by SARAH ROWLAND

“Nice acne. Why didn’t anyone tell me.” “You can see my pit hair. Nasty.” These are some of the comments you could hear during last December’s sneak preview of The Point, a gritty teen drama that stars 30 kids from the Pointe St-Charles area. Unbeknownst to his collaborators, director Joshua Dorsey decided to surprise everyone with a special viewing of their collective project.

Clearly, some of the amateur actors were uncomfortable watching themselves on screen. But once the inner-city cast finished heckling themselves, they opened up about what it was like making a feature film based on their own experience growing up in one of Montreal’s toughest hoods. They were also quite forthcoming when it came to the hell they put Dorsey through.

“Me and my friends quit on him like 50 times,” admits 15-year-old Chelsea Laberge. “There were a couple of lines that I didn’t like and I couldn’t get past them because I couldn’t see myself saying it. There was also a lot of fights that went on behind the scenes. I mean, if you stick a bunch of teenagers on the same set for too long, there’s gonna be a lot of fights.”

In the movie, Laberge’s character doesn’t pounce on any of her peeps. She does, however, give her dad’s new girlfriend a righteous beating, a storyline that came about through character-development workshops held by Dorsey and several other adult co-writers.

“Basically, that part is pretty much true, but a little exaggerated,” says Laberge, who admits she has plenty of raw emotion to tap into on any given day. “That’s because when my dad left, he made me feel worthless. He brought his girlfriend around when he shouldn’t have—like two weeks after he left. He kicked us out of our house. He sued me for my Christmas presents—stuff like that.”

Laberge isn’t the only cast member to base a scene on a personal history of violence. Fourteen-year-old Tanya Bedard remembers the horror of watching herself cat scrap on film.

“I don’t think I’ll ever fight again—not after seeing it on screen,” says the tempestuous 90-pounder. “The whole time I was watching it, I was like, ‘Oh my god, is that what I look like in real life?’”

Irwin McArthur Best character, meanwhile, doesn’t commit any acts of violence, but he’s far from a saint. He plays Oath, a player who plays one too many women.

“Let’s just say that wasn’t hard for me to play,” says Best. “I wasn’t always a faithful kid. But I’ve changed my ways.”

He also plans on changing his ways when it comes to how he treats co-workers.

“I acted like a prick to the crew,” he says. “I just wasn’t taking it seriously. But that was before I saw the end result.”

Like Best, it took Laberge a long time to fully appreciate the opportunity that was given to her.

“On the last day of shooting, I cried like a baby and that’s when I realized how making this film helped me work through some of my stuff. And I do regret causing Josh stress. I’m sure we all do. But I think it all worked out for the best in the end. The film is pretty good... I still don’t like watching myself, though.”