TRANSCRIPT:
RH: Well, Chris, it is so great to see you again. I know it’s been a while since we talked. How are things going?
CW: I’m doing great. Thanks again for having me back. I know it’s been a while since we’ve spoken. How have you been?
Really, it’s-it’s doing well here. Things are starting to open up a little bit. You know, it’s gonna be a process. I didn’t have a chance to post your–our interview that we did, but I’m thinking that it’s gonna be the perfect time to get it posted as things are starting to open back up. But it was certainly a pleasure having you, and I’m excited for the Hallmark fans to get to meet you because I don’t think that they may realize who you are.
Yeah, and I mean, that’s okay. You know, I’ll get out there and people will learn who I am. I had a wonderful time doing the interview with you. Like I said, I don’t know if I would call is an interview. I think it was, you know, two friends talking. I considered it maybe more of like a video blog where we just get to talk about what’s going on in the industry. I had a wonderful time doing it. I guess that’s why we both look a little different. We’re doing the update.
{LAUGHTER}
It’s been good, things have been good here. I’m obviously still doing lots of courses and stuff like that. You know, the industry started to open up again, so I got auditions coming down the pipe, which is really nice. I’m just super excited to be down there.
Well, I’m glad, and I’m looking forward to having you meet the Hallmark fans. Some people might…some of the fans–some of the really diehard Hallmark fans–might realize who you are, but at least this will be a good way to introduce them…
Well, Chris, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your backstory, kind of how you got into acting.
All right, well, basically, I’ve kind of seen myself as an entertainer my entire life. Friends and family have always told me, “Hey, you know, why don’t you get into acting?” And all this kind of stuff. But for me, I always just looked at is as kind of like a fantasy, you know, something that was just so unattainable.
Basically, what changed my mind is that I didn’t want to go through my life–I know it sounds cliche–but I didn’t want to go through my life thinking…you know, you only live once, right? So I didn’t want to live with any regrets basically. I didn’t want to live with that “what if” in the back of my head.
So I guess the whole thing started about two years ago. My friend told me about auditions they were having for the movie Sonic, the Hedgehog, the one that came out earlier this year starring James Mardsen and Jim Carrey. They were only taking one hundred people. I think there was a thousand people that went through there. This was just for background work, and I ended up getting on there. It was just such an eye-opener. I kind of wanted to just get my feet in and get a little feel for what it was going to be like.
On the third day of shooting, they actually asked if I wanted to do stand-in work for James Marsden, which was I thought incredible. You know, like I’m on day three of my acting career, and I’m already doing stand-in work for high profile actors.
I guess the biggest turning point for me was when I ended up being noticed by a director. I was just doing background work. You know, for me, I don’t care if I’m doing background or if I’m the main actor. I go into these things and treat it like everybody has a very important role. Whether you’re the background of the main actor, everybody’s got to work together to make that scene come to life. So I ended up getting noticed by the director, and I’ll tell you a little story about it.
I got an email from BCF casting, which is the background castings agency. They came in as usual. “Hi, Chris, would you like to do some background for an upcoming movie?” And I was like, “Oh man, I was supposed to go to Las Vegas for a wedding.” My wife’s uncle was getting married, and it was very important to her. So I didn’t want to miss that. So I had to decline. An hour later, I get a phone call. She calls me personally, and she’s like, “I know it’s a little unconventional, but would you change your mind if this was an acting role?” I was thinking to myself, “Holy geez! My first acting role!” And I didn’t even have to go to an audition! So I looked to my wife and she’s like, “Babe, this is something you want to do, right?” I was like, “Absolutely.” She’s like, “Then go for it.” So I ended up getting my first acting credit, my first acting role, in The Last Bridesmaid. I was so happy about that.
Okay, so in terms of my training, you know, my training kind of started the second I stepped on set doing background. You know, I was always watching people, watching the main actors, watching the cast and crew, just seeing the kind of inner workings. And I always found myself whenever I was doing background work, I would either be getting a continuity role where I was on set for three or four days, or I’d have a small feature whether like they wanted me beside the main actor or actress. And I always took those opportunities to spark up a conversation. You know, just say, “How’s your day going?” So I et to pick their brains a little bit to see how they got their career started. So that is kind of my informal training.
Since then, my formal training, I”ve been going to workshops. I do private coaching. I’m in constant scene study classes. Actually, earlier today, I was in a class. So yeah, generally once a week, I’m in a class. I’ve done stunt courses. I do knife work. All sorts of stuff. Private coaching, and that an ongoing basis for me.
So I’m curious, you’re talking about…you live in Vancouver? Is that right?
I go back and forth. I have family in Victoria. So I’m back and forth.
Where are some of the places you’re training and who are you training with? I’m just curious because I’m pretty familiar with a lot of the training places up there.
So in Vancouver, I do private coaching with Sarah-Jane Redmond. She’s absolutely wonderful. June B. Wilde is a class I’m in right now. We’re constantly doing scenes study. I’m on my second or third class with her. Each course if four weeks or whatever. In Victoria, I’ve done a lot of work with Jackie Casey and Natalie Krill. For my stunt work, I did a stunt course with Peter Kent. He was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s stunt double for fifteen years. He’s a really nice guy. I got a cool little demo reel after that. My scene studies and stuff that I kind of circulated between those few people.
That’s really cool! Sarah-Jane Redmond–I definitely know who she is.
She is so awesome! I got introduced to her by my agent.
She’s done Hallmark work as well as other work. Most of the people that I have come in contact with, I usually get introduced to them through Hallmark, and then I follow them elsewhere. If I’m correct, I believe she’s on Siren right now.
She is. Yeah, actually, I had an audition for Siren. I had a meeting with her before I went into my audition, and she’s like, “You know what? You’re gonna do great! Just relax.” I didn’t get the part, but it was still a fun experience. She does tell me about some of the things she’s been on.
I first knew her…there was a show that was on Hallmark called Cedar Cove. She was on there with Mike Dopud. Those two were a couple on the show. So it’s kind of cool. I usually know more about what’ going on in Canada than I sometimes even do in the U.S. just because I have so many friends up there, especially in Vancouver. I’ve gone up there several times and met a lot of people, so I’m usually pretty well-connected with what’s going on and so that’s why I was curious.
This is something. The first time I ever went to Vancouver was right after President Trump was elected. And you can imagine! First of all, people were thinking I was going to Canada because of who had been elected president. I said, “No, I actually set this up before we even knew.” Every single person that I met–all these actor friends I had been connecting with–that was the big sort of topic. “Okay, let’s talk about the new president.”
But it’s all good because lots of time, what I’ve found because I have some really good friends up there where politically, we don’t always agree, but find a common ground. And we find that really although we may be on opposite sides of the aisle, we are able to have a discussion where we respect each other and find out that we actually…even though we seem like we’re polar opposites, we actually want the same thing. And that’s a cool thing. I wish our government could do that, like people in our government could have those discussions because they don’t happen that often anymore.
No, they don’t. And everyone, you know, kind of keeps to themselves about it. And sometimes, that’s not good, right? You got to be able to talk about these sorts of things.
That’s right. Because my perspective gets expanded, even if I don’t agree with the person, but I listen to them. Sometimes being challenged–well, I like to be challenged anyway because it makes me think, so yeah, I absolutely love Canada. I love everybody I’ve ever met in Canada. It has been wonderful.
Have you noticed our accents quite a bit?
I mean, I do if I stop and think about it.
It’s only a few words, right?
Yeah. What’s funnier sometimes is when I’ve heard them so much in Hallmark, and they don’t have the accent at all, and then I meet them and then I hear it. And it’s like…it’s so different. So sometimes I’ll key into that. But most of the time, it doesn’t bother me because I’ve lived down south. I think when I lived down south, I actually ended up picking up a little bit of the accent because I came back home and people said, “You have this accent.” I was like, “Okay, didn’t even know.” I couldn’t hear it. Even my daily couldn’t hear it. But some of my friends and other people could hear it.
Then I had a friend from England. We talked lots, and I got used to the British spellings. Actually, it’s like I sometimes…there are actually words that I prefer to spell in the British way, and so I have to remember. “I can’t do that. I’m in America, so I have to spell it the American way.” So The Last Bridesmaid was your first official credit that wasn’t background? Is that right?
Correct. I had so much fun doing it. Barry Levy, Rachel Boston, Paul Campbell, these guys were so amazing and so friendly. It was just an amazing experience. You know, getting a different perspective and it was just the thing that started driving me even more to just focus on acting.
Now, did you know about Hallmark? Were you aware of Hallmark before you made this movie?
I knew a little bit about Hallmark. Not much. I knew it was family-oriented and they like to sell a lot of holiday cards.
I hear you because you guys don’t have Hallmark up in Canada.
No, I mean we get the movies sometimes through the Women’s Network. But for the most part, we don’t actually have a dedicated channel.
It’s just the weirdest thing. You make all these movies up in Canada. Almost. Now it’s changed a bit over the past few years, but for the most part, still the majority of the movies that Hallmark does and that Lifetime does are made up in Canada, and then you guys can’t even watch them for a while.
Or you know, sometimes, depending on how things work, two or three months after its premiere in the States.
It’s crazy. I don’t understand that. But then on the flip side, you guys have Canadian programming that we have to wait on for a little while. Murdoch Mysteries we get…now, it’s gotten butter, but we do get Murdoch Mysteries after you guys have gotten it. We’ve gotten it a little bit sooner the past few years. They’ve actually been bumping that up a little bit. But there are shows that I want to see that I can’t. Like there’s a show Nurses. I know that you guys had it up there.
Is that filmed in Vancouver? Do you know where?
I’m not sure where it’s filmed, but it might be filmed in Ontario or Winnepeg.
Or Toronto or something like that.
Yeah, I’m not one hundred percent sure. I just know that’s it’s filmed up in Canada. We can’t get that, and it was very disappointing because I have all these friends that are in it and I can’t watch it. Then Hudson & Rex is another show. I have several friends that have done that. It’s filmed over in St. John’s Bay? Isn’t that it?
Just St. John’s.
Oh, sorry, that’s it. St. John’s, Newfoundland. That show has already had like two seasons. I’ll be seeing these shows and I’ll think, “I want to watch it, but I can’t.” So I do understand. Sometimes you guys have those shows, and I sit here and wait for them and think, “When are they going to come?
Yeah, it’s funny because I mean primarily all of my background that I’ve done has been Hallmark. You know, I was in The Story of Us. Flip That Romance. Sailing Into Love. Love & Sunshine. Oh, that was such a fun one. That was with Danica McKellar and Mark Deklin. I got to work right beside Mark and have a little chat with him.
Oh, he’s awesome.
Oh, yeah, they’re both awesome.
Oh, my goodness, that’s cool. So you’ve gotten to work with a lot of big Hallmark stars, very well-known Hallmark stars then.
Yeah, I have. I mean, I’ve been very fortunate. My last movie was A Beautiful Place to Die, and that was starring Jesse Metcalfe and Sara Lind. I got to do a bunch of awesome action sequences, and it was so much fun just running around with Jesse Metcalfe doing all these…like we were running around with guns. I felt like a little kid again. You know, I was just having so much fun, and that’s the other thing I’ll mention.
Actually, you know, I didn’t know a lot about Hallmark before this, but I didn’t realize they had a murder mystery series that they’re doing. Working with Jesse was just so much fun.
And that part is so perfectly written for Jesse. I mean, there could be nobody else that could play that part. That is Jesse’s role.
I know. He does a great job.
With Jesse Metcalfe, I honestly think he incredibly talented, but sometimes I think Hallmark has struggled sometimes to find the right project that really shows off his skills.
Yeah, he’s a bit of a bad boy, right? He’s kind of edgy. He’s not as polished as some of the other Hallmarkies or Hallmark hunks, if you want to call them that.
Right.
And like you said, this role was perfect for him.
Oh my goodness!
And getting to experience that with him was pretty eye-opening.
I think when I’ve seen him in interviews about the Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries, it is the action he loves. And he’s going to do that action. He doesn’t care. He’s going to do the stunt work. He’s going to do it.
Yeah, that’s what actually sparked me to go do a stunt course was after I did that movie with him. It was just so much fun, and I heard through the grapevine that they’re going to be doing more of those, I think.
Oh yeah.
I think it could be an eight-part series.
Oh yeah.
Who knows? Maybe I’ll have something in there? Who knows?
That’s right. Well, I could definitely see that because it was his big show. Jesse has been on the show Chesapeake Shores. You’re probably familiar with that.
Yeah, it’s filmed up on Vancouver Island. Parksville, I believe.
Yeah, and that one has been Jesse’s big role with Hallmark because he’s one of the main characters. And I think sometimes I feel like that show limits him. I’m not saying he isn’t great or wonderful in it. I love his music. I love his acting. But sometimes you feel like…man, you know, once I saw him in Martha’s Vineyard, it’s like, “Oh, that is what Jesse should be doing.” You know, nothing against Chesapeake Shores. I’m fine with him going back and doing Chesapeake Shores. But man, they need to figure out how to get some action into that show because he is so good.
I mean, Hallmark’s doing these murder mysteries. I’m sure, you know, you could find lots of places for him, and I think even me too.
Right. Oh, yeah, definitely!
I’m totally into the action I did. I had a lot of fun. I think it would just broaden Hallmark’s horizons if they, you know, if they bench it off into some action. All that sort of stuff because that way, you’re tapping into a completely different demographic right there, and that’s the thing.
It’s okay for it to be edgy, but not so edgy. You don’t have to show guts and gore and flood. All that you have to show is exciting enough. I mean, I love the mysteries. I’ve been all about the mysteries since they started and have been one of their biggest supporters. And the mysteries have evolved so much. But I would say of all of the mysteries, Martha’s Vineyard Mysteries had the most action.
Oh, yeah, there’s lots of cool sequences.
I think part of that is because you have with most of the mysteries the female is the lead. Either the lead detective or is the lead woman that’s trying to help out the detective and the detective doesn’t want the help. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I love that dynamic. I absolutely love those. But it was cool to have something just a little bit different because you have the male lead and he’s actually doing all the action stuff and the PTSD stuff.
Oh yeah.
I mean that was just incredible. I love seeing Hallmark tackle that. So that’s great.
For A Beautiful Place To Die, Mark Jean was the director on the first one. He’s an amazing guy. I’ve been on a few movies with him. He was actually the gentleman who noticed me and subsequently gave me that first role, you know? He’s a really good director. He’s got a vision and he finds it.
So you have The Last Bridesmaid. And wasn’t there another Hallmark movie that you were in?
Yeah, I did The Last Bridesmaid. I did A Beautiful Place To Die. And then I also did Love In Store. And that was good. Alexandra Breckenridge and Robert Buckley were the main actors.
Right, and we just saw that one not too long ago.
Yeah, that came out in January. That was actually my first speaking role.
Okay, yeah, and now that I see you, I actually remember you because wasn’t it like you were the stylist or something?
Yeah, I was the stylist.
That movie was interesting. First of all, now I always love Hallmark. I’ll always just say you know ninety-five percent of the time, I come away from a Hallmark movie saying, “I absolutely love it. It was great. It was fantastic. Well done.” You know, once in a while, I’ll watch one and it wasn’t the best ut wasn’t the worst. And then there are a select few that were very hard for me to sit through. I usually just keep quiet about those. I don’t go around and say, “Well, I couldn’t stand this.” I won’t do that. I’m not like that. I will always find something positive about it even if it wasn’t my favorite. I always say, “A ‘bad’ Hallmark movie is better than just about anything else out there on other networks.” I’m fine with that.
But Love In Store…first of all, I was not terribly familiar with…I kind of knew who the leads were, but I wasn’t terribly familiar with the leads. And then the whole idea of a shopping network…I don’t even think I never watched a shopping network. So I thought, “Okay, this would be a cute movie, but you know, it’s not going to be anything great.” And I was just blown away by that movie, actually! It ended up being I loved it more than I thought I would. The two leads were just fantastic. I thought the storyline was very unique, and I really enjoyed it. Then I live with parents, and so my parents are in their 70s and they often watch the Hallmark movies with me. Actually, my mom and I are the ones that really watch the Hallmark movies. And the mysteries–those are things. That’s what we really watch together, and we try to figure it out together and all. It like, “Whodunnit?” and all that. And so it’s always interesting because when my mom watches a Hallmark movie, she doesn’t have really anything invested in it. Lots of times, it’ll be like I’ll be watching out for my friends. “Oh, there’s my friend over there” and “There’s my friend,” you know, it’s like “okay.” And I often get all the behind-the-scenes stuff. She’s just watching it like a fan so when she comes away and says it was a really good movie, she really enjoyed it, then I know that it’s not just me saying it, but my mom liked it too. She honestly loves almost all the Hallmark movies, and she’s pretty good about that. But she can be a little bit critical at times. And that’s good because even if they’re you come away with…for example, even the movie Hallmark had on tonight, actually the last movie that Hallmark had tonight–she liked part of it, but there were parts she didn’t like. And I liked it, so it’s like, “that’s fine.” It shows that everybody is different and you perceive things differently and sometimes I’ll be saying, “I’m not sure if this movie was that exciting.” And then she’ll say, “Oh, it’s really good.”
Me and my wife will watch a movie, and I’ll be absolutely floored by it, and then you know, she might just say, “I didn’t even watch it” or “I didn’t enjoy it.”
Yeah, so I do remember you in that. So that’s great. That’s a really great run. You’ve had this good streak of three Hallmark movies a row. But they’re ones that the fans would be very familiar with. You know, The Last Bridesmaid is supposed to get a sequel. They’ve been in serious talks about that. I don’t know if they officially announced it. They’ve been talking about it and they’ve been saying, “We’re trying to get a sequel together.”
You know what? There was something about that movie. I mean, it was exciting for that to be my first acting role, but there was something about that movie. Just the atmosphere and the buzz that was going around set was just you know everybody could feel it. and everybody just loved to be there. And I can see that happening. I can see a sequel coming out of that, you know.
Oh yeah, I’m friends with both of the leads. I’ve never met them in person, but I’m friends with Rachel and Paul. I’ve interviewed them many times, and they’re just fantastic. It was great. And there was something–I don’t know–there’s something special about that movie and so I know that it means a lot to Rachel because that was an idea that Rachel and the screenwriter both worked on. She helped with that one. It was kind of her idea. It’s like all of her friends were getting married and she’s not getting married. And it’s okay. It’s like she’s okay with that. It’s like, “I don’t have to be married, you know? I can go and have a great life even if I have to keep being the bridesmaid. It’s like no big deal.”
Absolutely.
It was a cool one. So hey maybe you know hopefully we will continue to see you. The nice thing about Hallmark is they are–and you probably would know this too–Hallmark does seem to be very loyal to their actors that have worked with them.
Oh absolutely! Like I said. I mean, all of my credits have come from Hallmark. So I must have something that they like.
Oh definitely. Yeah, they’re like that.
I can tell you a little story about the movie Love In Store. When I went to audition for that, I auditioned for two different parts. I auditioned for just to play the photographer and also to play the tour guide. So I go into this audition and I mean I thought I was doing good, but obviously, it was actually my very first audition. So I didn’t get either of those, but they ended up asking me to read for the part of Frank. I don’t know if you remember who Frank was in the movie, but anyways, it was Robert Buckley’s partner on the show. So I read for him. Long story short, I didn’t get the part, but the point is, that you know they saw something in me and a week and a half later, I get an email saying, “Well, we’d like to offer you the part of the stylist.” So I went in auditioning for three different parts, didn’t get any of them, but I did get the Stylist. And that was really exciting. I’m just super appreciative of that.
That’s great! I always love those stories, and you’re not the first one to tell me stories like that, especially switch Hallmark. I mean, you’ve made me think there was…my goodness.. I think there was an actress. Yes, there was an actress I interviewed and they ended up changing a part for her. Like it was supposed to be like the sixty-year-old man, and they changed it to like a thirty-year-old female or something like that. Completely rewrote it because they liked her. I think they even had her go out for it, which she thought was really strange. And they liked what she did with it, and they rewrote it for her.
So that’s the industry though. Like things can just change on a dime. You never know.
Oh yeah, definitely. Well, and what I love too is that Hallmark has a lot more diverse casts than they use to. I know that’s always been an issue, and I understand that a lot of people are quick to jump on and say, “Well, Hallmark needs to be more diverse in all this.” And it’s like, do you realize that there was a period of time when Vancouver especially, well, B.C., was not as ethnically diverse as it is now? There has been a definite change. And it’s great because I can even tell the difference because I’ve been up to Vancouver…what is it now? Three or four times now I guess it is now in the past few years. I can tell the change when I go up like, this has changed you know. There were a lot more ethnicities in the city than it used to be. Basically, they want to be more diverse, well their pool to choose from they didn’t have a lot of diversity there and now they do. And now Hallmark is including a lot more diversity in their cast, and I love that.
I absolutely love The Last Bridesmaid when I was on. I played the groom. My entire wedding and my bride were all dark-skinned, and it was really cool to see. I mean that was even a little bit of the vibe too. You could tell everyone was just happy, but everybody was happy. It was cool. It was very “Kum bay yah.” I thought it was great.
Right, and I love that! I also love the fact that Hallmark doesn’t do diversity just because they want to say “we’re diverse.”
Exactly. They just get it.
Because there are those shows sometimes, even with the network shows, you’ll be watching and you’ll think, “Why is this person here?” We know why this person is here. Because they want to have this group. They’ve got to represent this group. Because sometimes they’ll be a character and you’ll think that character is only there for this short period of time, and then they’re gone. Why were they there? Well, because they want to say, “We had this ethnic group. We had this group.” And you can tell sometimes. I mean, granted networks are getting better about it, and I think it’s good to have the diversity discussion. I love the fact that it’s out there. But I like to have it happen more organically, and I think Hallmark has done what you’re talking about. It has happened more organically. It’s not like they’re pushing it.
Oh, exactly. It’s not like they just put an ethnic person out there for two minutes, and then, “Okay, we did our part.”
Exactly! I would not want that, and I’m glad that Hallmark has not caved into that because there’s been the pressure. I see and hear a lot more things than probably sometimes even Hallmark does just because people will come to me because they think I know everything about Hallmark. They even think I work for Hallmark. Three’s all these things that happen, and I also help out with a Facebook group–there’s a really big Hallmark Facebook group that has over 56,000 people or 53,000 people. Something like that. It’s huge, and so we have lots of administrators, and I got brought on as an administrator so I really get to see what the fans think. Uh, their unfiltered thoughts. Which could be good. It could be negative, but for the most part, they’re very positive.
Yeah, but I mean a lot of times, people just want to argue for the sake of arguing.
Yes, right.
And it puts a negative connotation on things. You know, I think if everybody didn’t have a computer in front of them, maybe they would be like that, you know?
Oh yeah.
Sometimes people just want to argue just for the sake of arguing because they’re bitter about their day
Right.
So whenever stuff like that happens, I just completely ignore it, you know? I’d rather stay positive personally.
Right, well, and I could tell that about you. And that is a great thing I think especially for anyone that wants to work with Hallmark. You know, sometimes people wonder, “Well, why didn’t so-and-so only did one movie and they never came back?” Well, it could have been something…you know, we don’t know. There’s lots of things that go on behind-the-scenes. But what I’ve discovered s the people that return to Hallmark, I mean, I can’t speak for the people that don’t return to Hallmark. But for the people that return to Hallmark invariably, it is that positive attitude like what you have. And there’s just that family atmosphere on set, I hear that so much. They want to be there. They enjoy coming to work. And I hear that so much. And I love hearing that. I hear that from the crew so much. I hear that from the crews so much in Hallmark. The Hallmark crews are like the best.
Oh absolutely! People genuinely like…I found being on set people genuinely want to be there. It’s like you know like a connection, kind of like in an unspoken way, you can feel the vibe. You know, I can really explain it, but you can just feel the vibe when you’re on a Hallmark set.
And what’s cool is that comes across as a viewer. That comes across in these movies. I mean, you can tell. Oh yeah, you can tell there is no doubt. You can tell that they really enjoy it and sometimes you can…there will be those moments when it’s like you know, “That was real.” I mean, like you knew these two are friends off…or they become friends. Or they’ve known each other for years and they finally get to work together. You know, there’s all these different stories that I hear. And it just comes across. There is just that vibe that comes across. It’s not the same vibe–nothing against Lifetime–but it’s not the same vibe you get when you watch a Lifetime movie. Now, maybe really maybe some of those people are very happy to be there too. I’m not saying they’re not. But there is something about those Hallmark movies that there’s that…and you can’t really define it.
No, you can’t. But it does come across as–it’s like a warm feeling really. Like I said, most of my stuff has been Hallmark, and thus far, they’ve been so great to me. You know, they’ve given me lots of opportunities to find myself in front of the camera more and more than most. I just continue to be me and be the bubbly guy I am. And hopefully, I’ll get to work with Hallmark much more.
That’s right. And what’s cool is, I think, that the more experience you get with them, the more opportunities you get with them. The more opportunities you’re going to get because that’s what I see all the time. So that’s great. Now, you said that you work another job besides acting. Is that right?
Yeah, so I’m in the trades. I’ve been in construction for almost sixteen years.
Wow!
Yeah, that’s partially where I get my tan. I’m outside all the time.
Wow, okay and you said for sixteen years? You can’t be that old. You don’t look…you don’t have to but…
I think it’s in my IMDb. I’m thirty-six. I’ll be thirty-six this week.
Okay, well I will be forty-six in June.
Oh, really? Your birthday’s in June as well? Are you late June or early June?
I am actually middle of the month, June 13th.
Um, okay, so you’re a Gemini.
Yeah, and I have a daughter who was born on my birthday, so we share a birthday.
Hey, that’s very cool.
She’ll be turning seventeen.
Awesome.
But honestly, I will say I figured…I was going to say you were about thirty. That was what I was going to say.
Oh, thank you. That’s very flattering of you.
{Laughter}
I’ll take it.
Construction. So during the time we find ourselves where a lot of things are shut down, so you’re still working?
Yeah, work has started to slow down a little bit. My construction work, which is okay. You know because it kind of presents a unique opportunity to focus even more on my acting. So it actually works out a little better for me, I think.
Well, that’s a good way to think of it. I always think that actors who have another skill…I know there’s different schools of thought, but I think it’s always a good idea to have some other skill you can fall back on just in the event that something…you know, you need to pay the rent and you don’t have the money for it
Exactly! And the line of work I’m in right now actually presents a unique opportunity. I’m working with a company that really supports me in my career. I work full-time there generally, but not right now because of the pandemic, but if there’s ever a time that I need to sneak away for an audition, they’re super supportive. I don’t have to give a week-s notice. I can just say, “Hey, I gotta sneak away. I have an audition to do.” And they’re like, “Do what you gotta do.” And it’s been like that for a year now with no problems.
Wow, well that’s good. I think that’s wise.
Yeah, it’s good because I’ll always have something to fall back on.
Right.
Like I got my ticket. I”m a journeyman and all that sort of stuff so there’s always something for me to do if this doesn’t pan out, but for me, acting doesn’t even feel like a job really. It doesn’t even feel like a hobby. It just kind of feels like what I was meant to do. I enjoy doing it. And I continue feeling that way.
So I’m curious then. When you’re on set, do you ever feel like putting your construction skills to work at all? I’m just curious if that ever comes up.
Um, you know what it may have helped on the set of Flip That Romance. That was where I was noticed. I was on a construction site with…Jules was her name. I can’t remember the main actress’ name.
Um, Julie Gonzalo.
Yep, Julie Gonzalo. So I was on her construction crew and you know we were walking back and forth with different tools and we were moving furniture. And I was running a tape, so it was fun on that movie. On that movie, Mark Jean, he liked what he saw and asked, “Okay, can you just come up before the main actress? Just come down the main stairs. I’m gonna put a camera in front of your face. I want you to push it out of the way like, you know, because we were doing these scenes where they’d have a different film crew come in to talk about the big contest they were having between these two houses. So yeah, just little things like that, you know, that I always find myself getting the privilege of doing.
That’s cool.
So maybe the construction thing helped.
You never know. That’s true because I was thinking about…um, are you familiar with the actor Ryan Paevey?
No, not yet.
Okay, well, he’s a big–he came from the soap opera world and now he’s totally Hallmark. That is, he actually left soap opera. His character got killed off so he could come do Hallmark. Basically, he wanted to leave and then so they killed him off so he could come and do Hallmark exclusively. I don’t know exactly but I talked with one of his directors on one of the Hallmark movies that he did and he was actually getting in and helping with the set and stuff like he shouldn’t have been doing it, but he was doing it. They had to like tell him, “Okay, you can’t do this because we can’t have you getting hurt.” But he was getting in there.
Yeah, if you start moving the crew’s stuff, then you’re like, “Do we really need the crew?” Everybody has their specific job they’re supposed to do. It’s not really supposed to do other jobs.
Yeah, I think that one was a very low budget one. I mean like even if was one that Hallmark acquired. So it wasn’t originally Hallmark. And then Hallmark acquired it. So those are usually a lot more low-budget and I think he has some kind of construction experience or carpentry skills or something like that, and so he just started jumping in and doing because people were–I think they were a little short-handed at times.
You know what? When I do background work, because I come from a construction background and sometimes there’s a lot of downtime. Sometimes you’re just sitting in a tent and you’re watching all these people working around and I’m just sitting there, I’m like, “Man, I would totally love to help you.” I know exactly what he’s talking about and I know exactly what you’re talking about.
Right. Well, it’s interesting. I mean, I love your backstory. I love the fact that now you’re been doing all this Hallmark stuff. Of course, I know things are shut down right now. So are you basically using this time to just focus on acting? Is that what you’re mostly doing during this time?
Yeah, basically. I mean, you know the whole industry is shut down. I’ve heard through the grapevine that they’re gonna be doing a lot more self-tapes. So what I’ve done is basically build a studio in my dining room. I’ve got three lights set up. I’ve got green lights, lots of backdrops, different types of backdrops. I got a good camera. Everyone seems to be bored, but not me. I’m out there like constantly running monologues. I’m doing all sorts of stuff just to keep my mind focused. I’m just using this as an opportunity to really hone in on my craft.
Well, that’s cool.
You know, I feel like when this is all over…scripts are still being written and they’re gonna need actors and actresses to fill those spots. So I think once this all blows over, it’s going to be a huge blow-up.
I think you’re exactly right. Because what we talk about and what I’ve been noticing is…like with Hallmark. Okay, so Hallmark tries to do roughly somewhere between thirty and forty Christmas movies a year.
Yeah, on top of all of their other movies too, right?
Right. But Christmas is always their big season. I know they don’t have very much that is actually theirs. Only one movie that they have filmed that we know one hundred percent sure is Christmas. we’re not quite halfway through the year, but usually by this time, because Hallmark has been doing around the clock, you know, the whole year filming Christmas movies, I mean, this Christmas movie their filmed they actually started in December of last year because they filmed it in Vienna, Austria.
Wow!
Yeah, so they filmed it and then they finished it up in January. And that’s their only official Hallmark I mean, they might have other ones that they are going to acquire. But they probably have a lot they’ve been getting ready for. But I think you’re exactly right. Once this sends, they’re probably gonna want people who can jump right into a role and probably know their lines. I could see them doing some very long hours and trying to…
Yeah, they’re gonna have to make up for a lot of lost time. There’s gonna be a lot of hungry actors and actresses out there. I’m actually just super excited because…you know one of those things you can just feel. You just know that it’s going to be like…it’s going to be insane, but there’s so much stuff happening.
Right.
You know, I’m sure I’m not the only one constantly going through all this stuff. You know, I just can’t wait. I’m just so excited.
I will say from where I am, I am much more encouraged because of course, you probably know Washington State is where everything started as far as the U.S. goes. The first official case happened in Seattle, the Seattle area. And I live in Washington State, so of course, that’s been you know what we’ve been dealing with for a while now. And what’s been encouraging is Washington and California have really cracked down. They cracked down early and they’re actually beginning to see that what we’ve done is beginning to help. I mean, it’s just small. It’s very small. Not that there won’t be any more problems, but compared to the rest of the U.S., Washington and California are starting to reap the benefits of what we’ve already put in place.
That’s good.
How are things going in British Columbia?
You know, I try not to watch the news as much as I can because right now, I’d like to form my own opinion. So from what I’ve heard, things aren’t too bad here. I think Alberta is a little bit worse off. But in terms of B.C., you know, we’ve kind of…when the whole thing started, we really kind of jumped on the ball. They shut big box doors down. School is done. All that sort of stuff. I’m not saying we nipped it in the bud, but we got a pretty good jump on it so it’s not too bad.
Right. Because I think you guys shut down schools really just a few days after we did. We’ve now had our school shut down for three weeks.
Yeah, it’s been about three weeks.
Then the schools that were in the really hard-hit areas, they were actually shut down a few days before that. I’m a substitute teacher, and I was actually subbing at a high school on the day that they said, “Okay, this will be your last day until…” they were saying the end of April. Now they’re saying the beginning of May.
Here they’re saying it’s probably going to be closed for the rest of the school year.
It could be.
They’re saying it probably will be September for Canada.
Yeah, they’re kind of not one hundred percent sure. They’re not saying that yet. Right now they’re saying the first part of May. I don’t know. May 4th or something like that. But we’ll see. I’ve been relatively pleased with how things have gone in Washington. I mean, things aren’t perfect, but I mean I’ve been relatively pleased here with the way that they’ve handled things and especially when I see what’s happened and when I hear the stories of what’s happening in other parts of our country. There’s some crazy stuff. And although it was really crazy and I mean when you started to hear what really…we didn’t do very well when it first started the way it happened. That was not good. But it seems like we’ve jumped on it so you know we just keep taking it one day at a time.
And that’s all you can do, right? I guess, you know, when you’re in something like a pandemic. This is the first time I’ve ever experienced one of these. You just kind of do what they say and yep, hopefully, that’ll be enough.
Right. But that sounds good that you are keeping you know that’s really great that you’re using the time. I’m using the time. I mean, I’ve been getting some more interviews that I sometimes wouldn’t get. There are some people who’ve been too busy. I mean, I couldn’t believe that I got to interview the two lead actors…I don’t know if you know who they are. Michael Rady was one of the actors. He is big-time. He was in a movie called The Sisterhood Of the Traveling Pants. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of him.
Oh, I know that movie.
Okay, so he was in that. He’s had quite a career. So it was amazing that I even got a hold of him. I think I was the only one. It just worked out. I’ve been trying to interview him. And then his co-star was Natalie Hall.
You know, I had just saw that you posted on your website.
Yeah, so she actually is from Canada. She lives in LA now. But that’s what I’ve been doing. I’m reaching out to people that I wouldn’t have maybe normally reached out to just because I’m thinking, “Hey, you’re sitting around there doing nothing.” I’m thinking, “You might as well do an interview.”
You know what? As much as this sucks, it presents a pretty unique opportunity for creative minds like you, me or any other actor/actress/musician out there because it allows them to just kind of sit back and focus on what they’re doing, you know? Like we just finished doing a zoom meeting with my agent and I got to meet a casting director from…I think he’s in LA and he does most of the casting for General Hospital and some other things. We all got to pick his brain for like forty-five minutes. And you know, if this didn’t happen, then like this whole thing didn’t happen, then I wouldn’t have hade that chance.
Right.
It’s presenting a unique opportunity for people.
Yeah, I’ve been amazed to see the creativity. I mean even the late-night shows. I don’t watch the late-night shows usually, but I actually turned it on and I’m watching, thinking, “Hey, if the late-night shows were like this, I might actually watch. This is everything stripped away, and you just see them in their house and it’s actually kind of fun.
I’ve been watching Trevor Noah’s things he’s been doing from his house, and I think they are so funny during this pandemic. He’s just putting light on the situation. That’s what you have to do.
Exactly.
Yeah, it’s a pretty dark time, but I mean, as a creative person, it’s kind of my job to keep people happy.
So that’s been fun. Well, it sounds like you’ve kept yourself busy, and I’ve–
Oh yeah!
And I’ve been keeping myself busy. I know that it’s heartbreaking when you see and hear all the stories that are there. I know that can be just overwhelming. And then all the political stuff. I have to weed out all the political stuff because everybody wants to make everything political. It’s like, “Can we just throw the politics out and realize that we’re in this together?” And we can come together and just forget about politicizing everything. There’s no reason for that.
Yeah, the twentieth century is quite the tangled web. They found a way to keep everybody so confused.
Oh yes, how true. I know because I’ll read something somewhere, and I’ll think that’s really bad, but then it’s like I’m learning that may not be the whole story. And nope, it’s usually just one side of it or even one little piece of it. You’ve got to go search around.
I know history is written by the victors.
Right!
Unless you do some of your own digging, you’re just gonna, you’re just listening to somebody’s opinion.
Right, right, right. Well, okay, so I think, Chris, that was really just about, I mean, I think that we covered quite a bit of ground. Which is great. I do that in my interviews, as you’ve probably seen my interviews are a little bit different.
I like them. They’re very personable. To be honest with you, if this was like, “Okay, here’s the first question. Well, here’s the second question.” I don’t know if I could have handled that.
Oh, I know! I know!
I like the personality of the interview.
Oh yeah. That’s what I like too. And this provided a unique opportunity because it’s been a while…
It was great chatting with you. It’s like, I’ve thought about this interview a lot over this time, and so thank you for your patience. I appreciate that.
That’s not a worry. Like I said, lots of auditions are coming in right now. So I’m sure you guys will get a chance to see me.
Definitely. Well, we will look forward to it and thank you for your time. And I’ll be sure to post…for the people that are, of course, watching this, I’ll be sure to post all of your links and everything so people can find you and follow you. And I’ll post all of that at the bottom of the post.
Yeah, that’s great. And, Ruth, I just want to thank you so much for doing this vlog and everything with me. I think it’s a great opportunity for people to learn who you are as well. If anybody wants to get a hold of my obviously, my socials are thereelchriswood. You can check me out on Instagram or Facebook. Whichever. Just have a view. And also check out Ruth’s socials obviously.
{laughs} That’s nice.
It’s been an absolute pleasure.
FOLLOW CHRIS
