When you get on
set, they don’t want an actor who’s still on a huge learning curve. They want
you to walk in with an answer to their problems.
You’ve had an interesting few weeks!
It’s been crazy. I was supposed to go to Vietnam, so we
booked our tickets and were told we could get our visa at the border. But when
we got there, the guard didn’t like Canadians I guess, and he wouldn’t let us
in.
Really? I thought
everybody loves Canadians.
I thought so, too! So we had to stay in Thailand for an
extra month. Which was not a bad place to be. I mean, we did a yoga retreat and
some elephant riding and I ending up having a really great trip. And now I’m
back auditioning in Vancouver, so life is good.
You’re in a new show
that’s getting some serious buzz, Letterkenny,
premiering February 7 on Bell Media’s CraveTV.
We’ve been incredibly fortunate with Letterkenny. Bell Media had a different show lined up as the first
original commissioned program for its digital streaming platform, CraveTV. But
an unfortunate turn of events caused that show not to move forward and so they
were looking for something to replace it. And there we were, in the right place
at the right time. CraveTV liked the concept a lot and decided to put all the
production and marketing resources they’d had lined up for that other show into
ours. And now they’re doing a big push this weekend during Superbowl Sunday, with
the release of all episodes right after the game. Letterkenny is their flagship show, their first original comedy, so
they’re really excited about it.
I’ve seen it. I haven’t laughed like that since Trailer Park Boys.
We're pretty proud of it.
You play a hockey
player. Is that something you can relate to personally?
Letterkenny is a real “full circle” experience for me. When
I was 19, I was playing hockey in Merritt, BC. I love hockey, my dad was a pro
coach, my uncle played in the NHL. I had the chance to go pro, had some
scholarship opportunities. Hockey treated me really well, I had some great
coaches. But I always loved acting, loved the idea of performing. I was
watching Friday Night Lights one
evening and saw Taylor Kitsch, who coincidentally had played in the hockey same
league as me in Langley, BC. So I did some research and found out he’d wrecked
his knee and then moved to New York to get into acting. When I learned he had
applied the skills and disciplines he’d learned in hockey to acting, I realized
I could do it, too.
Athletes and actors have some important things in common. For
instance, both know that the chances of making it big feel like they’re one in
a million. A lot of people want to get into sports or acting, but the deciding
factor is what you do when people aren’t watching. My dad always told me, you
can be skilled as hell but if you don’t work hard, you’re never going to make
it. And I wasn’t that skilled as a hockey player but I worked really, really
hard, and I got pretty far in hockey.
And I knew that if, like Taylor Kitsch, I applied that same discipline
to my acting, I had a good chance of being successful.
What pushed you to
take a serious shot at acting?
I had a couple of concussions at 19 that affected me pretty
hard. Concussions don’t show up for a while and they can affect you in ways
that are spooky. I would play games and
then go home and forget who we’d played or even how I got home. I stopped having
fun, stopped loving hockey, stopped going to the rink. And I talked to my dad
and he said, “If you don’t love it, get out of the game or eventually you’ll
resent it.”
A couple of fairly traumatic personal events also happen
around that time. One of my best friends went to jail and another committed
suicide, both within a short period. It really shook me up, made me look at my
life and realize how important it was to be true to myself and do something I
really loved. So I packed up my car, moved to Vancouver, got a job as
production assistant on film sets, and took acting classes at night.
So you’ve taken that
first important step. Now you’re in Vancouver, on set as a PA, hoping to catch
a break as an aspiring actor. What happened next?
It’s funny, when you go all in and really commit yourself to
something, good stuff begin to happen! I joined a beer league and the captain
of the team, who’d also played junior hockey before moving to Vancouver to
become an actor, introduced me to his agent, Carrie Wheeler. Eventually I
signed with her and shared that I was tired of dabbling with acting and wanted
to make it my life. Like Will Smith said, “put your eggs in one basket, but
then really watch that basket”! I wanted
to put the same energy into acting that I put into hockey, starting with find a
five-day-a-week school that could teach me what I needed to know. She said that
SchoolCreative was the best school she knew of, one that would let students
continue to audition for roles while taking their full-time, six-month Acting
program. So I called and met with
[school founder and artistic director] Michael Coleman and decided this was
this place.
How was your
experience in SchoolCreative’s Acting program?
I have a lot of respect for SchoolCreative. The one-on-one coaching and support I
received from my teachers was incredible.
And the fact that they were actively booking roles while they were
teaching us was hugely motivating. They’d come back, and I’d ask, “What did you
audition for, what’s out there?” They weren’t dreaming about acting or content
with stuff they’d done years before; they were doing it.
Something else that was hugely valuable was sitting in class
and breaking down scripts from the actor’s, writer’s, and director’s point of
view. From every angle - the auditioning side, the viewer’s perspective. Every
day on set now, I see the value of the training I received then. Understanding
the business side of the industry - how it works, what producers think about –
has also been enormously helpful. Because I’m not just interested in acting,
I’m also thinking as a writer, as someone who wants to create and sell content.
And then there’s voice acting, getting comfortable with ADR
work, working in the booth. You’ve got to know that stuff.
What’s the most
important thing you learned?
When you get on set, they don’t want an actor who’s still on
a huge learning curve, they want you ready to go. They want you to walk in with
an answer to their problems. I’ve stayed up all night with scene partners and
the next day we’ve nailed shots that directors thought would take all day. And
they love that. Successful actor don’t just perform, they solve problems. That
was drilled into our heads over and over again by the teachers at
SchoolCreative.
I took that seriously, took advantage of every opportunity
to learn and grow; and because of that, I started booking roles while I was
still in the program.
You’ve had some
significant successes in a short time. Starring roles in Some Assembly Required, Mr.
Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story and now
Letterkenny.
My teachers at SchoolCreative helped me build a career map
and it’s amazing how much of that has come true. Children’s sitcom, comedy
pilot, U.S. television pilot. Next on my list is U.S. feature film. On Mr. Hockey, I got to meet Gordie Howe
himself, got to win the Stanley Cup. How cool is that? I’ve had more hockey
success as an actor than I did as a player!
But future success
isn’t guaranteed. What keeps you going as an actor when you don’t get the
audition, don’t book that role, when you hit a dry spell?
Well, to begin with, I love acting. That’s the bottom line,
you have to love what you do. And I love
to entertain people, make them laugh, make them think. That’s the coolest
feeling in the world.
But it goes deeper than that. A long time ago, I chose to be
a survivor rather than a victim. When I lost two of my best friends at 19, one
to prison and one to suicide, I decided to make the most of my life. I don’t
let things get me down, not for very long anyway. If I have a bad experience, I
let myself feel what I need to feel, then I move on and get back to business.
Life’s too short to get hung up on stuff you can’t control.
And when you
experience failure?
Failure is important. Failures are necessary to have
success. I just shot a pilot for ABC
called Gorgeous Morons that I
recently found out isn’t going to air. I could choose to get upset about that
or be grateful for the amazing people I met, the experiences I had, the
exciting doors that were opened to other work. You win some, you lose some,
that’s life. Something else will come. You’re just going to jam yourself up if
you dwell on what didn’t materialize. In hockey, if you get knocked down, you
get back up. You don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself, and what’s the
point anyway? The game is still on! Even when you experience success, it isn’t
over. If you win the Cup, there’s still next season.
What advice would you
give to those passionate about pursuing an acting career?
As Bruce Lee said, Be
like water. Water runs along the surface of a rock and doesn’t seem to make
much difference; but if it persists, it eventually cuts a channel through the
toughest of obstacles. You can think yourself into or out of anything. So stay
positive. Keep moving forward. Keep learning. Persist. If you fall, get
up.
If they won’t let you
into Vietnam, don’t let it get you down. Enjoy the yoga and elephants in Thailand.
Exactly. And be your own biggest fan because there’s not
exactly a line up of people waiting to be that. Practically speaking, get
training. Learn how to go onto set and solve the director’s problems. And don’t
just Career-wise, start in Vancouver. Compared to L.A., London, New York,
places like that, it truly is the easiest place to get started and to build a
resume. Providing you’re prepared to be
like water!
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