Suzanne Clement first met Xavier Dolan when he was 17 -- an "ambitious, intelligent, hyperactive" young director who wanted to make a film called "J'ai tue ma mere" ("I Killed My Mother"). The Quebecois actress never doubted his talents. Now eight years later, she stars in his acclaimed film "Mommy," which has been selected as Canada's foreign-language entry to the Oscars. "I think 'Mommy' is like a continuation of this amazing authenticity that he puts into his work," said Clement in a recent telephone interview. "He's saying something very deep. And he started to say those deep things about his life when he was doing his first movie." The film focuses on a trio of troubled characters: widowed mother Diane (Anne Dorval), her violent son Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), and Kyla, a shy, mysterious neighbour with a terrible stammer who offers to help (Clement). While the dynamic between Diane and Steve is perhaps the most important, Kyla's character is equally _ . The viewer knows she is on leave from her teaching job and she recently stammered, but the reasons are left somewhat vague. She said Dolan contacted her last summer, shortly before "Mommy" began filming, and sought help in fleshing out Kyla's story. "He told me, 'I have this third character and I'd love you to play her, but she's not very, very definite now. If you want to talk about her and give your input, I'd like to build her.'" she recalled. "Mommy" opens in Toronto on Friday before screening in other Canadian cities. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May, where audiences gave it a lengthy standing applause before it was awarded with the prestigious Jury Prize. After appearing in Dolan's "J'ai tue ma mere" in 2009, Clement went on to star in his film "Laurence Anyways," for which she won the Cannes Un Certain Regard award for Best Actress in 2012. How many films did Clement star in Dolan's films?
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