Nuanced. - 120. Lorne Cardinal: Corner Gas, Acting & Indigenous Advocacy

Episode Date: August 8, 2023

We invite you to take a seat and get to know Lorne Cardinal - Cree community member, seasoned actor, dedicated director, and skilled producer. You'll be captivated as we journey through the intriguing world of acting, exploring Lorne's unique methods, from the Pachinko Clown Method to European style theatre training. The stage is set for an engaging discussion of Lorne's most recognized work - Corner Gas. Uncover the story behind his famous phrase “all right, exciting” and delve into the deep impact it has had on audiences across the nation. We also touch on the often overlooked challenge of typecasting and the emotional complexity of closing a chapter in one's career. The curtain falls as Lorne shares his plans for his YouTube channel, where he'll share stories from writers and poets who've made a mark on him.But it's not all about the spotlight. We also talk about the pressing issue of Indigenous rights and Lorne's own experiences. He shares his perspective on the struggle, the importance of generational involvement, and his hopes for the future. This episode is a journey through the life of a passionate storyteller and his impact on the world of acting. So sit back, relax, and let Lorne Cardinal guide you through a world where narrative and character come to life.Send us a textThe "What's Going On?" PodcastThink casual, relatable discussions like you'd overhear in a barbershop....Listen on: Apple Podcasts   SpotifySupport the shownuancedmedia.ca

It's the Bigger Than Me podcast with your host, Aaron P. Today I have the privilege of sitting down with a person I am a huge fan of, Lorne Cardinal. I have been following his journey for a very long time. He's been an inspiration to me since I was a young man, tuning into Corner Gas as a young person. It's such a privilege to sit down with you today, Lauren. Would you mind introducing yourself for people who might not be acquainted? Sure, yeah. I am Lauren Cardinal. I'm a queen from Northern Alberta.

I am an actor, director, producer, and pretty regularly handsome, good-looking guy. I couldn't agree more. Could we start off with your community, Sucker Creek First Nation? You started there. Can you tell us about your community and where you come from? I come from Sucker Creek First Nation, which is in northern Alberta, about four hours north of Edmonton. The shore is a lesser slave lake. Yeah, we're Cree, and yeah, I live there for a way.

a while, I grew up there. I've got cousins and family and sisters there, and that's my home res, Chuck of Crete. What lessons do you think you were influenced by as a young person coming from your community? Oh, lessons, the importance of family. It's a big thing there because, you know, we have, the criminals are such a large family. We spread all over north, northern Alberta and Saskatchewan and just everywhere. And being Cree, we're, you know, You know, we're movers. We have the traveling gene in their feet, so we spread all over the place.

You know, I've got, and there's our ancestors come from, like, far away's France and Scotland and intermixed. And, yeah, we have a huge long lineage. What inspired you to decide to go to the University of Alberta for fine arts? Was there something going on in your world? What pulled you in this direction? Well, it was kind of a, it was a long journey. I didn't discover acting until I was like in my 20s, early 20s before I did my first acting

class was in a place called Caribou College, which is now Thompson Rivers University in in Kamloops. I moved there and back then it was an unemployment rate was about 17%. And the skills I had was the darkroom technician, photographer, and tree planter and rugby player. Those are the extent of my world at that point and I know Camlips didn't need any of those things so there was a college behind

where I was living and I went I'm going to go put my treaty rights to work and walked in the door and said I want to enroll and I started picking classes here and there and got accepted and then and then I phoned my band and said hey I just enrolled in college I need some

some of that book money and they went You're not supposed to do it that way. You got to, well, it's already happened. So they're kind of like, oh, okay, well, we'll deal with those guys. And so, yeah, so I got, did my first year of college. And I was just picking stuff I liked that. I had no idea about prerequisite programs or what you need to get a diploma or a degree. So I was just taking, you know, sports history, a little bit of English, like by science.

I was curious about science. And so I made up my schedule. And then I went, oh, I put a room for one more class. And I saw an introduction to acting. And I went, well, easy credits. And I was lucky because I got my instructor that I had is Professor, Dr. David Edwards, who was just a, you know, an incredible, lovely man who loved theater and acting in the craft of acting. And he was my first instructor.

So his passion for acting rubbed off on me. And I did, because I'm, and still I'm, you know, deal with shyness. I'm a very naturally shy, shy person. I hated standing up and talking in front of people. That was my nightmare. And so I took this acting class and it taught me how to, how to do that, how to stand up and deliver and speak to people or even be looking at a crowd of people who are looking at me.

And so I did my first one act play there and I was on stage and we did finish the show and we did take our curtain call. and I had the epiphany, right, where everything just goes wavy and I was just like, wow, and I went, this is it. This is what I was meant to do because I felt so comfortable and there was no stress. I felt so relaxed on stage playing another, playing a character. And I went, this is it. And so I asked my teacher, how do I make a living at this? How do I do this as a profession?

And he gave me the best advice was, you said, get the best training you can find. and so that's what I did and that's how I ended up at the U of A. I'm curious as to what the impact was on the listeners on the viewers who were able to see you doing this is there a relationship you have in that early stage where you start to see that they're also completely immersed

in who you are in that moment in this character that you're portraying? Yeah, it's a gift and it's one of those moments that you keep chasing. It's very addictive because when you connect with the audience and you can and you're in the scene and it's very tense or something and you stop and all of a sudden your your inside voice goes no one is breathing in the audience because they're so engrossed in what you're doing they stop breathing because they're so tense and and that's happened like you know there's a handful of times that it's happened and it's it's magical and that's what you keep pursuing to try and get that connection try and make it as believable and truthful as possible. in your performance, right? You don't ever want to be caught acting on stage because it's death. You don't want to be acting.

You want to be telling the truth of a story of a situation of a human being. And that's why you spent all the years learning your craft, the technique of acting, the craft of acting. It's more than just standing up there saying lines. You have to dive deep into a character and find out what makes them tick, what their fears are, what their wants are, and all that kind of work that you do beforehand. that was my next question is around this embodying another person and fully experiencing what they're seeing and what their perspectives might be thinking about how you put yourself in somebody else's shoes genuinely to bring out these concepts and help people understand a person's perspective that you're portraying what was those early experiences like for you well i remember the first time one of my first plays i did i did the ecstasy of rita joe uh for the Walterdale Community Theater in Edmonton, which is, you know, community theater. It is what it is.

It's local people getting together put on a show. So I auditioned before I took any acting classes. It was about my third play I've ever done in my life, and I went for Jamie Paul who is a character, written by James Rega. So it was like, it's all about Exeter Joe. I don't know if you know it or not, but it's one of those

seminal Canadian theater plays written by a non-native guy, but a guy George Riga who knew the indigenous community and voice and spirit. So he wrote this play about a young girl and life off the rads going

into the city and just the injustice of the Canadian justice system. And it's, you know, it's a lot of it's a timeless play because not much has changed. he wrote it in the 60s, right? So the political situation, social situation hasn't changed much from those days.

You know, they're so injustice. There's still people, you know, especially our people getting wrongfully incarcerated or overly incarcerated. It's like it's a sport with the mainstream crowd, you know, the justice crowd. Yeah, throw them and go. But I did that play, and it was very emotional and very lot of anger in it and stuff. and I didn't have any technique, any craft. So we did the rehearsal, and then when we did opening night,

there's extra juice in it because it's live people. People, a live audience comes in and watch, and there was a buzz around town. And so I went and I just went all out and I got connected to the emotion of it. But I didn't have any craft, any technique. So after about two shows, I started losing my voice by the end of the play because I had no idea on how to use my breath, how to breathe, how to use it as a tool.

So the weak run that we had was very hard because I would stop talking after the end of the show and I wouldn't talk to the next day before rehearsal because my voice would last only so long before we start powering out again. So that was one of the benefits of getting theater training was learning how to deal with that, you know, connecting to emotional things

and using your breath and your body and your whole body is a toolbox so you can hit those emotional things and still save the physical. structure of your voice. And you learned that by taking all these classes, speech classes. They weren't kidding when they said, we'll teach you how to speak,

we'll teach you how to breathe, and we'll teach you how to move. And they were true to their word. And they taught me that just the technical aspects of acting, what you knew to do a show eight times a week and twice on Wednesday. Is there a technique that stands out to you personally

that will never leave your mind or one that had an impact on you? Oh, yeah. I mean, before I went, because there's two, there's all kinds of training you can get out there. There's all different forms of art that are performance-based. One thing I was exposed to before I got into the university, I did a play, and we had an eight-week rehearsal period, and part of that process was called the Pachinko Clown Method. And it was a little red-nosed European clown. And that whole training is very unique, and it's very centered on. It was centered on indigenous philosophy of color, the color wheel.

So you do a lot of what we call color work, where you take a color and you focus on the color, you breathe, and then you bring in the color. You let it, so all you're doing is you're breathing, you're clearing your mind, and you're just thinking of that color, and these emotions come out. And it's about tapping into those kind of emotions and going with that. So you use these colors. And then you also use mask work as well to tap into these different energies and things. that are around every human being. It just takes a lot of work to turn off that conscious mind, you know, the analytical brain. We have to, you take a lot of training to turn that off because you don't want to,

you don't want to be criticizing yourself because you're cutting opportunities off when you do that. When you hear that little voice going, oh, you're going to look down, you're going to be that, you know. That voice, it takes a lot of work to shut it off, you know, because it's so prevalent in mainstream society. But as performers and artists and musicians and painters, there comes a moment. where we find that place where we can shut off the brain and just go with the impulse that comes. I'm just going to go to this. I'm not going to plan it. I'm not going to think about it.

I'm not going to grade it or think it means this, you know, imbue it with emotions or you just go with it and see where it goes and see what happens. And when you're working with a group of people who are all in the same vein, magic happens. Because offers are being made, right? And you just go and go. Then you're venturing to new territory that you never even thought. was possible because you're just going with things saying, yes, let's, or yes, let's, that's the game, yes, let's. You don't say why or maybe if, maybe, you know, you go, yes, let's, let's, let's try, let's go.

And then when you start tapping into that kind of training, you know, incredible, incredible things happened. And then you go into the European style theater training, which is what I did at the U of A, the Bachelor of Fine Arts Acting Program, is classical theater training, where you learn how to stand and speak and you study you analyze scripts you analyze words you analyze characters you find the character in the words which is very different from my initial training of letting the spirit come in and letting colors and wind and directions and all these things move you around you know we don't it's it's a different training so i had to i'm well not unlearn but put my clown training to

decide and focus on the more classical theater training of how to stand, how to, because that's, we took ballet, hour and a half every day for three years, ballet class was our first class of the day, how to stand, how to use your body as a tool, how to, how your body speaks when you're on stage, you're letting the audience, giving audience, even if you have no line, your audience, your posture, your posture is giving the audience information of what the story is. So if there's young actors out there go, I don't got any of the lines. I'm just in the background. No, you're not just in the background. You're giving information to the audience about what's happening to the scene and the actor. So your job is to have some attitude to what's going

on. Are you involved? How do you feel about it? Is it nerve-wracking? Is it scary? Are you ready to run or do you're ready to jump in and break it up, you know? Whatever posture you take on stage, you're giving the audience information. So it's anybody who says, I'm just, just standing there. It's like, well, then that's what you're doing. You're just standing there. You're not engaging. When you talk about getting into the moment, I just interviewed Dr. Chris Bertram about flow states, and he talks about getting into the zone and really letting go of the future and forgetting about past mistakes you've made and just experiencing that. And that just really stood out to me that acting has this as well. That is right. And it's, it's, it's, there's,

you know, all kinds of body work you can do just based on breathing. you know, releasing trauma. There's a lot of it, you know, and that's the thing that we learn quite on as acting students is that theater training is not therapy. You do that on the other side. What we learn is the craft of acting techniques on how to tell the truth and find characters and use words and the technical aspects of speaking Shakespeare, you know, finding out what that means, unlocking the key to Shakespeare.

It's amazing because it's some of the most brilliant writing. in human history. This one man did it and created words. He invented words. But, you know, he was also, when you unlock the key to Shakespeare, the rhythm, the words he uses, just it's a joy to speak when you do it. So that's what we get, you know, you train a lot in, is learning how to do that. And using your breath, always breathing.

And no matter what training you do, it's all centers around breath, even martial arts. You got to breathe. when you're running you got to learn how to use your breath how to use it for energy and use it to evoke emotion or subdue emotion it's all when people say just breathe that's true it's happened to me before when I've been on stage

and I'd forget my line all of a sudden they'd just be empty vacuum be nothing there right and I was going like oh my god and what I did when my first year see in just doing that I'm locked I'm tense I there's this that my throat is tense my shoulders ah my eyes are popped open there it's tense what's happening physiologically is there's no oxygen getting into my brain in my body so once I stop breathing and lock up it's like I'm lost somebody else has got to come in and save me or or we'll start again or you know it's just a nightmare but what you do when you're that it's gone. It's upset. You just relax and keep breathing and keep breathing and keep feeding the brain oxygen and those words will come back because that's why we rehearsed so much too.

It's in there. It's in there. You just got to relax and let the fear go and keep feeding the brain oxygen and it will come back to you eventually. And then you're just how smooth that you're, because the audience said, no, they don't have a scripted from, they don't know you forgot your line. They don't know you just jumped two pages. They don't know.

Just as long as the story makes sense, you know, and then that's when you're trying to fake it. But this is the usual sign to the audience members that there's something in trouble. When someone's in trouble on stage, they see this. They go, oh, this should be interesting. I want to get your thoughts on culture. You mentioned Shakespeare. I think culture is something that nourishes our soul. When we think about having a connection as a society agreeing on things, I think this is where we go to find it.

So many people don't know what Shakespeare meant in his plays. We know the name. We don't always know what he intended or what he was talking about. And I think this is the same for indigenous culture. There's values and stories and belief systems that not everybody knows about. So it's a way of kind of connecting us all to a shared story. And I'm wondering from your perspective, what does it mean to go to a play? What does it mean to go to a theater and experience?

something like a show and really connect with these characters I look at it as a contract you make a contract an unconscious contract with the performers on stage that you are coming in to watch and hear the story they're telling and their

job as audience members is to sit and listen and watch and and go along for the ride you know it's not about texting time or you know making sure you're you turn off your damn bones first thing you do before you hit turn off your damn phones oh it's on vibrate it doesn't matter can you take it out screen comes up and it attracts and people's distracts people around you and it distracts the actors on stage as well so your initial contract as a theater goal is to not be a distraction

but to add support and listen to the story and the quality of the storytelling that's what will that's what will the audience will let the actors know if they're doing a good job or not just by their response if the director is terrible and the actors are just off in all directions

the audience is going to respond they're going to be polite they're going to sit there but they're going to be flipping through their magazines they're going to be shifting they're going to be cough they'll start the nervous coughing and this and that but that means they're on focus they're not listening, which means the performers on stage aren't doing their job, which is being clear and concise and truthful.

And that's a director's job, and that's the actor's job, to make sure the story they're telling is focused and centered in truth. You know, if you go see a comedy, what you should, what, as an actor, I don't think of, oh, I'm going to be funny. It's the time to be funny. I look at it as a tragedy and how, because the character does know what's happening. the character doesn't know he's in the comedy. The character doesn't know he's making jokes or you're saying lines.

You know, that's a playwright's job. The actor's job is to say it as innocently as possible. And the comedy comes from the situation of the character not understanding what he's involved in because there's a bigger stage picture that the audience gets to see. The characters don't get to see. And they don't know what's coming. They don't know what happened when they weren't on stage. know and that's and that's the world that you create and that's where the comedy comes in

is when when people see somebody who doesn't know and start saying words that are directly conflicting what just happened before you know and they're saying it with such honesty and passion but once you start seeing the I'm gonna put on an acting funny face it's like the audience goes oh boy you they close up they go oh here we go he thinks he's being funny because he's acting funny he's goof yeah so you know as an actor is just like the first thing is like if it's a comedy don't act funny if it's a drama don't act all angry and angst find the truth of the story it's always about the truth and that's what the audience comes to see is truth and and the more that an actor can find the character and tell

their story and experience their story because there's two you know there's two words there's a character and then there's the actor the actor knows everything the character knows nothing and that's where you have to be as the actor. You have to come in as the character and experience everything for the first time. Even though as the actor, you've done it 300 times in rehearsal, every time you hit the stage, you're doing it for the first time. You're hearing it for the first time. So those are kind of emotional mental states that you have to work yourself. And that's why technique and training is so important to learn how to get yourself into those states. So everything is new and fresh. and you don't, and you're not, you're not expecting what's coming next as a character.

You're expecting a word. You're expecting the set, you know, once you start anticipating what's coming, then you're, you've lost the threat. You can't anticipate what's coming because the person doesn't know. The character does not know what's coming. Has never experienced it before, doesn't know. And that's a state you have to be in for the whole play. You can only deal with what happened after.

Do you think the work you do enriches our social fabric helps connect us and understands ourselves in a deeper way? Absolutely, absolutely. Every performer, actor, artist, sculptor, we're all working in the human experience. It's a universal human experience. It doesn't matter what we bring as like my cultural background, my Cree heritage, I bring in through the words. I bring my emotional history into the words that are written by William Shakespeare 500 years before still has resonance because he deals in human emotions. All of Shakespeare's plays are human emotions, greed or less, you know, vengeance, anger,

all human emotions so anybody can plug into it. The words you need to understand and work at it, it is a language. it does take technique and understanding. Because the words were written 500 years ago, there are different meanings to the words. So you have to go find out the meaning of the word at the time. It helps you encode what he's saying. So what we do is we go line by line by line and then paraphrase it.

Now is the winter of our discontent. Okay, what does that mean? Is he talking about the weather? is he now right now in this time whatever's happening here now and he's talking to the audience now is the winter of our discontent our discontent is now gone to sleep it's gone to hibernate so our discontent war whatever is troubling our world is gone now you know and that's the kind of mining you have to do with every word made glorious summer by this son of york made what so now it's now it's not winter anymore. It's glorious. It's summer. It's full of life. It's lusch. It's, you know,

good time by this son of York. Now, there's a little bit of work there to be done. This son of York, is it the son, as in father's son? Is it the son of the Lord York? Or is he the son of the summer? Now he's the summer. So that's, and then you find out that, you know, Richard wants to be king. He's not. His brother is. So, and he lets you know, right in the first opening act. He doesn't like it because he's got a humpback. He's misshapen. And he wants to be king.

But now everyone's in peace and there's no war. It's not working in his favor because everyone loves peace and they love the king now because he brought peace to the kingdom. There's no more war. People don't have to die. And he's going, but I've got a plan. And he shares the plan with the audience. Watch me.

And then they watch as he goes and puts his plan into motion, gets his brother to be a deadly hate, the one against the other. And, you know, it's exciting. It's kind of like, okay, and then you watch him unfold his plan. And the audience is going, oh, my God, can't they see what he's doing and how he's manipulating everything? And it's, yeah, it's exciting stuff. Can you talk to us about emotions?

Right now we're in a time where depression is commonplace, anxiety's commonplace. And it seems like actors, people like yourself are able to allow us to experience and understand those emotions from a new perspective. But it seems like you would have to work somewhat harder to get to those places than the average person. So you understand what it looks like, what it feels like, what it's going to look like to the audience in a deeper way than the average person understands when they're sad, when they're frustrated, when they're stressed. It seems like you'd understand these emotions in a deeper way. Can you talk to us about what it's like to embody this? It is. It's a challenge and it's also one of these things where you have to, when you're dealing with emotions, you have to care for yourself first. You have to make sure that your creative spark is protected because you're diving into it a lot. You can't overextend it. So you have to know when to take a rest, take a break, recharge it, let the energies come back. And it takes, you know,

Reading books, going for a holiday, going for biking or whatever. There's all kinds of things that replenish. You have to replenish yourself. Because if you keep going, you keep driving, you keep depleting it, it leads to burnout. And it's really hard to reconnect the spark once it's out. Because you're exhausted, mentally, physically, spiritually, you're just totally depleted.

And it's hard to get it back up. It's very important to take the time to know when to say, I can't do everything, to say, okay. Or I need to do something different. I need to read for a bit. I need to watch some great movies. I need to watch, understand, reads and books and great directors and how they manage things. So there's a lot of self-care involved in that.

And, you know, one story that comes to mind, I think people have probably heard it. It's the psychiatrist talking to his patient and his patient's talking about how depressedy is and how hard it is. And the doctor, you know, psychiatrist goes, I know what you need, what you need to see. is you need to go and see this great clown. He's fantastic. He's Pegliacci. He's great. He'll lift your spirits up and you know, you'll feel

100% better after you go see him and and the depressed guy gets up on the couch and he goes, yeah, Doc, but I am Pegliacci. So that's, you know, that's the world that we live. We give, we give, we give, we give, but we also have to be very aware of when to it's okay not to give all the time.

It's okay to be selfish and look after yourself and look after others around you in your orbit. You know, because you have to keep that balance. Because if you keep giving, people will keep taking. You know, they may not be aware, but they'll keep taking. But you've got to know when to say, okay, I need this for me. I need to go here. I need to go away for a while.

I need to, I need to read. I need to, you know, learn how to play something different. I need, you know. That's why when I was doing that corner gas, that at the end of a season of Corner Gas, I'd talk to my artistic director friends. They'd go, hey, let's do something. Let's do a play.

So when I ended, I'd have a month off, and then I would do a play, which was totally different from my Davis character. And that was for me. That was for me because I needed to flex my other acting muscles. And it was a chance to play, you know, Sam Shepard's True West to play the Lee, the drifter, the hard guy.

Which was very interesting because when we did it, When I did it live in the theater, in the audience, the lights come up. And I knew this would happen. So I told the director, I said, you know, before we just start right into it, give me, let me have a bit of time up the top to establish to the audience that I am not the TV guy that you saw. I am not Davis on stage. And he was kind of like, really? And I go, yeah.

And it was. It came out and I could hear the tittering and oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I would, you know, down a beer really quickly and crush the can and you just throw it away and swear a little bit and then storm around and then we'd start to play. And people are like, oh, right, it's not the same. Okay, he's not, he's not playing Davis here. And then I would go and strangle and beat somebody up and stuff. So it was hard for people, because they love Davis is such a great character that they, you know, they had a hard, some people had a hard time just letting that go and go, oh, he can do other things. I want to get there, but I do want to ask about which emotion is the hardest to portray, to message out.

We all, I think, as audience members, think crying and emotion and sadness is the hardest one for people to portray on stage or on film. Which one, from your perspective, is the hardest to let out and to share? Yeah, being vulnerable is always a challenge, shedding tears on stage because it's very vulnerable. but you're opening yourself up and you're not criticizing, commenting yourself. So you're very vulnerable spot. And it's hard to do,

especially in a play where you have to do it, you know, eight times a week and twice on Wednesday and twice on Saturday or whatever, you know. So that's a hard one. And also, cute comedy is very effort.

If you don't. And it's always a chore and it's always exciting because you always get to build and try and find out, try and find out how you can try how a difference something is as small as like a shoulder shrug you get a big laugh at the shoulder shrug you get a bigger lap if you don't you know and so it's playing with those levels and seeing how you can how you can get the best journey out of this without without going overboard without being ridiculous you know how did corner gas come about

for you. Oh, I auditioned along with like 300 other people in Toronto. I walked into the room and there were all shapes and sizes there. There was male, female, you know, long hair and brown, white. So they were just looking for a combination, I guess, a blend. Because I went in and did a scene with another actor who I'd never met before. never worked with. We were paired together and auditioned as Davis and Karen in the one scene and the character, well, the gal who was doing, made some choices that were a bit like, I was like, oh, you're, you're, oh, okay, which is hard not to be affected by it, but I'm in the room. So I just, that's why I went, I use my clown training for Davis more to get into that state of just innocence, like experience for the first time. Everything was for the first time,

discovery for the first time. So that's where I was living, and this person was doing a caricature of a tough, of a tough broad. So it's kind of, so, you know, I just did my thing and tried to interact with the person there and just reacted to what they were giving and stuff. And I think when we, the way Davis was written was he was the sergeant dealing with a flighty rookie. He was the sergeant in charge dealing with a flighty rookie. That's the way it was written, as I recall. And then when we are first, when I finally got the job, I went to Regina and met

Tara Spencer Nairn, who played Karen for the first time. And we decided to walk to the studio together just so we can have a yap and visit and get to know each other a little bit in our, you know, four block walk to the studio. And somewhere in that walk, we somehow flipped it, where she became the grounded one in charge, and I was the flighty sergeant in charge, you know, and she was the real, she was the real smarter cop of the two, and I was like the flighty sergeant. So somehow we'd managed to flip the portrayals, and the writers and producers were like, oh, I guess, yeah, I guess that could work. And we're kind of like, yeah, you know, it just kind of came naturally, so it was lucky that way.

But yeah, I auditioned along with everyone else. And I was, I had one, one thing is I knew one of the producers that worked with him before. And he kind of like made sure I was always in a mix. And they were, that was the best thing they could have done, the producers, was to hire actors. Because because Brent coming from the stand-up comic world, he wanted to hire all his stand-up comedy buddies. But his, yeah, but his producer. the bosses, the producers, the brain said, you know, what you really want are actors

who can bring the characters more to life than telling jokes. You know, they may be good at telling jokes, but when you're playing your character, there's more to it than just saying your funny lines. And, you know, there's a whole bringing 3Ds to a two-dimensional character. So lucky Brent was smart enough to go,

okay, so that's when he, audition all this actors and you know we got to they got really lucky and cast eight eight people who we worked really well together and you know we had mutual respect for each other and and an incredible amount of skill between all of us so everyone had a lot of theater training and and knew their knew their business so it was it was fun to play with when you're working with a team of pros it makes a lot easier this is somewhat unique right because not very often do you go to a town somewhat in the middle of nowhere and film a show? Can you talk to us about the logistics of filming something like this? Yeah, it's a, it requires it's a big move. You have to,

because I was living in Toronto at the time, so I had to basically move to Regina for three, four months while we did the, uh, well, we did the show. We would base out of Regina and go to and drop to Rolo every day to work or down the street to the studios. So we had like a, uh, well, we did the show. So we had like a 60, 40 split, 60% was filmed in Rollo and 40% was filmed in studio. So there were days where it'd be like four or five days driving on

to Rollo all the time and then the other time would be in studio, which would be easier. Well, yeah, easier. Just a little more time. We'd be shooting in studio on set and stuff and you didn't work all the time. You didn't work eight days a week. We had eight days

to film a half hour episode is what it took us. And we did two half hour episodes at a time. So you're not working all the time. So sometimes you get two days out of the eight. And we were Monday to Friday, bankers hours, you know, and Monday to Friday, we long weekends up and stuff. So sometimes you might not work for like a week. It's just the way, how much your character played or not. And in that time, so you could, you could fly back to Toronto, go home for a little bit, which was very hard because the amount of travel takes it out of you too because it takes a while to get to the airport and then fly to Toronto and then

you're at home for two days and then you got to reverse it and come back and and it's like really because you were traveling so you know and then you come back why am I tired it's like because you didn't get any rest and it's like yeah okay but yeah so you know that's a schedule that you get on and you learn how to schedule your life around that kind of kind of demands and and it's It's, yeah, reading the script, so it's always important when you're doing, especially when you're doing TV because time is money in that world. There's no time and there's no chance for, oh, let's rehearse this forever and ever. It's like, no, no, you'll get two, three shots at it and then we're reporting it. So learn your lines, learn the blocking and be prepared, you know, don't think you're going to get time to learn your lines while you're there.

It's like, no, your job as the actors, to be prepared. so when you show up on set you know the scenes you're doing you know your lines and then you you can work but if you show up and they all i just learn it on the day it's like no then you're hamstringing everyone else you're hamstringing your your your uh scene partners the other actors you're working with because they're ready they're prepared if you think you know and then you're you're holding up a crew you got 150 people waiting around on you to learn your line so if that's your attitude then find a different line and work you know it's a team it's a team it's a team effort at the team sports.

Everyone has a job to do, and the crews do theirs incredibly well. You know, world-class crews. So you disrespect them if you're not prepared to do your part. So that's what actors should know is that there's other people involved. It's not all about you. I'm sorry to say. Who is Davis Quentin from your perspective? What do you see in the character?

Oh, he's, I love playing to him because, and he was a challenge because he is too dimensional character, right? You never find out where he's from. We never ventured down that road. We never ventured into his past life, like where he went to school or his love wives or anything like that. So he's very two-dimensional that way. So the challenge

was always how to make him three-dimensional without going into that other background. So that's where it was a joy to play in that innocence, because I just lived in the innocence, and he was passionate. He was very passionate about whatever came across his plate. It was you know organize a wedding oh yeah i love it you know right around the little cars yes be a member

oh yeah that's that's what he that's where he lived you know that's what he loved was that was the excitement of everything he was very whatever whatever crossed his plate so that's that's where i live was keeping that freshness alive in him in the innocence and the purity so he didn't swear he didn't you know he wanted to be part of the the the camera club he called it the security cam you know um so that was that was that was the that was the challenge in the treat of playing that guy was was uh bringing that alive and living in that because yeah you know he didn't know what was coming around the corner or what he thought he just knew that he loved it or he didn't it was exciting or it wasn't so you have the signature all right i have to know

where does this come from is this something you developed is this something that they proposed to you? How did that come about? That happened just the way I delivered it. It was just written all right, but I kept dragging it out and they were kind of, can you just make that little? And I went, no, because it's all right.

You know, it's exciting. This is what he wants to do. This is his joy. This is, this is, you know, that's his sign of something things are good when he's in the all right mode. It's exciting. Let's go. So I couldn't shorten it. I couldn't

I found myself trying a few times saying, all right. It's like, no, it needs that thing. And it turned into his tagline, which was unintentional. But it just fit and I just couldn't shorten it. It was just like, no, it's speaking for myself. It's speaking for Davis going, no, we don't say all right. We say, ah, right.

Exciting. Is there a point in time where you realize the impact that this is having on people across Canada, that this is really gaining traction with a source. strong community of people who really enjoy the show. Is there a point? There was, I think after the first season that aired, I was living in Toronto,

and I got to walk by laughing. Somebody walked by carrying the groceries. They looked at me when, what, what? Like, I didn't know. I didn't know how many people were, like, how it affected people. I had no idea.

But it would start happening more frequently. People would come up to me and they'd lean in very conspiratorially. You can go, hey, it's a great show, man. But the common thing I found out was a lot of people who loved it, especially in Toronto, were not from Toronto. They were from small towns all over Canada that reminded them of people they grew up with. They reminded them of their own town that they came from. A lot of urban centers are full of small town people, you know. And that's what the love for it.

You know, I had a police chief come up to me in a. in a hotel in Saskatoon and he leaned over and I wanted to make sure because I was I didn't want people to think I was making fun of the cops because they have a tough job as it is and I didn't want to be disrespectful to them in any way

so I said this is what I told the police people. It said I hope you're not offended or being offensive to your own. Actually you remind me of a lot of people I work with I went oh okay it's good and the taste

exercise or the taser episode we did. I've had like three or four cops come up and go, you know who else did it? This guy right here. He accidentally tased myself and was like, oh, I thought I just made something up. But no, it happened. These cops out there actually got tased. And that was, I think the most, well, heart wrenching things. I heard from people in the military.

And when they were in Afghanistan, they were, a couple of the members came up and said, you know, when we were being rocket attacks, we'd go into our bunkers and we'd have to stay there to we give the all clear something. We'd be there for hours.

And somebody would, you know, bring in a laptop and someone had a quarter gas disk. And they'd throw it in. They'd be laughing as they're being rocked. They'd be, they'd get a bit of home. And they would get laughter.

as they're being attacked by Raffles, you know, so it's just like, so they said, thanks. And I was just kind of like, wow, that's, that's, to me, that's my job. That's what we're there for is to bring, uh, entertainment, laughter. Laughter is good medicine. You know, we've had a lot of people who are ill or are going through a tough time in their life and they turned to corner gas for levity and escape and relief and just seeing goodness. And that's, and that's what I love about that show is, our character. were just the epitome of goodness, you know, having grandparents saying they loved it

because they could watch it with their grandchildren and laugh together, forming a new bond multi-generational level, you know, it's just like, wow, we did that, you know, the writers and the actors and their crew, we did that. We put that out there. We put our hearts into it and people received it. So it's just, it's an awesome gift to be part of that experience. That's beautiful. Can you tell me about the difference between doing that and the animated series. Obviously, you're more focused on your tone and your sounds. How different was that experience?

Well, the difference was that the writers were more unleashed because they could write scripts that they didn't have to worry about building sets. You know, they could talk about Sasquatch and unicorns and not worry about having to build where they live and stuff because they can just draw it out, right? So things got a little, little vain and funnier in the animated version, you know. I don't know if you see one, but they do a Mad Max thing with Oscar driving in the hockey mask. You know, and it's just like, that's brilliant, you know, so it's fun that way. And being in studio with those guys was a great chance to keep connected.

Because we'd be in Vancouver, a bunch of Austin, and then the other bunch would be in Toronto, know, and we just do it over the, uh, over the, over the, over the, over the airwaves. So it would be nice to get a visit in and everyone would be laughing and stuff. And then we'd do the episodes and then we, okay, see you next week for the other ones or see in a couple of weeks. And it was good. Was it hard for the chapter to close? It's come to an end now. There is no plans of as far as I know for this to continue. Was it hard to say goodbye to this character and to this, this chapter.

Yeah. It's hard because the memories and then the other missing being around. There's other great human beings that was parted for almost close to 20 years. There's, you know, and the characters, you miss the characters and stuff. But mainly I miss the crew and my other castmates, you know, we keep in touch now and again. Eric Peterson and I just did debaters for CBC You can check that out on their website There's Peanuts versus Pretzels

So it was a great chance to have a visit with Eric And then we got to play a little bit And it was awesome But yeah, and of course we missed Janet Wright As well who passed away And she was a big heart of it Big part and the big heart So you know missing her all the time

So yeah lots of good memories But, you know, it's, you know, now there's a whole generation, a new generation of corner gas fans, you know. It's mind-blowing sometimes going, hearing a 12-year-old kid saying, oh, you're my favorite character. I go, you weren't even around when we did this. Oh, okay. But it is, it's timeless. You know, you watch it over again, because you miss the jokes, some of the jokes the first time around, because the performances were pretty layered in a lot of them.

So some very fine, fine work by, you know, the cast there and how to tell story, how to tell a joke, how to set it up. And it was tons of fun, tons of fun to play. My last question sort of on the same note is just around your skills as an actor. You sort of already touched on it that you're multidimensional and you want to be able to showcase different styles, different approaches, different viewpoints, different characters. And sometimes I imagine you get,

typecast as Davis, as this individual. Was that a struggle at all? Was there ever a period where that was like, I don't want to just be this character. I am multi-dimensional. I'm capable of so many things. Was that ever a challenge? It's always a challenge. It's still a challenge now. And it's, yeah, I would turn down work that was, you know, it was comedy based, right after, especially after a season, I'd be offered something, you know, it's a comedy. And I've done comedy for the last six months I'm good I want to do something else and that's what I would go and look for the challenge I would go find it or make it myself for myself to do to exercise because I know what I needed but it's still hard you know it's it's it's still difficult to

get in this business it's very look oriented so it's hard to get out of the you know for an indigenous guy and it's like well are you looking for a human being when this age because I can play that guy. You know, it doesn't have to be an indigenous this or an indigenous that. It's like, I didn't want to be there. Can you say more on that? Because I think that that's really important that people understand that indigenous people or when you personify something, that you're not just that.

You are a multi-layered individual that's capable of so many different things. And I don't think we hear that very often. Yeah, no, it's something I keep working on. is to express, to find stories to tell and find different ways to tell it from a human universal nature. And that's what I keep, you know, hoping that people will understand is that these stories I like to share, stories I like to read are human stories. And I think that's, and if it is, you know, and there's ways that I can inject my creness into

things, that's what I do. That's where I come from. That's where I start my work from. but I don't focus it at all on the sweat lodge or the medicine wheel. It's like I'm more than that. I'm trying to get more into, yeah, just connecting with the humanity of the human species and telling stories and sharing great stories.

Like, you know, I like to, on my, we're starting getting a YouTube channel going And on that YouTube channel, I'll be sharing some sonnets, some scenes from Shakespeare plays and some stories from rigid Kipling or, you know, I'll lose long. Stories that by writers who influence me. Yeah, you know, and yeah. And talking more like with yourself here about, you know, just the humanity of things, you know, of just being talking about issues that affect every human beings. being on this planet. We all come from somewhere, but we also have the same emotional journeys.

We all have the same feelings, you know, the same wants and stuff. And yeah, most of my stuff, I'm just reading some notes. People go find myself on the YouTube channel, you know, getting my YouTube channel up and going at Lauren Cardinal. YouTube.com at slash Lauren Cardinal. I think that's how the kids say it. Yeah, for any of my social media that you can find, is that Lauren Cardinal. Pretty easy to find. Yeah, and those kind of things will link right to the YouTube.

Last question for you is around the Lorne Cardinal Theater. Yeah. Can you tell us about how this came about for you and what it means to you to have a theater named after you? Yeah, that was a huge honor and surprise because usually they name places after people who have passed. I was quite shocked and quite honored, you know, for Roxy Theater, the Theater Network Theater Company in Edmonton. So it's a beautiful spot, and it's just, it's a huge honor. So it just, I obviously been doing some things right. And I keep going down that path.

So keep trying to let people know and see that anything is possible. Everything is possible. If you want it bad enough, you can get it done no matter where you come from. You know, when I do talk to kids in schools and stuff, I let them know. I'm from Sucker Creek, Alberta, and I never thought I'd be, you know, know, working in movies with Al Pacino and, you know, Robin Williams and those kind of people. But once I found what I was meant to do, I went and pursued it to find out how I could be successful at it. And like in anything that people try to choose, training is the most

important thing. Learn your craft, learn your technique of whatever it is you're doing, whether it be a cook or a carpentry or a mechanic or whatever. There's technique and craft involved to be the best and that's all you and that's all I strive to do is just trying to be the best storyteller I can be the best um how I can contribute to this story I'm telling them I'm not when early in the business I was thinking about you know athletes and awards and reviews but it's not uh those things come or they don't but that's not why I'm in it so that I had to you know but it's it's a it's a thing it's a human thing to want to be recognized for what you do but i realized after a while that uh i don't worry about that i more worry about telling the story

more worried about telling the truth in in a great way because then the rest will come it'll take care of itself um i did i did a play in toronto and uh that was one of the things i was worried about because it was such a great play it was wonderfully written And I got to play this great ghost character. So I was doing all this stuff and I had longer hair. So I was using my hair and the performance and doing all this things. And I was and I was thinking about myself going, oh, man, I can't wait to see how they review it, what they'll say, what their theater people will say. And of course, the newspaper people came and they saw it.

And they went, oh, it's too heavy. They, you know, they could use some levity and it's just like, we can't win. We're trying to tell our story. And it's a heavy story. Yeah, because suicide happens a lot. in our communities you know and this is the story we're telling it's about these guys and it's about suicide

so so the newspaper people tell us where we should do more comedy and try and be funny and I was like all bummed out about it now it's this and then we're changing in this little back area just

separated by a blanket and this guy pops his head and he goes hey guys how are you doing And we're going, good? We're just changing. And he goes, yeah, yeah, no, I just wanted to say, thanks for the show. It means a lot, you know. And I'm like, yeah, good, good.

And he goes, yeah, yeah. Because my best friend killed himself, you know, a month ago. And we're kind of like, oh, she's sorry to hear that. He goes, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was thinking of doing the same thing. But now seeing your show, you know, I'm changing my mind about that. So thanks, thanks, guys. And then he was gone.

They were like, and for me right there is that that's the point. point. That's why I do it. That's why I tell the stories that I tell the plays that I do. Because you never know who's watching it. Who will be inspired? Who will, who will, you'll change a course of the life. That's why I've always, you know, when PI, I've always got time to say hello to somebody to stop for a minute to look at people because, you know, my dad taught me that. He was a medicine man, teacher, elder, wise guy. And, uh, and he did a lot of work with people and he always had a chance whenever you'd always have time to say hi to somebody who's on the street.

He says, because they're human beings. We're human beings. There's nothing that makes me better than him. He's having a hard goal. What's wrong with stopping to acknowledge his humanity, one human to another? Just to say, hey, or sorry or sorry to hear that. Or say, no, I don't have any money. Or just to acknowledge them as a human being is a gift.

So that, you know, those kind of teachings I keep in my brain goes, yeah, I just people put an effort to watch or something that I do and I'm grateful for them watching and if they get something from it, entertainment or a lap or a tear or whatever, thanks for coming along on the ride. I appreciate it. I'm glad I can help people out in times like that to ease their pain a bit or make them laugh or bring their family together. That's all, you know, it's a gift to be able to give them that opportunity.

to help people that way. I cannot thank you enough for being willing to do this. You're an absolute inspiration. All of your responses have been so thoughtful. I find your story and your journey really inspirational. And I think it's important that we highlight individuals like yourself who lift up a voice, share stories and encourage us to do the same. And I think we're just so lucky that there are individuals out there like you who are helping

people with their audiobooks, who are sharing positive stories and helping people find themselves on this journey and giving some people some solace. So thank you again for being willing to do this. I appreciate it. Thank you very much. And yeah, you know, getting a chance to work with Bruce McIver is it's another like I'm a history buff too. I love the history and especially our history because it is quite a wide breadth. And my family was involved in a lot of it back in the 60s. My dad, my grandfather, my Muslim and my uncle, they were all involved in the red paper back in the 60s and the 70s and my grandfather in the 40s

when the formation of getting indigenous rights recognized treaty rights going hey you guys haven't fulfilled your end yet back in the 40s when it was illegal for indigenous people to gather in groups of more than two and they went to Ottawa. A group of

Indians went to Ottawa in the 40s and made Parliament change the rule just so they could have come in as a delegation to say hey hey, you have it fulfilled our treaty rights for water, power, you know, housing, you know, basic necessities that they said they would. So, you know, we've been involved in that struggle,

and it's so continues to this day. So it's, you know, I come from a long line of people who work for the people. Lauren Cardinal, find him on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. Is there any other places people should go looking for you? Ah, just anywhere they want. Yeah, YouTube, Instagram. Yeah, and if you go to the YouTube channel, you can sign it. There's a link there to click and you'll get on to my North Carolina list.

Oh, yeah, subscribe at YouTube and then sign up at Lorne Cardinal. I'm getting more social media instructions here. Sure. Yeah, and all my social media can link to all the YouTube channel and everything gets on me there. Yeah, thank you. You know, B. You know,

You know,