We hit the red carpet for Galas 1 and 2 of the Canadian Screen Awards this week in Toronto. The first evening, held on Tuesday, celebrated the categories of Documentary, Lifestyle, News, Sports and Digital Media, and drew some of the country’s most seasoned journalists, some of whom stopped to talk shop with us on the carpet. We were back yesterday for Gala 2, an evening to celebrate Drama, Children’s or Youth, Comedy and Variety, that attracted some of the most recognized faces in Canadian film and television. We chatted with talent about everything from their first acting gigs and the state of the Canadian television and film scene, to that moment they realized they had made it.
“Read the script. Make sure you know what you are going to say. I think we saw what happened when John Travolta got up to speak and Adele Dazeemed his way into Buzzfeed and every other website. So, make sure you know what you are going to say. Read it first; it isn’t going to kill you to go through the script three or four times. Say ‘hi’ to everyone and then go enjoy dinner.”
– Daryn Jones, former host of MTV Live (MTV) and Over the Rainbow (CBC), on tips for presenting awards.
“It’s a live audience comedy, which I love personally and have spent many years doing it. To me, what makes our show great is that it is a combination of a great writing staff and an amazing cast. The whole cast are wonderful actors, with great timing, and so I think that’s what makes a great show that people are going to want to watch.”
– Dave Foley, actor, Spun Out (CTV), on his new CTV Comedy.
“We have Martin Short coming in on Sunday to host, so you can expect it to be bigger and better than ever. He had a great time hosting them last year, and I think we can safely expect him not to order pizza for everyone, maybe poutine. One of the best things about this year is that we have a number of shows that are nominated in the new categories that have not yet been distributed. So you are going to learn about movies that will to be out in the next two weeks, and I think that offers a good chance to get some advance recognition to titles that will be out soon.”
– Martin Katz, Academy Chair, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television; President, Prospero Pictures, on why this year’s Canadian Screen Awards are bigger and better than ever.
“I remember feeling really confident around 1994ish – Fashion Television was being broadcast on VH1 in the US and we presented the big VH1 Fashion and Music Awards for the first time. I was backstage, live on North American television and surrounded by the who’s who of the fashion and rock scene – every big designer, Madonna and Prince were there, K.D. Lang was there, certainly Karl Lagerfeld and John Paul Gautier, Thierry Mugler and all these incredible designers and stars were all there and I was in the eye of the storm. I think that was a moment where I felt, ‘wow, my life is really starting to come together, something is happening’. Then, of course, last year getting the award from the Academy really put the cherry on top; you know, it was kind of that stamp of approval in the Canadian industry, and an industry that I have really grown up in because I started acting when I was 16 in 1968. You do the math. It really meant a lot to me to be recognized in that way.”
– Jeanne Beker, Canadian TV personality, author and newspaper columnist, on the moment she felt she had finally made it.
“It is really exciting to be nominated twice – it is a big deal for us this year. I haven’t planned too much of a speech, but I know who I have to thank. I have known that for the whole year, working day in and day out. But whether I win or not, I think I am grateful either way.”
– Michael Mando, actor, Orphan Black (Space), on his nominations and possible acceptance speech.
“For me, over the last two or three years, I really started to focus not on trying to get the next job, but on trying to become a better actor and really learn what it means to be a better actor. It doesn’t mean trying to be, you know, the next this person or that person, or to try to figure out what this person did to get success. I tried to figure out what my own inspirations are. That’s when I really started to get the jobs that I liked, that I really wanted. I think that focusing on the work rather than the results has helped me so much.”
– Dillon Casey, actor, Remedy (Global), Nikita (The CW), on his success as a young actor.
“I listen to a lot of rap music, so that helps me get into the zone. It really helps.”
– Katie Boland, actor, Reign (CW), writer, on getting into the writing zone.
“I think this is an amazing year for content, I think there has been a lot of wonderful work done and each year we get better and better, and events like this become greater and greater, and we have a lot to celebrate because every year we are building something more amazing.”
– Katie Boland, actor, Reign (CW), writer, on why it is such an exciting time for Canadian film and TV.
“I always knew that this is what I was going to do. I told my parents when I was really young and they were like, ‘no’. And I was like, ‘no, you’re wrong’, they were like, ‘you are an asshole’, then I was like, ‘no you are an asshole’… sorry, that’s the way we talk to each other. But I tell others not to do it. When you tell people not to do it, the ones that really have to do it, will do it. That’s why I tell everybody not to do it. Because if someone told me not to do it, I would be like, ‘you are an idiot’ and I would walk away, but if someone is affected by that kind of a statement, then they shouldn’t be doing it.”
– Tracy Dawson, actor, Call Me Fitz, on becoming an actor and advice for new actors.
“It is interesting because taking over CityLine was a big transition for me – going from a news reporter to a lifestyle host – and I think that for the first year I was just trying to figure out the format, trying to figure out the guest experts, and what I would say about the products we feature, etc. A year into it, I started to feel not like I’ve made it, I’ve got this, but sort of like, ‘ok, this is manageable’. I was really starting to understand and figure out what lifestyle is and how that works and to throw in some of my personality. It has been relatively recent that things have started to come together. It has been five years with CityLine and now I feel like I am in a really good spot. It’s a good melding of my personality, the show, and the guest experts, and it is feeling good. What is most rewarding are the people. They have a loyalty like you would never imagine; they see the show as theirs… and I take that very seriously. On the show, we are not talking about serious stuff, but they trust us, they trust that if we bring products on the show that it is going to be the real deal. We take that seriously for sure. We don’t take ourselves seriously, we take our viewers seriously.”
– Tracy Moore, host, City Line (City TV), on the moment she felt she made it and the most rewarding part of her job.
“The best part is to work with our team. We have the best team on the planet. Number two is to see all the people who are there and who have come to see us. We have a live audience of about 100 people a day, which is awesome, and there is so much energy because they are so happy to be there.”
– Steven Sabados, co-host, Steven and Chris, on the best part of what he and Chris do on a daily basis.
“There are always a lot of oh-shit moments. Um, I am a walking oh-shit moment. Every day there are awkward moments. Sometimes you say really stupid things to the wrong people and you don’t realize until it comes out that you really offended them without meaning to at all. We are lucky; we get time to edit our stuff a little. But we chose not to edit too much because I think people appreciate that we are not great at what we do, we just like to talk and have fun.”
– Chris Hyndman, co-host, Steven and Chris, on the best part of what he and Chris do on a daily basis and on oh-shit moments on live television.
“At one point, we were worried about this 500-channel universe, and that has not happened… especially with social media. We have to be smarter, we have to be faster, and we have to be more accurate. Not that that was untrue in the past, but it is because of the speed now. Generally, a lot of people will get their information from somewhere else before we are even in a position to give it to them. We have to start thinking outside of the box, thinking outside just the news headline. As we move forward, we are going to be looking more so at a second story, something to provide a little more detail, depth, something that we provide over other sources. When we do a story, we are on location, we report the facts; we get both sides of the story. But what we are looking to do in order to move forward is to stand back a little bit, take a look at the big picture, and find a unique angle as well.”
– Sandie Rinaldo, anchor, CTV News, on the greatest challenge for the future of journalism.
“For me it had been a long time and felt overdue. I hadn’t done a play in seven years and I liked the immediacy of theatre and how organic it can be and the fact that it can change and develop every single night as opposed to putting it down and never having a chance to do it again. Finding little moments and tweaking little moments over the course of three weeks is so rewarding.”
– Benjamin Ayres, actor, Saving Hope, on his recent play, You Said Love, at Sterling Theatre.
“I think the greatest challenge is getting to play really great roles and the best thing about the digital media arena is the fact that we were able to create really great roles for ourselves by doing this web series, which has been huge for us.”
– Paula Giroday, actor, True Heroines, on the greatest challenge facing young Canadian actresses.
Find the full list of Canadian Screen Award nominees and winners here and tune in on Sunday, March 9th for a live broadcast of the awards, hosted by Martin Short, beginning at 8pm on CBC-TV.
#LYNL | (Live Your Notable Life)
All images by: G.Pimentel Photography
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