As most of my regular readers know, while I frequently interact with a wide variety of actors, there are a few with whom I have forged a deeper and stronger friendship. In the case of Sebastian Spence, that is one hundred percent accurate. Hallmark was where I was first introduced to his colossal talent, and as a result, I have learned to respect this man both professionally and personally. Recently, Sebastian and I had the chance to do a follow-up interview in anticipation of his upcoming guest spot in the NBC show Taken, and as per usual, we discussed an extensive variety of topics in addition to his highly-anticipated role on the March 9th episode entitled “Charm School.”

RH: Thank you so much, Sebastian, for taking some time out of your busy schedule to chat with me. It’s been awhile now since we last chatted. 

SS:  My pleasure, Ruth. Always happy to chat with you.

Let’s talk about this upcoming role you have on the series Taken.

What an amazing experience that was. I filmed that this past summer.

Well, we’ve had to wait awhile for this airing as it was originally supposed to air back on January 26th, but now it will finally air on March 9th.

That is true, and sometimes those things happen in this business. In the beginning, it was a bit tough because the episode was supposed to take place in Europe. Since we didn’t have that option for filming, they shot it at the Royal York in Toronto, which is a famous old hotel that has been around forever. We were filming at the height of summer in August, and the hotel was packed. So all these people were watching the scenes play out. We had several big crowd scenes which featured our own extras, but there were all these other people on the outskirts watching, and they would clap after the takes! {laughs} It was like doing live theater in the lobby of the hotel. I was almost having a panic attack during ever take, worried I might drop a line or something. So there was a bit of added pressure there.

Oh wow! I can imagine how that might be a bit difficult. After all, this show is not set up to have a live audience. Most shows don’t do that anymore. 

Usually, when you’re filming, you are in a studio or an exterior location, and it’s all blocked off, and they have PA’s with signs asking people to wait until the take is over. You’re in a controlled environment, and they do that for good reason. From what I remember, there were a lot of people coming from a Toronto Blue Jays game, and they were like, “Are you guys shooting a movie?!” And the PA’s would have to run over and say, “Excuse me, please, we’re in the middle of a take here.” As an actor, it was a bit tough at times to perform in that kind of environment, but it’s all good. I guess you could say it makes the experience quite memorable. {laughs} And of course, the director is up behind a monitor somewhere. He doesn’t even see what you’re dealing with. For this episode, I was playing a senator, so of course, I have my character’s security detail which means all these people are trailing behind me. So there I was, performing for hundreds of people in the hotel with my entourage following behind me.

Now is this the first time you’ve played a senator? I know you’ve done other roles where you were involved in politics. 

First Shot

Well, there was another movie I can remember called First Shot. In that film, I was a part of the security detail for the president. The lead actress in that film was Mariel Hemingway.

Oh yes, I remember that one. I also remember you played the mayor in an episode of Psych. Sadly, your character was knocked off far too quickly.

{laughs} Oh, yes, in that show I actually played a dead body for longer than I had actual lines. I remember playing this dead character as the other characters stood over me, and that can be pretty difficult at times. You have to lie there motionless, and you can’t breathe as the camera pans over you. I remember they called out, “We can see your stomach move.” And I was like, “No, I’m really dead!” You can only hold your breath for so long, so it can be a challenge at times. Actually, they tried to bring me back to that show. They had plans to do a show where they would bring back all their favorite characters, but unfortunately, that didn’t work out as they had hoped. Honestly though, the cast was just wonderful on that show. They were so personable and really nice to work with. With those big shows, you often just have to wait your turn in Vancouver for them to put you in a guest spot, and towards the end of the show, they started using actors that they hadn’t gotten to previously. And that’s how I got that role. They were so sorry they hadn’t found an appropriate role for me earlier in the series.

Pych

Well, at least we saw your character in a flashback scene later on in the episode.

Oh, yeah, that is right. Regardless, I am glad I had the opportunity to be on the show even though it was a small role. Nothing against small roles, but it was not a big guest star role. But I do hope it was memorable.

Well, I think we’ve concluded that this upcoming role of yours on Taken is the first time you got to play a senator. 

I do believe you’re right. And it’s funny that you bring that up because I do feel like I’m moving into that realm where I can play senators and those roles that are over thirty.

Of course! Especially since you’re a little bit older than thirty now. {laughs}

That’s right. And of course, I was referring to the fact that I am just barely over thirty. {laughs} But I actually don’t feel that bad about my age. I know some people have a hard time with age, but I’m fine with it. And I still can play those roles that are just close to over forty.

Well, I would say that you’re blessed with a young face. 

Yes, that and a boyish attitude. {laughs} At least, I like to think I am like that anyway. I’m not too beaten up by life yet. Sometimes I see actors who do play older than they are. You find out they’re only thirty-two and they’re playing a fifty-year-old. I guess that’s just the deck that life has dealt them.

Back to your role in Taken, while we are probably aware of the premise of the show and hope for a positive outcome, what can you tell us about your role in relation to the episode without giving away too much?

Well, I think that my episode follows the pattern better than some of the others, at least, in my opinion. I might be a bit biased, however. My wife, who is played by Amy Rutberg, gets taken right off the top. So it’s pretty straightforward, although there is a twist. I won’t give away the twist. But yes, his wife is taken, and he’s in the middle of a political fallout, and everything in the whole world kind of collapses around him for a minute.

Well, we will look forward to seeing you as a senator. Maybe next time we’ll see you as someone higher up, like the president.

I was really hoping they would bring me back on the show. I don’t die on the episode, which is always a good sign. And this is a guy they could probably still work with. If they had an issue where they needed to get into the government or find out some information, they could call me up and remind me of how they helped track down my wife, and now they need a favor from me. I think it would be a great avenue for them to use me again.

Also, the director, Michael Nankin, sent me an email saying how much he liked my work and he loved what I was doing. He called my performance in the role lovely and subtle, and that’s one of the only times in my career when a director has gone out of his way to personally contact me like that and compliment my performance. It gives an actor a sort of satisfaction to realize that the director noticed you were augmenting between takes and trying this and that. And of course, I emailed him back thanking him for all the positive feedback. I think it’s very important to acknowledge when others go out of their way to recognize your efforts, and that is something I plan to continue doing in my career. Sadly, not everyone in this business does that. My sincere hope would be to work with this director again, and I was cheering for him to get hired on to more shows. It would be an honor to work with a director of his caliber again.

Well, you never know, Sebastian, Taken could get renewed for another season, and they just might bring your character back again. 

That would be wonderful. I hope for everyone’s sakes that Taken is renewed, and if they ask me back, I would jump at the chance.

Switching gears a bit to Hallmark, I recently subscribed to a new streaming service they offer called Hallmark Movies Now. I was happy to notice that they have one of your movies on there, My Mother’s Future Husband. That was always a favorite one of mine.

That’s interesting. What about Daniel’s Daughter?

At this point, that movie is still listed on the regular Hallmark network and has not made its way to their streaming service. 

That is one of those movies that I will always remember fondly, and I know at the time, it was one of their highest-grossing movies for the network. I got a phone call from the producer for that one, and they raved about my work on that film. Another special moment in the business I will always treasure.

Certainly another favorite of mine. And one that the fans still remember fondly. And in case you didn’t know, Cedar Cove is currently streaming on Netflix, and I believe it is also on the third Hallmark Channel (that not everyone gets), Hallmark Drama.

I had no idea. That is interesting.

In fact, Cedar Cove appears to be one of those shows that is almost more popular now than when it was originally airing on Hallmark. People still talk about it regularly.

I guess the landscape of TV has changed so much that in some ways, maybe that’s to be expected.

I know there’s a push amongst the devoted fans to bring back the series for at least a movie to wrap everything up.

I can understand that as the series left everyone hanging at the end. At least Cliff and Grace got married, but it would have been nice to have known about Andie {MacDowell} and how things ended for her character. I can’t see the network getting us all back together at this stage, but again, you never know.

And since you made that Garage Sale Mystery film last year, Murder Most Medieval, we can still see you on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries because they regularly re-run those movies.

That’s great news. I know they were pretty happy with that episode.

Sebastian Spence, Lori Loughlin, Casey Manderson Credit: Copyright 2017 Crown Media United States LLC/Photographer: Ryan Plummer

I wouldn’t mind seeing you come back on Garage Sale Mystery. I loved your character on that one.

I wouldn’t mind doing that. Also, since I now live in Toronto, I know that Hallmark shoots a lot of films up here and in North Bay, so I would love to do another film with them. North Bay is kind of the outer regions up here, and it looks like the small towns they often feature in Hallmark movies.

To be honest, I truly love the films they shoot in the Toronto area. Nothing against the ones that are shot in Vancouver as there are some wonderful ones, but it looks like so many of the ones shot up in Toronto seem to have a bit higher production value. And maybe it’s just nice to see some different areas. Regardless, your fans would love to see you make another Hallmark film no matter where it’s shot. And actually, I’ve been pleased with the way Hallmark is pushing the boundaries a bit and stepping out of their comfort zone to try new things. So here’s hoping we see you in something new on the network soon.

I would be honored and excited to work with the network. Such wonderful people to work with. Always a great crew, some of the best crews around. And they have such wonderful actors attached to their projects. So I’m willing if they are.

Anyone who follows you regularly knows that you often write poetry, and you’ve been doing that for quite some time. In fact, we are regularly blessed by reading your short poems on Twitter.

Yes, those are the poems that I tailor for Twitter.

Many of the fans, myself included, would love to see you eventually publish a book of poetry. I know it’s one of those things you and I have talked about before. So what are your thoughts about this potential project?

I am always blown away by the feedback I receive. One of the beautiful things about Twitter is you can get reactions from people when you post things, and I’m always amazed. Some of the reactions I get are just wonderful things to me, thanking me and even saying that I make their days when I post these poems and they get to read them. It’s just mind-blowing to me. One of the reasons I’ve been posting them on Twitter is so that I can gauge the reactions to them and see what people think of them. As a poet, you never know what anybody thinks of your poetry, and I’m certainly humble enough that I wouldn’t just think that people are going to be blown away by my words. But it’s such a nice reaction to have people get back to you and let you know just what the poetry means to them. I’m quite proud of most of them. Sometimes I just write them for the sake of getting them off my chest. There are times I get upset or someone rubs me the wrong way, and I just put the words out there to describe certain things I’m thinking about or going through at the time. And the reactions never cease to amaze me. So at some point, I would love to compile the best ones into a poetry book, pitch it to a publisher, and see if it can get made. I really don’t know if I’d want to do it for monetary gain necessarily. I just want to do it to see what would happen. It’s exciting to think about doing it, and maybe you and I could collaborate on that project.

God spoke to me today,in the hills of my mind ,we spoke quietly and he was not unkind,but no advice did he give about the grind,or the sea x pic.twitter.com/qpkaEY7orY

— sebastian spence (@SpenceSebastian) September 15, 2017

And you know I’m ready and willing as I’ve told you in the past. Just say the word, and we’ll get the process going.

I have some poetry I’ve written throughout the years as well, and I would like to go through that and pick some of my best work from there also. That combined with some of this Twitter poetry would potentially make a great book, I think. I do love the idea of adding pictures to it as well. That is something I’ve garnered a love for lately is taking pictures, just in the digital medium. It’s so nice that you can augment that stuff and make it look so much prettier these days, and it’s all done through your phone. I’ve noticed that I don’t have a bad eye for it either. It’s all about composition. So if I can compose some nice pictures and then add in some poetry, I think that would be good.

There’s no doubt about the fact that you have a definite eye for photos.

Well, thank you. Whenever I happen to see a photo opportunity, I just stop automatically and take the picture and look at it later and decide what to do with it then.

I really don’t have an eye for photos. I have to remind myself to take photos, and even so, if one turns out, it’s not because of anything I did. I’m not wired that way. My daughter, Martha, on the other hand, definitely has an eye for photos, and she takes pictures of everything! And they often turn out well. 

Many times when I stop and take pictures, literally, there are people that will just stop and pull over, wondering what I’m doing. And there I am trying to get down, trying to find the right position to get the best shot. They wonder why on earth I’m taking a picture of a bush. Is there a deer there or something? And I’m thinking, “No, it’s a picture of the bush with the sun streaming through it.”

Now, I believe you’ve mentioned the possibility of doing a short film of your own.

Yes, I have written the script for this short film that we plan to shoot very soon. I still have some work to do on the script. But I met this twenty-something filmmaker who is really keen to shoot this film of mine. He’s a big sci-fi geek and was a big fan of First Wave. The general story of my short film is that of a hijacking gone wrong. This couple ends up nabbing the wrong guy, and then it all goes south in a bad way, in a sinister way. It’s basically a case of mistaken identity. They remain in wait for this guy, and then after they get him, they find out his wife has just died. There’s a twist, but I don’t want to give away any more than that. It’s kind of a dark and twisted tale, but of course, you know you only have fifteen to twenty minutes to bring this tale to life. You’ve got to move fast in a short film and not spend too much time setting it up. I also have a neighbor here who used to act in the Shaw Festival, a big festival that happens here for theater. He got out of acting before he had his fill of it, so he’s really hot to trod on this as well. He’s a wonderful actor, and my brother-in-law wants to be involved as well. It’s become something of a family affair. With short films, you really do it for nothing, but we’ll see what happens with it. We’re hoping to film it within the next two or three weeks. I want to do it while it’s still winter, while it’s still gray and dark and horrible-looking. {laughs} But that would look great on camera. We’re going to go into some farmer’s field with the fog and the cold and the misery and do it all there.

Is this the first time you’ve done a short film?

No, actually it isn’t. I did a short film a few years ago called Pour Retourner.  The director, Scooter Corkle, was at school, looking for something to put on his reel. With first-time directors, it is important to get a couple of projects you can show people so they know what you’re capable of. So we shot this really interesting little short about this guy who gets out of prison. He’s a chef, and he goes back to his former boss and asks for work. I played his boss, and I’m a Gordon-Ramsey-esque, a real jerk of a boss. I hire him on, and then I ride him into the ground. Then a little twist happens at the end where he has to go back to prison. It was a little short, but I think Scooter did really well with it. It went to several film festivals and won a couple of prestigious awards. It was a twelve-hour day for us, and we shot the whole thing in that twelve hours. We did it for nothing, and I think he got a lot of friends from his film school to participate as well.

I’ve seen the short, and yes, your character is definitely not a nice guy. Thankfully, this film is available online to watch. Some of your stuff, Sophie, for example, is not available.

And I just don’t understand that. I know ABC Family picked it up, and I thought it was a fun show. But kind of like how First Wave is not easy to come by either. I do not understand why some of these things are not available.

It’s the same with the CBC shows. Eventually, they make their way down here. At least, sometimes they do. I’d love to see you get to guest star on some more of the Toronto shows that are being shot such as Designated Survivor and Murdoch Mysteries.

I think it’s just logistics that has kept me from Murdoch Mysteries. I know I’ve auditioned for it before, but that was when I was in Vancouver.  Maybe I’ll have a better chance now that I’m in Toronto.

So what is your plan with this short film of yours once it is shot?

Hopefully, we would be able to get it into film festivals. Or maybe we could even set it up like a pitch for an idea for a TV series. There’s all kinds of options with short films, so we’ll see what happens with it. It could even become a web series, I suppose. I’ve been involved with those before, but unfortunately, that deal fell through. Maybe this one will work out.

I believe you also mentioned you have an idea for a feature film.

Well, I have a lot of work to do on the idea, but I’m excited about the basic outline of my idea. It’s sci-fi, and that’s something I think I know a little bit about. {laughs}

I would agree with you there. In fact, I think you know more than just a little bit about sci-fi. {laughs}

I’ve written some things before, but I’ve had to put those on that back burner when I get busy auditioning. In fact, there’s a script I co-wrote with a former partner of mine, and she’s still shopping it around, as far as I know.  It’s an animation script about birds in Vietnam. I know it sounds like a funny kind of thing, but it actually worked out really well. I think she’s still actively pitching it. There was some initial interest, but you just never know. But I think I’m ready to take some time and sit down and work on this idea of mine.

Can you tell us the basic idea of the premise?

Sure. Somewhere in the near future, a manned mission in space suffers a tragic accident, and the hero of the story is injured so badly that they cannot risk bringing him back to earth without killing him. So they jettison him out into space in a pod without life support, and he ends up in deep space. At least a hundred years pass and another mission comes looking for a habitable planet in deep space. This mission is not manned by humans, but it’s manned by holograms who have no need of rest or food. They find this man who has become frozen, and they think it may be possible to revive him. I won’t say anymore as I might give away too much, but that’s the basic idea. As you can see, I have a lot more to do to get it ready for an actual feature film, but I am excited about it.

I may not be a sci-fi person, but this sounds great to me.

And of course, Ruth, I would love to collaborate with you sometime. Whether it’s the poetry book or a script idea or both. I even hope that one day I will have the opportunity to direct either a film or a TV show. Had First Wave continued past it three seasons, that was something that was supposed to happen. I am definitely ready and willing to try my hand at directing some time in the near future.

Sebastian, I cannot thank you enough for sharing so much of yourself with us. And we are so excited to finally see you in Taken tonight!

Ruth, thank you so much for taking the time and for your patience with my ever-changing schedule. I really hope that everyone likes the show tonight.

Putting Sebastian into a proverbial box when it comes to the world of entertainment is an absolute impossibility. His talent runs the full artistic gamut–everything from acting, to writing, to photography, and to prospective directing. His giftedness is essentially that of a legend in the Canadian film industry, and I am invariably dumbfounded at the comprehensive effects of his collection of works. Many of the aspiring actors in Vancouver are quite familiar with his work and even if they have not met him, his name is one that is prominent and celebrated. And for those who have the supreme pleasure of working with him, I always hear the same thing. He is one of the nicest guys around, and he is infinitely talented. Furthermore, his sage advice and profound expertise carry a great deal of weight with many. 

One of the things I appreciate the most about Sebastian is his authenticity. With the epidemic of deceit and arrogance in the world of entertainment today, Sebastian proceeds to take the time to make genuine relationships with his co-workers and even with his fans as he is able. While he does not publicize every detail of his life for unrestricted scrutiny, he continues to be the kind of person who gives generously of his time and ensures that he never utters a harsh word, even against those that may be attempting to defame him. He maintains his pursuit of truth and kindness, and when necessary, he takes appropriate action to guarantee that those he cares about in this world are well, safe, and content. His mastery of the written word makes him a beacon of hope and light in a cosmos that is often dark, dismal, and depressing. While bad times may come his way, he attempts to keep an optimistic outlook and to never abandon his dreams and goals. 

I invite everyone to tune to NBC tonight (March 9th) and watch the episode of Taken entitled “Charm School,” in which Sebastian will have a significant guest-starring role. Additionally, I invite you to check out the links below and consider following him where applicable. Although Sebastian is not always the most consistent with his social media presence, I can assure you this his posts will always inspire and encourage you, while reminding you of the beauty that is encompassing us that we may tend to overlook. I can only wish my dear friend limitless success as he perseveres in the attainment of all his various goals and dreams, and I know for a fact that any studio that purposes to cast this phenomenal actor in any of their projects is guaranteed to have a top-notch, humble performer that will do whatever is necessary to portray a believable character–regardless of the role–and to create an enduring impact on every viewer worldwide who makes the concerted effort to watch.

FOLLOW SEBASTIAN

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BY THE WAY, SEBASTIAN HAS GRACIOUSLY AGREED TO A FOLLOW-UP INTERVIEW IN WHICH HE WILL ANSWER FAN-SUBMITTED QUESTIONS. PLEASE LEAVE THEM AT THE END OF THIS POST OR SUBMIT THEM VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.

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