For fans of rom-coms, it can be a struggle to find a new one that puts a fun, unique spin on all the tropes and twists that go hand-in-hand with the genre, while also respecting that saidtwists should not come at the expense ofwhat makes the genre so beloved. In the case ofFrench Girl, in theaters now, writer-directorsJames A. WoodsandNicolas Wrighttake the story to Quebec City, Canada, and follow Sophie (Évelyne Brochu), a French-Canadian chef living in the States, who travels home with her American boyfriend Gordon (Zach Braff) when she gets an opportunity to interview for a prestigious restaurant at the Château Frontenac. Only problem? Head chef and restaurant owner Ruby (Vanessa Hudgens) is also Sophie’s ex-girlfriend. And she wants her back.
What ensues isa laugh-out-loudCold War between Gordon and Rubyas they respectively try to maintain and vie for Sophie’s affections, while the latter pushes herself to the limit for the professional opportunity of a lifetime, while also balancing the awkward, meet-the-parents tensions between the well-meaning Gordon and her loving-but-quirky family back home. I was curious to know if it was this flipping of genre conventions — while also retaining them where it mattered — that drew Braff, Hudgens and Brochu to the project. But when I asked them during a recent interview, they all had variations on the same answer, sayingit really started with the script.
French Girl
Follows Gordon Kinski, a high school teacher from Brooklyn, who goes with his girlfriend and chef Sophie Tremblay to her hometown of Quebec City where she is testing for the Michelin 3-star restaurant of super-chef Ruby Collins.
‘French Girl’ Is a Love Letter to French Canada
Braff agreed that the unique spin on the plot appealed to him, but that the comedy of it was what really sold him on it, saying:
“I like rom-coms a lot. Some of them are better than others, obviously. But this one, I thought, was so interesting. Obviously the love triangle between the three of us, and the fact that it hadthis whole French Canadian plot I thought was really interesting, because I haven’t seen too many films that take place there in both English and French. So I thought that was a unique take on it. And then most importantly, I just laughed reading the whole thing. I remember saying to my reps, “are they making this movie? This movie is so good.” And they’re like, “yeah. Yeah, it’s real. It’s happening,” and I was like, “I’m in, I wanna do it.” So I think it just ultimately came down to, it was so funny.”
Hudgens added that she was drawn in by the prospect of playing against type, saying “The character is a different character for me. It’s definitely someone I haven’t played before, and I was really excited to bring my take of her to life.” But beyond the chance to bring the calm, collected, and calculating Ruby to life, she also celebated the multi-faceted women shown inFrench Girl.“I really love how the women in this story are really empowered, and they’re strong, and they’re confident, and they’re go-getters, and they’re very driven, maybe even to a fault. But they’re very intelligent, and I think it’s really wonderful seeing that on screen.”
The sentiment is shared by Brochu, who, like Sophie, is French Canadian, and said the movie was “basically a love letter to French Canadian women and families. I was very happy to be a part of that.” Beyond a shared background with her character, Brochu found a lot of common ground with the story Woods and Wright were telling:
“I loved our co-writers and, and, and co-directors, how enthusiastic they were, how alive, how passionate they were about the project. They just made you jump right in. And it’s their story. It’s the story of their parents, that they both come from a Francophone mother, that’s their background, and an Anglo father, and that’s my background as well.I felt like it was telling the story I knew, and telling it with a lot of love.”
Filming in La Belle Province
French Girlis such a love letter to French Canada, and to Quebec City in particular, which is deeply refreshing for us Canadians who are so used to seeing our biggest cities stand in for American ones, no matter how unintentionally hilarious it is for locals — Dundas Square may be the most brightly-lit corner of Toronto, but Times Square it is not, and no oddly-placed TKTS sign will change that. For Brochu, filming Quebec City for Quebec City, in and around the famous landmarks, was a full circle moment that really represented the fluidity of the bilingual Canadian experience:
“Quebec City is my hometown, so it’s a bit of a full circle moment for me to be shooting where I was born, and in the castle that I dreamt I lived in when I was a little girl. But also, I do live in that hybrid world between English and French. I’m French and my husband speaks English. And I feel like in Montreal, there is that fluidity, and I feel like it hasn’t been represented. Maybe inGoonorBon Cop Bad Cop. There aren’t that many movies that bridge both those worlds, and in my life,those worlds don’t need a bridge, they collide. I feel like in this movie, it’s represented and that was really special for me as well.”
But what about her non-Francophone co-stars? How did they find filming in La Belle Province? While it wasn’t a first trip to Quebec for either of them, Braff celebrated the opportunity to actually shoot Canada for Canada:
“I don’t speak French. I learned a couple phrases. But I love it there. I’ve shot in Montreal a few times now, but usually it’s to play an American city.So it was nice to, like you said, shoot Canada for Canada, and French Canada for French Canada. And then getting to go to Quebec City was really special because it’s unlike any place I’ve ever seen in North America. It really feels like an old European town. I loved it. The people were wonderful. We had the most amazing crew. We ate at amazing restaurants which Montreal in particular is known for. It was a lovely time.”
Hudgens, like Braff, shared that she enjoyed filming in Quebec, but admitted the biggest challenge for her in the film was trying to portray a French speaker, when she herself doesn’t speak any French, saying “I don’t speak French andthere’s so many sounds that as English speakers we do not use, and I wanted to make sure it sounds good and spent a lot of time doing the whole back of the throat thing.”
For more from the cast, watch the full interview in the player above.French Girlis in theaters now, and is also available on Digital.
