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Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Chapter Fourteen - Secret Service
Large sections of Union Station were cordoned off to allow us to shoot scenes for the pilot episode of Secret Service. Tony Lobianco was the star host of the series and he would relate a real-life story from the files of this crime fighting organization.
This one involved a plot to assassinate Gerald Ford. As a special agent, under the leadership of Canadian actor Henry Czerny (who went on to big-screen success with Harrison Ford in A Clear and Present Danger), we were searching a train station because we were sure that the assassin was phoning threatening calls from this location. I did some really nice work on this episode and the director featured me in several of the shots.
When we were finished at this location, the publicity people had a photographer take several shots of the Secret Service Team, that included Henry, a female agent, me in a sharp leather jacket holding a handgun and Tony Lobianco standing in our midst. It was the kind of shot that you would see in TV guide or on other media to promote the show.
I waited patiently for the show to air and to my utter horror, when it did, Lobianco had been replaced by Gerald Ford’s actor son, Steven as the moderator. That meant that the publicity shots were scrapped. I asked Anne Marie to try to track a copy down for my file but they were long gone.
Steven Ford was very good as the host and added a real thread of credibility in that he was speaking about an incident with his father. He did a great job in subsequent episodes as well.
In another I gave a very satisfying performance as an undercover agent, portraying a ‘wiseguy’ trying to trap a crooked car importer. Lawrence Baines played the bad guy and Nicholas Campbell from DaVinci’s Law and countless other roles, was my undercover mafia boss and Secret Service boss.
In one scene I menacingly stroll into a shop and take Lawrence under control and push him into a limo where Nicholas questions him about a deal. I am sitting inches away from him and really putting on the pressure by grabbing his face and ‘breathing down his neck’, tough-guy style. My costume included a silver sports coat that I brought with me. What really helped me get into the character was when a wardrobe person suggested that I role up the sleeves on my bare arms. That coupled with a huge gold ring and a fake Rolex finished off the costume and I believe this was one of my better performances. It is also a great demonstration of how effective a professional extra can be and how they can add to the quality and intensity of a scene.
I was specifically selected by directors or casting agents for all of my roles on secret Service. They knew that I could ratchet up the energy level and provide extraordinary value in these small but important scenes.
One of my very favorite scenes is where I portray James Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary in an episode that recreated his assassination attempt. Reagan, a police officer and Brady were shot.
Superb director Mario Azzopardi skillfully unites newsreel footage with the scenes he shot to tell the story. On a totally realistic soundstage, replicating the entrance to the hotel, Reagan and Brady encounter the shooter John Hinckley Jr., Reagan was pushed into his limo by an astute secret service agent and this saved his life. He was raced to a nearby hospital and had emergency surgery. The police officer and Brady lay wounded on the sidewalk and waited for conventional ambulance service.
We rehearsed take after take with me getting shot and falling onto a large mattress-like pad. It was really a lot of fun. The following day was another story though and I woke up from a sound sleep with a dull pain in my chest. As the morning wore on the ache got worse and worse and fearing a heart attack. I went to the emergency department where I was diagnosed with bruised ribs and irritated cartilage, where the ribs join the breast bone. I was just fine in a few days and ready for more work.
This one involved a plot to assassinate Gerald Ford. As a special agent, under the leadership of Canadian actor Henry Czerny (who went on to big-screen success with Harrison Ford in A Clear and Present Danger), we were searching a train station because we were sure that the assassin was phoning threatening calls from this location. I did some really nice work on this episode and the director featured me in several of the shots.
When we were finished at this location, the publicity people had a photographer take several shots of the Secret Service Team, that included Henry, a female agent, me in a sharp leather jacket holding a handgun and Tony Lobianco standing in our midst. It was the kind of shot that you would see in TV guide or on other media to promote the show.
I waited patiently for the show to air and to my utter horror, when it did, Lobianco had been replaced by Gerald Ford’s actor son, Steven as the moderator. That meant that the publicity shots were scrapped. I asked Anne Marie to try to track a copy down for my file but they were long gone.
Steven Ford was very good as the host and added a real thread of credibility in that he was speaking about an incident with his father. He did a great job in subsequent episodes as well.
In another I gave a very satisfying performance as an undercover agent, portraying a ‘wiseguy’ trying to trap a crooked car importer. Lawrence Baines played the bad guy and Nicholas Campbell from DaVinci’s Law and countless other roles, was my undercover mafia boss and Secret Service boss.
In one scene I menacingly stroll into a shop and take Lawrence under control and push him into a limo where Nicholas questions him about a deal. I am sitting inches away from him and really putting on the pressure by grabbing his face and ‘breathing down his neck’, tough-guy style. My costume included a silver sports coat that I brought with me. What really helped me get into the character was when a wardrobe person suggested that I role up the sleeves on my bare arms. That coupled with a huge gold ring and a fake Rolex finished off the costume and I believe this was one of my better performances. It is also a great demonstration of how effective a professional extra can be and how they can add to the quality and intensity of a scene.
I was specifically selected by directors or casting agents for all of my roles on secret Service. They knew that I could ratchet up the energy level and provide extraordinary value in these small but important scenes.
One of my very favorite scenes is where I portray James Brady, Ronald Reagan’s press secretary in an episode that recreated his assassination attempt. Reagan, a police officer and Brady were shot.
Superb director Mario Azzopardi skillfully unites newsreel footage with the scenes he shot to tell the story. On a totally realistic soundstage, replicating the entrance to the hotel, Reagan and Brady encounter the shooter John Hinckley Jr., Reagan was pushed into his limo by an astute secret service agent and this saved his life. He was raced to a nearby hospital and had emergency surgery. The police officer and Brady lay wounded on the sidewalk and waited for conventional ambulance service.
We rehearsed take after take with me getting shot and falling onto a large mattress-like pad. It was really a lot of fun. The following day was another story though and I woke up from a sound sleep with a dull pain in my chest. As the morning wore on the ache got worse and worse and fearing a heart attack. I went to the emergency department where I was diagnosed with bruised ribs and irritated cartilage, where the ribs join the breast bone. I was just fine in a few days and ready for more work.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Chapter Thirteen - "Closing Time"
The Juno Awards show of 1993 was a true Canadian spectacular. Celine Dion hosted and performing that year were Michelle Wright, The Barenaked Ladies, The Tragically Hip via live satellite feed from Australia, K.D. Lang, Hollie Cole and nominated For Best Song, Leonard Cohen for Closing Time. Anne Murray was there for a special award along with Glenn Campbell and special guests included Oscar Peterson, Alana Myles, Tommy Hunter and many others.
I auditioned for a part as a bartender at CBC headquarters the previous week and won the role and so found myself front and centre behind a bar on the stage at the O’Keefe Centre (as it was called then) to rehearse the Closing Time performance. We worked on the staging along with the Robert Desrosier dancers for two days, Friday and Saturday in readiness for Sunday night’s live performance.
On the Sunday afternoon, Leonard Cohen arrived accompanied by his girlfriend of the time, actress Rebecca DeMornay. She asked the director if she could participate in some way and actually served as an extra sitting at the bar in front of me. It was a small reunion in a way as I had worked with her on a Sidney Lumet courtroom drama several months before starring Rebecca and Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame.
We rehearsed the number a few times until Leonard was satisfied that everything was fine and we had a few hours until show time and many of us went to the ‘green room’, the gathering place where you can relax before a show.
All of the performers and special guests were there and it was a like a party for the who’s who of Canadian music. Everyone was friendly and the mood was upbeat and exciting.
I was standing at the espresso machine when Rebecca and Leonard came up and asked me if I knew how to make a cappuccino and I made them both drinks. We made small talk and Rebecca and I reminisced about the recent film project.
It was show time and Celine, who had been locked in her dressing room protected by two Mounties, finally came out and made for the stage. She was completely inaccessible to anyone, did not mix or speak and the Mounties stood as a further barrier should anyone approach her. It just seemed so out of place with the cultivated image of small town friendly Quebec girl with the big family, that I have been jaded about Celine ever since.
We finally came to our number and the thrill of doing a live show in front of 3000 adoring fans is one of the most exhilarating experiences anyone could have. Factor in that you are performing with one of the greatest songwriters of all time and one of your fellow extras is a true Hollywood superstar; and you know your Mom and your whole family are watching you live on primetime television; and there are few highs that can match the feeling. When I look at the tape of that show now, it is so obvious I am having the time of my life.
Speaking of my Mom, she lived at that time and until she died in a little town in British Columbia at the base of three mountain ranges on the Yellowhead Highway, McBride. The population was about 500 at the time and I am quite sure my Mom knew all of them. Even the devout and clannish Mormons would occasionally visit her.
Mom had made my television exploits known to everyone in town and she would watch Top Cops and various Canadian shows to see if she could see me. In this case I had warned her that I would be on and she had a group of her friends over to watch.
Later that night she phoned to tell me how wonderful it was to see me and I have to say that was one of my greatest thrills to know that I had made her proud. When I next visited McBride, it was like I was a real celebrity and people would come up to me on the street and say, "You must be Isobel’s son. I saw you on Counterstrike or Katz and Dog or Secret Service. They also often knew really personal things about me and my family that had a tendency to make me a little edgy.
As a native Torontonian, I have a complete understanding of the old joke: “Why does a Torontonian cross the road…….To avoid speaking to an acquaintance.” As a result the small town McBride experience was always just a little too much for me to handle. Sometimes I just felt like a performing monkey there; a total curiosity to the people of this remote area. I would make a point to stay in the West Edmonton Mall Hotel at the end of my trips to the West, to withdraw from the intensity of those visits.
While I was ‘almost famous’ at home, in McBride I was a genuine celebrity, all because of my number one fan and personal press agent, my dear Mother.
I auditioned for a part as a bartender at CBC headquarters the previous week and won the role and so found myself front and centre behind a bar on the stage at the O’Keefe Centre (as it was called then) to rehearse the Closing Time performance. We worked on the staging along with the Robert Desrosier dancers for two days, Friday and Saturday in readiness for Sunday night’s live performance.
On the Sunday afternoon, Leonard Cohen arrived accompanied by his girlfriend of the time, actress Rebecca DeMornay. She asked the director if she could participate in some way and actually served as an extra sitting at the bar in front of me. It was a small reunion in a way as I had worked with her on a Sidney Lumet courtroom drama several months before starring Rebecca and Don Johnson of Miami Vice fame.
We rehearsed the number a few times until Leonard was satisfied that everything was fine and we had a few hours until show time and many of us went to the ‘green room’, the gathering place where you can relax before a show.
All of the performers and special guests were there and it was a like a party for the who’s who of Canadian music. Everyone was friendly and the mood was upbeat and exciting.
I was standing at the espresso machine when Rebecca and Leonard came up and asked me if I knew how to make a cappuccino and I made them both drinks. We made small talk and Rebecca and I reminisced about the recent film project.
It was show time and Celine, who had been locked in her dressing room protected by two Mounties, finally came out and made for the stage. She was completely inaccessible to anyone, did not mix or speak and the Mounties stood as a further barrier should anyone approach her. It just seemed so out of place with the cultivated image of small town friendly Quebec girl with the big family, that I have been jaded about Celine ever since.
We finally came to our number and the thrill of doing a live show in front of 3000 adoring fans is one of the most exhilarating experiences anyone could have. Factor in that you are performing with one of the greatest songwriters of all time and one of your fellow extras is a true Hollywood superstar; and you know your Mom and your whole family are watching you live on primetime television; and there are few highs that can match the feeling. When I look at the tape of that show now, it is so obvious I am having the time of my life.
Speaking of my Mom, she lived at that time and until she died in a little town in British Columbia at the base of three mountain ranges on the Yellowhead Highway, McBride. The population was about 500 at the time and I am quite sure my Mom knew all of them. Even the devout and clannish Mormons would occasionally visit her.
Mom had made my television exploits known to everyone in town and she would watch Top Cops and various Canadian shows to see if she could see me. In this case I had warned her that I would be on and she had a group of her friends over to watch.
Later that night she phoned to tell me how wonderful it was to see me and I have to say that was one of my greatest thrills to know that I had made her proud. When I next visited McBride, it was like I was a real celebrity and people would come up to me on the street and say, "You must be Isobel’s son. I saw you on Counterstrike or Katz and Dog or Secret Service. They also often knew really personal things about me and my family that had a tendency to make me a little edgy.
As a native Torontonian, I have a complete understanding of the old joke: “Why does a Torontonian cross the road…….To avoid speaking to an acquaintance.” As a result the small town McBride experience was always just a little too much for me to handle. Sometimes I just felt like a performing monkey there; a total curiosity to the people of this remote area. I would make a point to stay in the West Edmonton Mall Hotel at the end of my trips to the West, to withdraw from the intensity of those visits.
While I was ‘almost famous’ at home, in McBride I was a genuine celebrity, all because of my number one fan and personal press agent, my dear Mother.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
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