Check it out, last night nos4a2no9 and primroseburrows and I got to see Paul talk about the State of the Arts and stuff in a lecture hall with only about 150 other people. ROCK.

As Nos has reported, he was pretty and fantastical, despite a Captain Obvious mod guy and deeply bad audio. The school was photographing and filming the lecture, probably for their own edification, but keep an eye on the interweb for that. You never know. My alma mater does podcasts of President's discussions, so. In the meantime I have about 26 minutes of shaky, blurry video for y'all that I'll upload tonight in some fashion. The audio is hearable, if riddled with the clicking of my zoom button and my giggles. But! You can see Paul and his gestures as well. \m/




This r not my picture. I snaffled it off the interweb. Mine are blurrier.

We learned, variously (working from my notes):

- Paul dropped math in Grade Eight, pretty much, and managed to convince every teacher at his new school that he hadn't had be required to do it at his last high school. Between that and the drama-taking crowd he often ran with, he was pretty much hosed for going into the sciences, so acting it was. :P

- He got just enough encouragement in his early years to become "fantastically arrogant" and keep on writing, which is sort of required because the critics will eventually destroy you and you have' to be able to deal.

- He still can't read reviews, but his Dad reads everything and calls him about it. "Now, Paul, I didin't think you were banal." Hee. (I have video for that story. Is adorable.)

- The X factor in having a successful acting career? "Stick-to-it-iveness." You remember the pains in the ass. And Paul is fantastically stubborn. Niv Fitchman is equally stubborn, and also crazy. *g*

- He became the Exec for Due South because it was offered to him and he was bored with the 20-hour days of hurry up and wait. ♥ Also it's super fun to be, like, "hey, we should do a pirate show" and have that be what you're doing now because you said so. ♥

- Did a curling movie not out of any interest in curling (knew nothing about it) but because a) you can't do a hockey movie in Canada without it getting political, and b) curling is fundamentally hilarious. They basically made everything up. He was bad at directing himself, because he felt pressure not to waste people's time... he only ever smiled in heads and tails footage (the film before and after cuts) so they had to put that in because he was so freaking dour all the time. He knew a little better by Passchendaele.

- He doesn't seem to like the Toronto film crowd, overall. A lot of "self-appointed intelligentsia" and an unwillingness to acknowledge the quality of a Canadian project until it garners interest somewhere else. (Though that a complex of the whole nation, really.) There's this needless dichotomy between obscure, artistically valuable versus popular, shallow entertainment that has us making art with subjectively narrow appeal and then complaining when it can't make money. (orly, sez I.)

- Q: "What made you want the role of Hamlet?"
A: "I don't know! It's Hamlet."
It's a life-changing part, but not fun so much as going to "the world's meanest, cruellest therapist." The Stratford season is epically long, about 90 public shows, and part way in he just started blacking out in scenes. Like not even remembering what he'd just come offstage from and having to ask people if he was doing all right or...? And he mentioned it to Brent Carver at the time, who was like "Oh, yes. That'll go on for a while. And then you won't trust anybody." Which apparently was trufax. Paranoia all over the place.

He wouldn't do it again (I got the impression that meant any Stratford Shakespeare), but it was awesome. You can't "do Hamlet" anyway, so the corollary is you can't fail. (Special note to secretlybronte: I hear what you mean about the way he says corollary. I can pronounce it, though.)

- He's still deeply, deeply amused by his "Breakfasts with Billionaires" idea, but it's even better when he does the impressions of Ralph Klein ("Yeah!") and an unnamed oil baron who's obsessed with gay ducks. (I have this on video. Is pretty awesome.)

- As reported, the internet is causing Hollywood movie industry and TV everywhere, as we know it, to implode. Coupled with the recession, a third of all workers in TV and movies are going to be out of a job by March because it's all so insanely expensive, and they're still trying to figure out how best to monetize the internet. Post-box office earnings are in the tank -- no one is renting much, so how do you replace that? TV is harder because you can only estimate who you're reaching. The numbers are getting meaningless, so is the ad revenue.

- Government finance, while still inadequate, is pretty stable, so we're still trucking along at status quo. ;)

- His current projects are the Western show ("Gunless"?) that's not filming quite yet, and he's writing a 13-ep show called "Second Jerusalem" which is about 13 days leading up to the adoption of a comprehensive peace plan in Israel. Which, way to take on the lighthearted subjects, there, Paul. It's going to be expensive. It's not something he can slap on Youtube, he needs helicopters. How is this sort of thing going to be supported as the media industry shifts? On Due South at it's most expensive, they were spending $2 million an hour. On Deadwood they spend 5 million. Band of Brothers, at its peak, was spending 15-20 million. An hour. How do you recoup that, ever?

- Independent film can't make money any more. The odd one breaks out, but still. The average box office is half a million. There are only three or four dedicated indy cinemas in a city the size of Toronto so... what the hell? It's probably all going to move to branded internet content or something. Smaller and cheaper, like old TV before they started using all the expensive cinematic tricks on regular shows.

- That's all I've got in the notebook here. I have a bit more in video. :D?


So, in conclusion, Paul is terribly thinky and adorable with the flaily gestures, and very gracious and intelligent when responding to Captain Obvious and students. Also, he needs a haircut. We three didn't hang around to bother the guy, being shy fangirls all. The ladies in front of us totally had magazines and copies of the Passchendaele novel to sign. I sort of laughed at them even though I totally had my premiere ticket stub in my wallet JUST IN CASE. Oh, you would, too, shh.

Also, he's going to be on The Hour on the 27th! Nos, we should see about going to THAT, y/y?