’s problematic at all for an American audience to watch a show featuring actors with big francophone accents and a bit of French in the dialogue.
“I’m more concerned with what Québécois French-Canadians think of it,” Herro said. “We had to blur the lines with what’s realistic. Like when Guillaume is speaking with his father, there’s almost no way they’d speak in English, but we still had them do it sometimes. We want to be as authentic as possible, but we had to cross that line a few times just for ease and for accessibility … but I’m thrilled that people get to hear a little French.”