June 15, 2025 • 51 mins
Behind the curtain of Hollywood glamour lies a world where relationships and human creativity remain paramount, even as technological disruptions reshape the industry. Talent agent Jason Norris pulls back that curtain, giving us a rare glimpse into the fascinating dynamics of actor representation and what makes careers in entertainment truly flourish.
When Jason founded his Toronto-based talent agency YCAA in February 2020—just weeks before the pandemic changed everything—he brought a revolutionary approach to talent management. Rather than adopting the volume-based, transactional model common in the industry, he built his agency on deep relationships with a carefully curated roster of actors. "It became really apparent to me that there was a lot of ownership on the parents to understand what the expectation was, and a lot less management," Jason explains about his experience seeking representation for his daughter, which ultimately inspired him to create the agency he couldn't find.
The conversation navigates through several compelling territories—from the unlikely blessing of launching during lockdown (which allowed YCAA to pioneer virtual "Meet the Pros" sessions connecting actors with industry leaders) to the delicate financial ecosystem that makes international film production possible. Jason breaks down how tax incentives and exchange rates drive decisions about where films are made, creating a symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and production hubs like Canada and Scotland.
Most reassuring for creative professionals is Jason's perspective on AI. Drawing from recent conversations at the Canadian Screen Awards, he shares industry consensus that while artificial intelligence will find its place in production processes, it cannot replicate "the heart that we have inside of each other, the stories, the actual real-life stories that we've lived, and the emotion that came with that." This human element—the perfectly imperfect quality of authentic storytelling—remains irreplaceable.
Whether you're an aspiring actor wondering what agents really look for, a filmmaker curious about production economics in a global market, or simply a lover of film and television wanting to understand the industry better, this episode offers valuable insights from someone who's built a thriving agency by seeing the humanity behind the business. Subscribe now and join our conversation about the past, present, and future of storytelling on screen.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Hot lights fade the curtains rise, new stories
waiting behind our eyes.
Charlotte and John with thefinal say.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Breaking down the screens in their own way.
This is the final cut, wherethe real reviews ignite.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello there, everyone , and welcome to another episode
of the Final Cut.
Before we start today, I wantyou to have a look or, if you're
listening to us, have a listento this this the hottest thing
(00:49):
tonight the Final Cut podcast.
So it looks just like a typicalscene from Hollywood Actors
doing what they do best Awardceremonies, chat shows, glitz
and glamour.
But here's the thing none ofthese are real.
None of these people thatyou've seen are real.
(01:10):
They were generated this weekby Charlotte as part of our
adverts for this upcomingpodcast, generated on the new
Google VO3 system that allowsphotorealistic simulations of
on-screen talent.
So today we're going to explorethat and a number of other
(01:32):
issues relating to the futureand the current state of
on-screen talent in the film andtelevision industries, and with
us.
I'm delighted to be joined byJason Norris, who is based in
Toronto in Canada, and is themanaging partner and senior
talent agent at YCAA in Toronto,which he co-founded.
Now, jason began his careerstudying communications at the
(01:53):
University of Ottawa.
I have sympathy.
I used to teach media andcommunications in Glasgow and
then Jason went on and went intoadvertising, first at Montreal
and then, preferring a warmerclimate, in Toronto.
But since 2018, jason's beenworking in talent representation
(02:14):
in Toronto and, with a band ofloyal actors and a couple of
interns to help him, he decidedto launch YCAA, his talent
agency, in February 2020.
An interesting time to do so,just as COVID was hitting and
we'll maybe touch on that a bitlater.
Now, ycaa has become one of thefastest growing agencies in
(02:35):
Canada for talent in televisionand film, and it's established
itself as a really sought-afteragency, and some of its talent
has been seen on major TV seriesthat have aired on Netflix, hbo
and CBC, which is Canada'snational broadcaster.
So, jason Norris, welcome tothe final podcast.
(02:55):
Delighted to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much, john.
I feel like we have nothingleft to talk about.
You said it all right there inthat introduction.
It was quite amazing, thank you, and hi, charlotte, thanks for
having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, so you know, great, greatvideo.
The AAI thing that you startedthe video with is quite
interesting.
Right, there's a lot of, andit's funny that you bring up,
(03:24):
like you know, the awardceremony, because we just had
the Canadianadian screen awardshere.
So the csa's um, so the lovelypictures.
Yes, thank you.
Uh, we, so I was.
I was obviously at that tosupport, uh, our talent and also
I am a voting member of theacademy, so I'm part of the
academy, um and um.
You know, obviously it doesn'tget on to the broadcast as much.
(03:46):
There were a couple speechesabout the AI threat, but a lot
of you know the pre-gala, thepost-gala ceremonies.
There was a lot of chatterabout.
Ai keep coming up amongst majorindustry people, people like
network executives, studioexecutives, directors, producers
(04:10):
, all of these people was that,yes, there will be a place for
AI in movie, in terms of maybehelping to get color correction
done quicker or that sort ofthing.
But the one thing that AI stillcan't really replicate and I'm
not sure it will ever be able tois the heart, the heart that we
(04:32):
have inside of each other, thestories, the actual real-life
stories that we've lived, andthe emotion that came with that,
and the heart that we have todescribe that.
And I think that that's the artof cinema and I think that I
honestly don't see that beingreplaced anytime soon.
(04:53):
And that was the major narrativeat the post and pre-ceremony at
the KDX Green Awards, amongstall these executives, where, you
know there's no sense infighting AI.
It is here to stay, but it willnever replace filmmakers, it
will never replace storytelling,it will never replace, you know
(05:14):
, proper narrative that wasthought out and, you know,
perfectly imperfect.
You know, sometimes that's justwhat we love as humans, right?
So so it's interesting that youstart the show with that,
because it certainly I was inthe real life version of that.
The award ceremonies this thispast week, fortunate enough to
(05:36):
you know, have the opportunityto celebrate a couple of awards
with some of my, you know, myclosest colleagues and friends,
and, yeah, I think that it's ahot topic.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, absolutely, and it will be maybe more topical
and, as you say, I believe thatthere's always a role for the
heart and you can never maybetake away some of the creative
elements, because I can'treplicate that and that's not.
You're absolutely right there.
I just want to take you back abit and you describe yourselves
(06:11):
a lifelong student story.
Where is your passion?
Where did you start wanting totell stories?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, so I, you know, funny enough, I was really into
my whole life, like very earlyon, I think from the age of 12.
So I've always loved cinema,right, I think I was probably 13
or 14 when Wayne's World cameout.
Wayne's World, and I probablywatched that movie over 100
(06:43):
times between the ages of youknow, in my teens I just, I,
just obsessed with it.
I was a big fan.
You know, mike Myers, canadian,snl, canadian, you know,
founded by a Canadian, so it was.
It was kind of it was thatthing right, where you know, I'm
, I'm, I'm on the smaller,smaller side.
(07:04):
So I wasn't very good at sportsin school, uh, and you know, to
be completely honest, I justgravitated towards the, the arts
and the visual arts.
More precisely, I wasn't muchof a drawer, although I fancied
I could do it.
Um, and communication for mealways came somewhat easily.
(07:25):
And, uh, you know, I was a bigreader, like an avid reader.
However, I never and this isshocking, but I've never read
like Harry Potter or I don'tread much fiction.
Most of the books that I'veread are all nonfiction and in
fact, most of the time when Iwas 13, 14, 15, I was reading,
(07:47):
like you know the art ofadvertising or I was reading you
know the biography of DavidOgilvie, right, I was obsessed
with advertising and I alwaysthought I'd be an ad man.
And, john, thanks for theintroduction.
You mentioned that I did startin advertising.
That's where I come from.
I was an ad person on theproduction side at first and the
(08:09):
art of storytelling really cameto me through the art of copy
the words on the page and Ithought that they're really
important, they're extremelyimportant in short form
advertising, and I really fellin love with communication, all
(08:30):
forms of communication,storytelling and short form
advertising at a very early age.
So I've always loved that.
And to blend, you know,communication with storytelling
is is really the art ofadvertising.
So that's where I started.
Uh, I really did think thatthat's where my career would
(08:52):
have been and you know, for 10years I was, I was doing that
and very happily and verysuccessfully and uh and yeah, so
I I have to accredit, um, my,my love for storytelling to, uh,
to the art of the word, justcopy.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah.
So what occasioned the shiftover into on-screen talent and
acting, and particularlylaunching February 2020, which
was, I think, a month beforeCOVID hit all of us around the
world, so that must have beenquite a ride yeah, so there's
two questions there, john and uh.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The first question I'll answer uh, the shift became
so.
Again, working in advertisementon, uh, on the production side,
many times I would I would dealwith actors and they would come
in and they were always amazingpeople, just the salt of the
earth kind of people, right,very creative, very optimistic,
sometimes to a fault, right, toooptimistic.
(09:52):
And a lot of times they wouldcome and there would be, you
know, I was very fascinated withthe dynamics, the behind the
scenes, like, oh, you're anagent, how's that work?
And the agency.
And and to my surprise, a lotof times they came back and said
, well, we, we don't really talkto our agent that much right
(10:14):
here in canada and I think it'ssimilar in the uk.
Um, the relationship-based, umagent actor, um narrative that
you see in Hollywood does notreally exist.
Right, it doesn't really exist.
The Jerry Maguires of the worlddon't really exist.
What really does exist is youhave many, many, many actors on
(10:38):
your roster, some of whom youdon't talk to for months, and
then you just admit them and youknow, if you have 10 people
that look like you, john, you'repraying that one of them will
book the role right.
And that was kind of veryshocking to me because I was
like well, here's an opportunityto build a relationship with
(11:00):
someone, an actor, an asset thatwould bring you money.
Why wouldn't they want to keepcommunication higher?
Why wouldn't they want to buildthat relationship, get to know
their actor?
So the first aha moment I hadabout how there might be an
opportunity to improve things inthis industry, in this
landscape, talent representationcame to me early on, when, when
(11:23):
I was in advertising and justspeaking candidly with actors,
uh, you know, during, duringproduction and set, not on those
set days so that's when thefirst time, um, the transition
started motioning.
But the big pivot, the bigmoment was when I need, I needed
to uh, you know, we needed toshoot a public service
(11:46):
announcement.
It was a low budget thing, itwas for the city, they didn't
have that much money.
So, of course, what do you doin those scenarios?
You look within your networkand we needed a young lady who
had a cheery, chippy voice thatcould deliver, speak properly.
So I said I have a daughter,she speaks very well, she's
(12:06):
articulate.
Let's see if she could do it.
So I went home, gave her thescript and I said, hey, could
you record this on your iPhoneor like an iPhone on mom's
iPhone?
And she did it and her voicewas so cute and cartoony and
perfect.
And then I just brought it tothe team and they're like, wow,
she's amazing.
So we hired my daughter forthis public service announcement
(12:30):
.
It was to do with backyardcomposting.
If you want to know the detailsabout it, her first acting job
was backyard composting and howit's very good for you know.
So it was amazing, it's quitelovely.
And she did it, she liked it,she got paid.
That was her first time she gotpaid.
I think she's eight years oldat this point and you know,
(12:51):
getting money was like wow, Iget paid to do this.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
This is amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So and then, a few weeks after that, another
production contacted me and said, hey, we are doing a music
video.
Do you think your daughterwould do it?
Because you know, let's behonest, she was.
She was cheap labor.
Right, I could deal with mydaughter and say, yeah, she'll
do it for for this amount ofmoney, right, it was cheap labor
(13:16):
.
So she did it again, knocked itout of the park.
You know the music video hasfour actors.
She plays the younger versionof the park.
You know the music video hasfour actors.
She plays the younger versionof the artist.
She plays the younger versionof the artist lost in the woods.
And it's amazing, she did agreat job.
And then she did another musicvideo and here things were
starting to get serious.
(13:37):
So I said, you know, okay, likewhat are we going to do?
And I asked her is thissomething you'd really like to
do?
Acting right, like what are wegoing to do?
And I asked her is thissomething you'd really like to
do?
Acting right, is this somethingyou're passionate about?
And she's like oh, absolutely.
So I did what most people do andI set up some meetings, uh,
with as many agents that I could.
Uh, I started with my networkof people I knew in the
(13:59):
advertising world, advertisingworld and I said I'm looking for
, you know, an agent for mydaughter.
She's this age and this is whatshe's done.
And I got a list of, uh ofagents who I contacted and most
of them were, you know, graciousenough to email me back and
show interest.
So I did what we're doing rightnow, you know, just a little
(14:20):
bit of a chat, a little zoom,and, uh, it became really
apparent to me that it was.
There was a lot of um ownershipon the parents, uh, to
understand what the expectationwas, and a lot less management,
managerial um, like a lot lessum, how do you say?
(14:46):
Like a lot of it was left tothe talent and their parents to
unravel and to figure out.
And I felt like that was reallyinteresting.
And the line that kept comingback was always like, well, we
only get 15% commission, soyou're expected to do 85% of the
work.
And I was like, wow, that'ssuch an interesting thing to
(15:09):
look at.
So, and what I did is veryJerry Maguire I went home, I had
a bad slice of pizza and Iwrote down a list of my ideal
agency or agent for my daughter.
What I was looking for a littlemore communication, a little
less of a transactional,volume-based agency.
I wanted something that was alittle smaller, maybe more
(15:30):
boutique, someone that couldmaybe help us understand the
expectation, maybe have someresources to guide us and help
us understand how to do you knowbetter or how to improve our
skills, and that kind of thing,and not necessarily like an
acting class, but someone whocould refer acting classes and
who could help my daughter andmyself, you know, through this,
(15:55):
through this really bizarre andnot talked about industry, right
, try and figure it out a little, make it less daunting.
Talked about industry, right,try and figure it out a little,
make it less daunting.
And, um, and I sent that to thesame people that, uh, that that
I knew in my contact and theyall came back sort of laughing
at me and saying you're lookingfor a unicorn, jason you know
that doesn't exist.
(16:15):
You're, you're so, and that'sreally when I decided to start.
I said, well, what if I didthis, if I did this exact agency
where we focused on, you know,quality over quantity of actor,
instead of having hundreds ofactors, maybe we have less and
maybe we focus on buildingrelationships and getting to
know them so we could, you know,pitch them better.
(16:37):
Maybe we could give themresources, like share
communications with them and letthem know what's going on in
the industry, give them a littleupdate sometimes so they're not
wondering why they're notgetting auditions.
They understand that there's astrike or they understand that,
like, you know, the currentclimate, like the tariffs are
affecting uh, you know uh,projects being greenlit because
(16:59):
of the uncertainty.
They understand all this like.
So I did that.
I decided in 2015, 2017, reallyto start putting the you know
the plan in place and to educatemyself as much as I can.
Um, you know, there took, youknow, ucla management,
(17:21):
entertainment management classes, like, did, did the work to
prepare myself and, as you said,john, I was ready to launch.
Everything was good to go and,in an advertising marketing
aspect, we were ready to launch.
We were ready to go and we did,and literally a month later,
the whole world shut down.
It was the pandemic, and talkabout putting the wind out of
(17:46):
your sails, right, charlotte.
But, um, but that turned out tobe a blessing, uh, the, because
it allowed us to think like wewere just starting out as an
agency.
So, um, you know, one of thethings that we decided to do is
we were very concerned.
Emma Ryan, she's Irish, she wasborn in Ireland, moved to
(18:12):
Canada and joined the agency.
Emma Ryan and I were, you know,we were very aware that there'd
be a lot less productionsbecause everything was shut down
, things were getting canceled,things were getting paused, and
we also understood that there'sgoing to be a lot more actors
available for any job, becausepeople were losing their retail
jobs, people were losing theirbartending jobs, because stores
were shutting down, you know,bars were closing up, so in the
(18:35):
pubs.
So a lot of people went back towhat they knew from before and
a lot of them had tried acting,you know, earlier on in their
career.
So they, they, they said, ohwhy, why not try now?
So they, there was an influx ofactors, you know, and and a
downgrade of production.
So one of the things that wedid and this is because of the
(18:57):
pandemic.
We reached out to our contactsagain.
You know casting directors,working actors that we knew and
respected, instructors, teachersthat we knew, directors, and we
just said, hey look, we allhave a lot of time on our hands,
we're all at home.
I'd love to jump on, you know,a Zoom with you guys, very much
(19:21):
like a little bit of a podcast,like a YCAA private members only
podcast or what you, what wecalled it meet the pros.
Right, we called it meet thepros, and every month we we had
someone of value, someone thatcould move the needle forward,
come and speak to our actorsexclusively for free and just
(19:44):
out of the kindness of theirheart, which we're extremely
grateful for and we hadbasically everyone you could
potentially think of in theCanadian industry and some in
the US as well.
So it was a blessing actuallyto start our agency then,
because you know, the thing thatkept coming up in these
(20:05):
meetings and the meet the promeetings were, like you're the
first agency to do this.
I was like oh, weird, like oh,okay, that's just what we
thought we should do is to.
I thought our job was toconnect our actors to people
that could help them build, getopportunities.
That was literally the jobdescription of an agent is to.
(20:25):
You know, ari Manuel, one ofthe most famous agents in the
world.
Ari Manuel is famously quotedto saying that his job is to
make serendipity happen, and Ithink that that's a very good
description of how an agentworks or should work, and I've
always had that model as anagent, where I, all of my actors
(20:47):
, have the skill.
What they don't have is theydon't know the right people.
So it's my job to make themmeet the right people so they
can showcase their skill set.
So that's one of the thingsthat came from the pandemic is
these meet the pro things and,uh, you know, it's been amazing
with the feedback that we'vereceived, both from the guests
(21:08):
that come on and also our actorsthat have gotten amazing value
from it.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
So, yeah, that was one of the things sounds
fascinating if I take you backthen to your.
What is the role of the, ofyour talent?
And also, what do you think isthe biggest misconception people
have when they come into that?
Maybe that they will get moneystraight, like they will get the
role straight away on Broadwayor in Toronto.
(21:37):
You know what kind ofmisconception do they have and
how do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah.
So you know, this industry isnot for the faint of heart,
that's for sure, and I think ittakes a special kind of person.
And I've gotten to know myactors very well and they all
have this, this uniqueinfant-like quality.
(22:03):
And I say it's infant-like andI think we should more people
should have it, because I'mhighly pragmatic and when you're
pragmatic you constantly sortof reverse engineer the
opportunity, but you're alsoassessing risk and you're
assessing the plausibility ofthe opportunity.
(22:26):
That's just how I am and Ithink a lot of people are like
that.
So when I see that there is onerole available, you know for,
let's say, the Handmaid's.
Tale, there's one role availableand there's about 800 actors
that are being submitted forthat role from agents.
(22:48):
So 800 actors, one roleavailable and most of the time
out of those 800, you'llprobably get 20 who get an
audition.
So out of that 20, there'sgoing to be five or four that
are presented to the producers,directors and executives right.
(23:09):
So now you have one in fourchance maybe of getting it, but
the reality is you have one in800 chance of getting it and
that's what I see.
Right away, as the pragmaticperson, I am Like there's no
chance, like why are we eventrying?
But with actors, they only seethe one in a million chance.
(23:32):
They have this unique abilityof saying why not me?
And I think that you need thatquality to be an actor.
So to be an actor, you needthat quality to be an actor.
So to be an actor, you needthat quality.
To be an agent is to run withthat quality, run with that
actor, try and manage it, tryand manage expectations, because
(23:54):
it is very, very difficult.
It is incredibly competitive.
The reality is, if you're anactor, you will probably get um,
if you're very, very, verysuccessful, you'll probably get
20 to 25.
In the current climate thatwe're in right now 20 to 25
(24:15):
auditions per year.
20 to 25 auditions per year.
These could be anywhere from uma leading role, a supporting
role, or it could be a day rolewhere you're just playing a day
player um a lot of times.
Funny, funny story.
A lot of times.
When people ask me what I dofor a living, I say I represent
(24:38):
actors and they're like, oh,anyone I know.
And I'll say do you know brad?
And they're like, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I know Brad.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Pitt.
I'm, like I represent theperson who speaks to Brad Pitt
in that scene, so that'sbasically how it is so many many
people who are listening rightnow or are watching on YouTube.
They've seen my actors andactresses many times.
They're usually the ones thatare part of the scene talking to
(25:05):
the lead actor or thesupporting actor.
Many of the actors that we have, um, you know, yeah, of course
we do have, like some, some youknow, reoccurring stars, uh,
like chrissa moran, she, youknow, she was on all seasons of,
uh, the handsmaid's tale, uh,for all the Handmaid's Tales out
there fans, and we have, youknow, dante, who was on the
(25:27):
Umbrella Academy, as you know, aregular, and we do have those
people that are sort ofrecognizable, but for the most
part, the actors that we haveare there for a couple of days.
They're in two or three scenesand and that's it.
So we have they're calledworking actors and that's what
(25:48):
we have.
We have the ones that that are,are, are working the scene with
the rest of the, with the maincast, right, so, yeah, so to be
an agent is to try and reallymanage the expectation of the
actor, because every actorthinks that they can book every
single role and it is part ofyour job as an agent to not
(26:13):
totally squash that idea but tomanage it properly to say you
know well, yes, you did a greataudition, but the truth is is
they've changed directions.
You're a white 15 year old boyand they've hired a black family
(26:35):
for the main characters, soyou're not gonna fit the family
right so they're like oh right,so so lot of times, you know,
when they do a great audition,they think why didn't I get it?
And a lot of times they did do agreat audition, they just
didn't get it because theydidn't match the family or they
didn't match the exact characterdescription that they were
(26:55):
looking for.
So so there's a lot of a lot ofmanaging, not egos, because I
don't.
I haven't met many actors thathave huge egos.
I have met many actors thathave the confidence that they
could do this very well.
That's different, it's not anego, it's having confidence and
I think you need that.
So managing that properly is ispart of my biggest
(27:20):
responsibility with my actorsand I would say, uh, a second
closest, most importantresponsibility is making those
meetings happen talking about mytalent to casting, talking to
my talent when I'm at the awards, um, you know, to producers and
directors and networkexecutives, and and trying to
(27:41):
make those opportunities happen.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, and obviously you're based in Canada, which is
a smallish country, maybe notby landmass but by population,
that has a big neighbor downsouth, very similar to our
situation in Scotland withEngland, the more dominant
neighbor down south.
So you work not just in Canadabut also across into the United
(28:08):
States, so can you maybe talk usthrough how that relationship
is changing?
You mentioned, for example, thethreat of tariffs earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Sure, absolutely.
That's a really intuitive view,john, I can speak on that
really simply in a way that Ithink your audience, who are
fans of movies and storytelling,could understand quite clearly.
And when I'm I'll talk aboutthe canadian side, because I
know that a little more, butunder understand that screen
(28:36):
scotland and telefilm telefilmcanada are are one in the same.
They're very similar companiesthat are trying to actively
promote uh film makers, uh localfilmmakers to to make their
their stories come to life right.
So I I understand that properly,but the way that canada has
(28:57):
operated um a lot with the US,since we're so close, is we have
been a lot of a serviceindustry to them.
The thing with a movie let'stalk about how a movie gets made
and why they would go to aplace like Scotland to shoot and
why they would go to a placelike, you know, toronto or
(29:18):
Vancouver in Canada here toshoot it is not they're not
doing that because of a charity,they're not doing that because
they a charity.
They're not doing that becausethey are like, oh, we're going
to help this country out andthis film industry out.
They're doing it for, you know,multiple reasons, the landscape
being one of them.
Imagine Braveheart not being inthe Highlands, right, you just
can't.
You can't shape that narrativethat the landscape brings to
(29:42):
that story.
However, beside thestorytelling aspect, there is a
real life business behind that,the entertainment business.
You know it's show business,right?
So how does that workpractically?
Well, movie makers.
Filmmakers just want to maketheir movie and a lot of times
(30:04):
they don't want to compromisethe quality of the movie and the
idea that they have in theirhead oftentimes costs more than
they really think it will.
So a filmmaker from the US, forexample, from California.
Let's take a movie like,example, happy Gilmore.
For example, happy Gilmore,movies of that budget, right
(30:27):
when they're like between the$15 million to $20 million
budget Permits to close downstreets, super expensive.
Permits for everything to makea movie, super expensive that
bill alone is incredible.
And the equipment, the crews,the cast, the catering, you know
, the craft services all ofthese things costs a lot of
(30:47):
money.
So when you're budgeting yourmoney you try and get someone
who can finance the movieproperly.
And part of financing isfiguring out how you can
leverage the tax incentivesprovided by your country and
other countries.
So, for example, there is a taxincentive that you get in the
(31:10):
US.
I want to say it's the 168.
It's something like that.
It gives you a huge tax breakon your movie If you produce the
movie, if your movie is made70% 70% in the US, and that is
(31:30):
easily done because the scriptis written by an American in the
US.
You know the special effectsare done in Santa Monica, the
post-production is done in LosAngeles, some of it's done in
Atlanta.
So it's very easy to do 70% ofyour movie.
Now you get a tax break fromthe US government and they give
(31:51):
you a tax break to help youreduce the cost of your overall
movie.
Then you look at a place likeCanada where your dollar, as an
American, goes very far rightFor every dollar.
Your dollar is worth $1.30 inCanada.
It's right next door, it's ashort drive or a short flight
away.
We speak the very same language, so there's no foreign policies
(32:15):
or you know foreign languagethat you'd have to deal with.
So it's very, very easy forthem to say, hey, we still have
30% of the movie that we canshoot elsewhere.
And that's what happens, isthey come to places like
Vancouver, toronto, winnipeg orMontreal, even Calgary, and they
come and they shoot for a month, you know, a couple weeks here.
(32:39):
And what happens then is ifthey come here and they shoot
for, let's say, a month, now ifthey employ 70 percent of tax
paying residents.
So that means actors, localactors that come from ycaa, uh,
cast and crew, uh, that are arelocal paying, and our cast and
(33:01):
crew both in Scotland and inCanada are world-class.
We both have the trust of thefilm industry.
So, it's not a big deal cominghere and using our casts and our
crew.
So if they employ 70% of localtaxpaying actors and cast, they
(33:22):
get another tax benefit here inCanada it's up to $250,000
deducted for their movie and nowtheir dollar is worth more.
So their $20 million budget nowthey have like $24, $25 million
to play with.
That makes a lot of thingshappen and that's exactly how a
(33:43):
lot of movies have happened.
A lot of movies came to lifebecause of that exact financial
structure, those incentives andwhat now?
The tariffs that were proposed,but will never happen because
they've had time to think aboutit and said, oh, oh, but, like
when they had mentioned that itwould have to be a hundred
(34:05):
percent made in america and nolonger 70.
Well, that takes a lot likethat.
That just kills industries likescotland.
Uh, like you know, europe and,and honestly, like canada, would
be wiped out because we we, weup until now have have thrived
(34:25):
and survived on being a serviceindustry to california.
Um, and I think that what,after careful, carefully looking
at it, it wouldn't necessarilydeteriorate filmmakers from
leaving america.
They would just go further toplaces where labor is extremely
(34:45):
cheap, like Korea, right, likeplaces like that, so where it's
a foreign language, but thelabor is so cheap that it
justifies the tariff that theywould be hit with If they went
to Scotland or if they came toCanada, they could no longer
justify that tariff.
It would increase the budgetsubstantially.
(35:07):
So the way that things areworking now is great, and
filmmakers both in the US andthe rest of the world Scotland
and Canada being at theforefront of that are benefiting
from this model.
It's worked for years, and whywould you want to change it just
to make it America, 100%American?
Sometimes it's nice to blendthings together, right,
(35:30):
especially when we have similarcultures and we speak the
language and our crews and castcan do it.
Why not?
Why not have a communion likethe film industry?
Why not have a communion likethe film industry?
I think it's a superwell-intertwined oil to machine
and it shouldn't change.
So the threat of 100% wouldabsolutely devastate the
(35:54):
Canadian and the UK industry.
So I'm glad that they've put apause on that.
But you never know, with thisadministration in the States,
tomorrow they could bring itback up and then there we go
again.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Absolutely.
I agree with that.
A film has always been verycollaborative and even with
Sweden, where I come from, itcertainly has been a lot of
collaboration with bits of theworld.
But I want to take you back abit and ask you about when you
talk about you you can save.
Is there any particular momentyou're particularly proud of
(36:29):
where your agency went in andsay said we was almost able to
save the film, or say that youwere able to provide the actors
that rescued the project?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
well, I mean the saving.
The saving is in thenegotiations, right, like when
you negotiate contracts andstuff like that.
You can certainly try andnegotiate fairly for your actors
.
But I'll take you back to whatI'm really proud of.
One moment that I'm very, veryproud of is one of the things
that I do, and I don't thinkthis is unique to me, but it
(37:00):
might be.
I don't know.
Again, I'm not sure how everyagent operates in Canada, but I
know how I operate and what I dois, as soon as someone signs
with me, we have what we call akickoff call, again another one
of these zoom calls, and we jumpon and it's.
It's really funny because Ialways ask them a question that
(37:24):
makes them blush, right, and Isay now forget anything, forget
limitations, and let's say wecould get any role you want in
any movie with any director andany project you want.
Please tell me what would thatbe?
I ask that questionstrategically for two reasons.
(37:45):
I ask it because I want to knowwhat my client because they are
my clients what they want me tolook out for them and I also
look.
I also ask it because, um, itgives me an opportunity, when
the moment is right to pick upthe phone.
So, and that's the, that's thepart that I'm very happy with
here we go.
So I'm sitting here with one ofmy actors.
(38:07):
You guys can look him up.
His name is James Raynard.
James Raynard is an amazingactor.
He's been in a lot of Hallmarkmovies.
James is going to kill me tosay this, but he's always the
one that gets dumped or left inthe Hallmark movies.
So unfortunately, he's alwaysthe love interest, the triangle.
(38:28):
But so one of my first meetingswith him and this was a really
great moment for me because hecame from a much bigger agency,
james came from an agency and hewas just intrigued by the way I
did things and we had thismeeting I I asked him you know
we spoke for you know, usuallythese kickoff calls go for about
(38:48):
20 minutes, half an hour, andthis one went on and on and on.
We were getting along famously.
And I asked him.
I said, james, I'm gonna askyou like, what do you want to
like?
What's the dream role?
What can I get you as youragent, where you'd be like, wow,
that's amazing.
Now picture a pretty buff, youknow, pretty good looking, white
(39:12):
26.
I think he was 26 year old atthe time.
Picture that guy.
You probably have three ideasof what movie he's going to pick
and he's like, so he startsblushing and I'm like what's up?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
He's like no, I don't want to tell you he's going to
pick and he's like so he starts.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
He starts blushing and I'm like what's up?
He's like no, I don't want totell you it's going to be
embarrassing, I don't?
It's so, so silly I was like no, james I.
I need to know what this movieis.
What?
What can I get you?
I want to be an Avenger.
And I was like, of course youwant to be an Avenger.
I was like that would have beenmy first guess.
He's like I told you you'd belike.
(39:47):
I was like no, james, I'm sohappy you told me that.
Thank you, I appreciate.
I need to know what you want.
So you like superheroes, youlike action, you like that stuff
.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
And he's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like
that but that's.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You asked me for the very, very top.
That's the very, very top.
I said perfect, no problem.
Three months later I calledjames up.
I'm like are you sitting down?
And he's like yeah, I am.
I was like, remember that sillyquestion that I asked you about
what movie and you said youwanted to be an avenger.
He's like yeah.
I was like, well, are yousitting down james?
(40:20):
And he's like yeah.
I was like, well, are yousitting down James?
And he's like yes, stop it.
And I was like look, it's notthe Avengers, but I just got a
contract for you to be in themayor of Kingstown and you're
going to be opposite JeremyRenner who is an?
Avenger and if I could haverecorded that call where he just
(40:43):
he just exploded and and andwas so happy and that was a
great moment, right, and thereason I was able to do that
because a lot of times castingdirectors are very crafty in
making it vague you know, theydon't give you much you know for
that role.
I remember it was like youngpolice officer, white, 20s,
(41:07):
early 20s every every agent intown has 10 of them, for example
.
Right, I had, I had two, butevery age, like every agency has
, has a couple of them.
So you can't call casting andsay hey, I've got like a white,
26 year old, good looking buffguy they're gonna be like yeah,
(41:28):
you and everyone else butbecause I had that conversation
about, about the avengers,because I knew jeremy renner was
attached to the mayor ofkingston, I was able to call
casting and tell them the story,and, and, and, and they became
they, they, they fell in lovewith it.
(41:48):
They're like, oh well, oh, wegotta, we gotta try and get this
for him.
We gotta, we gotta make thishappen and and it became sort of
uh, maybe potentially, I'm notsure I think it was skill and I
think it was, you know, he justfit the character, but he booked
it and talked about serendipity, right.
So so that was.
That was probably one of my, myfavorite moments as an agent,
(42:11):
charlotte, and I have many andmany of those, because that's
you know what we do.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
That's.
That's a wonderful, wonderfulstory.
Making for once, movies makingdreams really do come true,
really do come true.
Yeah, really do come true.
Really do come true.
Yeah, really do come true.
Brilliant um to take you um.
We talked a little bit at thebeginning about ai and threat of
ai and how to manage it, but ingeneral, as you look at the
(42:39):
current landscape, where do youthink the future lies?
So, what you know?
What do you think things aregoing to be like in Canada, say,
in 10 years time?
Speaker 1 (42:48):
So, yeah, I think that 10 years time from now is a
great point of referencebecause a lot will change my
hope and I'm going to come.
I'm going to come at this froma perspective of the
conversations I've been havingin our industry with people you
know who are making decisionsabout movies network executives,
(43:10):
studio executives, producers.
I think there's going to be amajor push for sustainability in
our industry.
I think we're going to startcrafting a lot more Canadian
made stories.
I think we're going to startcrafting a lot more
Canadian-made stories.
I think we're going to be a lotmore pro-Canadian and less of a
service industry to the US.
I still think there's going tobe a lot of room for that and
(43:31):
there will be.
Movies from California willalways be made in Canada, but at
the moment, it is quite slow inthe industry in Canada because
we rely so much on them.
So I think there's going to bea shift to rely less on them and
to still be there for them.
However, have our own stuffgoing on right, Having our own
(43:53):
stories, like the Schitt'sCreeps and those kinds of you
know homegrown, you know amazingstories.
So I think that that that'sgoing to be a major shift in 10
years is we're going to be a lotmore self-sufficient and
independent In terms of AI.
To answer your questionspecifically, I think that AI is
going to be an amazing tool forresearch.
(44:14):
I think it's going to reallyhave the ability to, instead of
right now, because we're stillusing technology as we speak.
Let's take a costume designer,for example.
Right, A costume designer willhave to do a piece, let's say,
from you know, early Scotland inthe 1800s.
(44:36):
Well, what is the costumedesigner going to do?
They're going to go on Googleand they're going to Google
search Scotland 1800, costumesor attire or that thing.
And then a bunch of things willcome up and you'll have to
filter through that and lookthrough that and filter what you
(44:57):
like, what you don't like.
However, I think that AI what'schanged?
It's really made it incrediblyquicker to come to what you're
looking for faster.
So, instead of searching Google, it's going to go in AI and
it's going to say hey, chat, GPT, act as a leading costume
(45:18):
designer for a feature film,Please tell me what these
characters, characters wouldlook like.
And they put the characterdescription right uh.
They put uh, and it's going tobe played, um, you know, by, by
by brian cox.
It's not right.
So it's going to be like it'sgoing to be.
This is going to be thecharacter he's going to.
He's going to be playing thisand that and, um, his character
(45:41):
is a lawyer and blah, blah, blah.
And show me what.
Give me three examples of whatcostumes he would wear and then,
boom, they would show up rightaway.
So I think that it actually willincrease efficiency overall.
It will never replace it to afull extent.
(46:04):
Will it erase some jobs?
Probably, but email erased alot of postal jobs, but we're
still surviving.
So I think that it willpotentially make things a lot
more efficient.
Instead of searching on the web, you're just going to be able
(46:26):
to search with AI and get a muchmore accurate answer, and
especially like the better theprompt, the better the question,
the better the answer.
So I think that's where it'sgoing to be.
It's going to be used every dayand it's going to be it's going
to be used every day and it'sgoing to replace.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
Google Search.
Can I ask you a funny butinteresting question?
My favorite director is Ed Wood.
What he had is he had thiscraziness, but he was driven by
something that made him great,for maybe still also a great
director.
What do you think it takes tobe a good actor?
What would you have wanted tosee in the actors you're pushing
forward?
Speaker 1 (47:08):
So it depends the age group, right.
So with my young actors youknow age three to really 18, I
encourage them to read as muchas they can, especially this
generation.
I want them to read and I wantthem to read books without any
images in them.
I want them to read and I wantthem to read books without any
images in them, because whatthat does is it creates your
muscle.
That's most important for anactor.
(47:29):
You are no longer looking atthe picture of what the
character looks like.
You're no longer looking atwhat you know the Highlands look
like.
If you've never been to theHighlands and you read about the
Highlands, you can only imaginewhat the Highlands look like.
And that imagination is thestrongest tool, it's the
(47:49):
strongest muscle that an actorhas.
So I really do encourage, firstand foremost, that you have to
be an avid reader and you haveto read a lot and you have to
use your reading time as work.
Don't just read for thepleasure of it, absolutely do,
but read for to train thatmuscle, to imagine the scenery,
to imagine what that persontalking, the dialogue, what they
(48:11):
look like, how they would act,what would be their
particularities, right, theiridiosyncrasies.
So I think that reading is veryimportant for actors to be a
good reader.
The other thing is is I thinkthat actors just have to be a
good actor, just really has tobe well-trained.
(48:34):
It is a tool.
It is just like anything elsethat you you know, like
operating a camera and acting,both have technical aspects to
it, right?
Um, the cameraman can, could,not act the way anthony hopkins
can and, uh, you know, anthonyhopkins cannot operate a camera,
(48:55):
um, like rachel morrison could,right, like the beautiful
cinematographer Rachel Morrison,um, so I think that I think
that you know, you need to have,um, you need to treat it as a
business, you need to read soyou develop your muscle, and you
need to train so you developyour, your training muscles.
(49:15):
If that's, uh, if that's it,and yeah, of course, then
there's natural ability and allthat stuff.
You know that that you can'tcontrol, um, which, you know,
all the great actors have theDanny Day-Lewis's and the, you
know, anthony Hopkins and James.
Raynard.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
And James Raynard.
Well, I'm sure you've inspireda lot of people listening, and
maybe some out there who areactors or aspiring young actors,
so where can they get in touchwith you?
You've obviously got a webpresence online.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yes, yeah, so I mean, the best way to go about
learning about our agency is togo to our website, ycaaca,
that's for Canada so ycaaca, Ibelieve on social it's at young
ycaa, so you can find us oninstagram if they want to keep
(50:11):
up with my journey.
I'm at jason underscore ycaaand you'll see me post a lot
about my actors.
It's primarily all I do is postabout my actors.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
So, um, if you want to follow the the journey,
you're more than welcome to and,uh, thank you, thank you well
so we have a question I alwaysask people is if you, what would
you say to your 21 year oldself, or what, and would you do
(50:48):
it again like what advice wouldyou, or like if you were
speaking to your 21 year oldself?
Speaker 1 (51:01):
yeah, I mean great question.
Um, if I don't really know, I'mvery, I'm very content and
happy with the way things haveturned out.
Um, you know, so, uh, I'dprobably tell, I'd probably tell
myself to, to save more money,because you'll eventually want
(51:22):
to make a movie and it costs alot of money.
So I'd probably tell myself tosave a little more money, but,
aside from that, quite happywith the way everything has
turned out.
And, uh, you know I'm only 40so I could.
Uh, yeah, I'm only at, uh, youknow the halfway mark of, uh,
hopefully halfway mark, so let'ssee what's to come that's great
(51:43):
.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Thank you very much for being here and, yes, and
thanks very much for listeningto this podcast, and you can
always follow us here or online,so thanks.
Hot lights fade the curtains rise, new stories
waiting behind our eyes.
Charlotte and John with thefinal say.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Breaking down the screens in their own way.
This is the final cut, wherethe real reviews ignite.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Hello there, everyone , and welcome to another episode
of the Final Cut.
Before we start today, I wantyou to have a look or, if you're
listening to us, have a listento this this the hottest thing
(00:49):
tonight the Final Cut podcast.
So it looks just like a typicalscene from Hollywood Actors
doing what they do best Awardceremonies, chat shows, glitz
and glamour.
But here's the thing none ofthese are real.
None of these people thatyou've seen are real.
(01:10):
They were generated this weekby Charlotte as part of our
adverts for this upcomingpodcast, generated on the new
Google VO3 system that allowsphotorealistic simulations of
on-screen talent.
So today we're going to explorethat and a number of other
(01:32):
issues relating to the futureand the current state of
on-screen talent in the film andtelevision industries, and with
us.
I'm delighted to be joined byJason Norris, who is based in
Toronto in Canada, and is themanaging partner and senior
talent agent at YCAA in Toronto,which he co-founded.
Now, jason began his careerstudying communications at the
(01:53):
University of Ottawa.
I have sympathy.
I used to teach media andcommunications in Glasgow and
then Jason went on and went intoadvertising, first at Montreal
and then, preferring a warmerclimate, in Toronto.
But since 2018, jason's beenworking in talent representation
(02:14):
in Toronto and, with a band ofloyal actors and a couple of
interns to help him, he decidedto launch YCAA, his talent
agency, in February 2020.
An interesting time to do so,just as COVID was hitting and
we'll maybe touch on that a bitlater.
Now, ycaa has become one of thefastest growing agencies in
(02:35):
Canada for talent in televisionand film, and it's established
itself as a really sought-afteragency, and some of its talent
has been seen on major TV seriesthat have aired on Netflix, hbo
and CBC, which is Canada'snational broadcaster.
So, jason Norris, welcome tothe final podcast.
(02:55):
Delighted to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Well, thank you.
Thank you very much, john.
I feel like we have nothingleft to talk about.
You said it all right there inthat introduction.
It was quite amazing, thank you, and hi, charlotte, thanks for
having me.
I appreciate it.
Yeah, so you know, great, greatvideo.
The AAI thing that you startedthe video with is quite
interesting.
Right, there's a lot of, andit's funny that you bring up,
(03:24):
like you know, the awardceremony, because we just had
the Canadianadian screen awardshere.
So the csa's um, so the lovelypictures.
Yes, thank you.
Uh, we, so I was.
I was obviously at that tosupport, uh, our talent and also
I am a voting member of theacademy, so I'm part of the
academy, um and um.
You know, obviously it doesn'tget on to the broadcast as much.
(03:46):
There were a couple speechesabout the AI threat, but a lot
of you know the pre-gala, thepost-gala ceremonies.
There was a lot of chatterabout.
Ai keep coming up amongst majorindustry people, people like
network executives, studioexecutives, directors, producers
(04:10):
, all of these people was that,yes, there will be a place for
AI in movie, in terms of maybehelping to get color correction
done quicker or that sort ofthing.
But the one thing that AI stillcan't really replicate and I'm
not sure it will ever be able tois the heart, the heart that we
(04:32):
have inside of each other, thestories, the actual real-life
stories that we've lived, andthe emotion that came with that,
and the heart that we have todescribe that.
And I think that that's the artof cinema and I think that I
honestly don't see that beingreplaced anytime soon.
(04:53):
And that was the major narrativeat the post and pre-ceremony at
the KDX Green Awards, amongstall these executives, where, you
know there's no sense infighting AI.
It is here to stay, but it willnever replace filmmakers, it
will never replace storytelling,it will never replace, you know
(05:14):
, proper narrative that wasthought out and, you know,
perfectly imperfect.
You know, sometimes that's justwhat we love as humans, right?
So so it's interesting that youstart the show with that,
because it certainly I was inthe real life version of that.
The award ceremonies this thispast week, fortunate enough to
(05:36):
you know, have the opportunityto celebrate a couple of awards
with some of my, you know, myclosest colleagues and friends,
and, yeah, I think that it's ahot topic.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Yeah, absolutely, and it will be maybe more topical
and, as you say, I believe thatthere's always a role for the
heart and you can never maybetake away some of the creative
elements, because I can'treplicate that and that's not.
You're absolutely right there.
I just want to take you back abit and you describe yourselves
(06:11):
a lifelong student story.
Where is your passion?
Where did you start wanting totell stories?
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, so I, you know, funny enough, I was really into
my whole life, like very earlyon, I think from the age of 12.
So I've always loved cinema,right, I think I was probably 13
or 14 when Wayne's World cameout.
Wayne's World, and I probablywatched that movie over 100
(06:43):
times between the ages of youknow, in my teens I just, I,
just obsessed with it.
I was a big fan.
You know, mike Myers, canadian,snl, canadian, you know,
founded by a Canadian, so it was.
It was kind of it was thatthing right, where you know, I'm
, I'm, I'm on the smaller,smaller side.
(07:04):
So I wasn't very good at sportsin school, uh, and you know, to
be completely honest, I justgravitated towards the, the arts
and the visual arts.
More precisely, I wasn't muchof a drawer, although I fancied
I could do it.
Um, and communication for mealways came somewhat easily.
(07:25):
And, uh, you know, I was a bigreader, like an avid reader.
However, I never and this isshocking, but I've never read
like Harry Potter or I don'tread much fiction.
Most of the books that I'veread are all nonfiction and in
fact, most of the time when Iwas 13, 14, 15, I was reading,
(07:47):
like you know the art ofadvertising or I was reading you
know the biography of DavidOgilvie, right, I was obsessed
with advertising and I alwaysthought I'd be an ad man.
And, john, thanks for theintroduction.
You mentioned that I did startin advertising.
That's where I come from.
I was an ad person on theproduction side at first and the
(08:09):
art of storytelling really cameto me through the art of copy
the words on the page and Ithought that they're really
important, they're extremelyimportant in short form
advertising, and I really fellin love with communication, all
(08:30):
forms of communication,storytelling and short form
advertising at a very early age.
So I've always loved that.
And to blend, you know,communication with storytelling
is is really the art ofadvertising.
So that's where I started.
Uh, I really did think thatthat's where my career would
(08:52):
have been and you know, for 10years I was, I was doing that
and very happily and verysuccessfully and uh and yeah, so
I I have to accredit, um, my,my love for storytelling to, uh,
to the art of the word, justcopy.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Yeah.
So what occasioned the shiftover into on-screen talent and
acting, and particularlylaunching February 2020, which
was, I think, a month beforeCOVID hit all of us around the
world, so that must have beenquite a ride yeah, so there's
two questions there, john and uh.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
The first question I'll answer uh, the shift became
so.
Again, working in advertisementon, uh, on the production side,
many times I would I would dealwith actors and they would come
in and they were always amazingpeople, just the salt of the
earth kind of people, right,very creative, very optimistic,
sometimes to a fault, right, toooptimistic.
(09:52):
And a lot of times they wouldcome and there would be, you
know, I was very fascinated withthe dynamics, the behind the
scenes, like, oh, you're anagent, how's that work?
And the agency.
And and to my surprise, a lotof times they came back and said
, well, we, we don't really talkto our agent that much right
(10:14):
here in canada and I think it'ssimilar in the uk.
Um, the relationship-based, umagent actor, um narrative that
you see in Hollywood does notreally exist.
Right, it doesn't really exist.
The Jerry Maguires of the worlddon't really exist.
What really does exist is youhave many, many, many actors on
(10:38):
your roster, some of whom youdon't talk to for months, and
then you just admit them and youknow, if you have 10 people
that look like you, john, you'repraying that one of them will
book the role right.
And that was kind of veryshocking to me because I was
like well, here's an opportunityto build a relationship with
(11:00):
someone, an actor, an asset thatwould bring you money.
Why wouldn't they want to keepcommunication higher?
Why wouldn't they want to buildthat relationship, get to know
their actor?
So the first aha moment I hadabout how there might be an
opportunity to improve things inthis industry, in this
landscape, talent representationcame to me early on, when, when
(11:23):
I was in advertising and justspeaking candidly with actors,
uh, you know, during, duringproduction and set, not on those
set days so that's when thefirst time, um, the transition
started motioning.
But the big pivot, the bigmoment was when I need, I needed
to uh, you know, we needed toshoot a public service
(11:46):
announcement.
It was a low budget thing, itwas for the city, they didn't
have that much money.
So, of course, what do you doin those scenarios?
You look within your networkand we needed a young lady who
had a cheery, chippy voice thatcould deliver, speak properly.
So I said I have a daughter,she speaks very well, she's
(12:06):
articulate.
Let's see if she could do it.
So I went home, gave her thescript and I said, hey, could
you record this on your iPhoneor like an iPhone on mom's
iPhone?
And she did it and her voicewas so cute and cartoony and
perfect.
And then I just brought it tothe team and they're like, wow,
she's amazing.
So we hired my daughter forthis public service announcement
(12:30):
.
It was to do with backyardcomposting.
If you want to know the detailsabout it, her first acting job
was backyard composting and howit's very good for you know.
So it was amazing, it's quitelovely.
And she did it, she liked it,she got paid.
That was her first time she gotpaid.
I think she's eight years oldat this point and you know,
(12:51):
getting money was like wow, Iget paid to do this.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
This is amazing.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
So and then, a few weeks after that, another
production contacted me and said, hey, we are doing a music
video.
Do you think your daughterwould do it?
Because you know, let's behonest, she was.
She was cheap labor.
Right, I could deal with mydaughter and say, yeah, she'll
do it for for this amount ofmoney, right, it was cheap labor
(13:16):
.
So she did it again, knocked itout of the park.
You know the music video hasfour actors.
She plays the younger versionof the park.
You know the music video hasfour actors.
She plays the younger versionof the artist.
She plays the younger versionof the artist lost in the woods.
And it's amazing, she did agreat job.
And then she did another musicvideo and here things were
starting to get serious.
(13:37):
So I said, you know, okay, likewhat are we going to do?
And I asked her is thissomething you'd really like to
do?
Acting right, like what are wegoing to do?
And I asked her is thissomething you'd really like to
do?
Acting right, is this somethingyou're passionate about?
And she's like oh, absolutely.
So I did what most people do andI set up some meetings, uh,
with as many agents that I could.
Uh, I started with my networkof people I knew in the
(13:59):
advertising world, advertisingworld and I said I'm looking for
, you know, an agent for mydaughter.
She's this age and this is whatshe's done.
And I got a list of, uh ofagents who I contacted and most
of them were, you know, graciousenough to email me back and
show interest.
So I did what we're doing rightnow, you know, just a little
(14:20):
bit of a chat, a little zoom,and, uh, it became really
apparent to me that it was.
There was a lot of um ownershipon the parents, uh, to
understand what the expectationwas, and a lot less management,
managerial um, like a lot lessum, how do you say?
(14:46):
Like a lot of it was left tothe talent and their parents to
unravel and to figure out.
And I felt like that was reallyinteresting.
And the line that kept comingback was always like, well, we
only get 15% commission, soyou're expected to do 85% of the
work.
And I was like, wow, that'ssuch an interesting thing to
(15:09):
look at.
So, and what I did is veryJerry Maguire I went home, I had
a bad slice of pizza and Iwrote down a list of my ideal
agency or agent for my daughter.
What I was looking for a littlemore communication, a little
less of a transactional,volume-based agency.
I wanted something that was alittle smaller, maybe more
(15:30):
boutique, someone that couldmaybe help us understand the
expectation, maybe have someresources to guide us and help
us understand how to do you knowbetter or how to improve our
skills, and that kind of thing,and not necessarily like an
acting class, but someone whocould refer acting classes and
who could help my daughter andmyself, you know, through this,
(15:55):
through this really bizarre andnot talked about industry, right
, try and figure it out a little, make it less daunting.
Talked about industry, right,try and figure it out a little,
make it less daunting.
And, um, and I sent that to thesame people that, uh, that that
I knew in my contact and theyall came back sort of laughing
at me and saying you're lookingfor a unicorn, jason you know
that doesn't exist.
(16:15):
You're, you're so, and that'sreally when I decided to start.
I said, well, what if I didthis, if I did this exact agency
where we focused on, you know,quality over quantity of actor,
instead of having hundreds ofactors, maybe we have less and
maybe we focus on buildingrelationships and getting to
know them so we could, you know,pitch them better.
(16:37):
Maybe we could give themresources, like share
communications with them and letthem know what's going on in
the industry, give them a littleupdate sometimes so they're not
wondering why they're notgetting auditions.
They understand that there's astrike or they understand that,
like, you know, the currentclimate, like the tariffs are
affecting uh, you know uh,projects being greenlit because
(16:59):
of the uncertainty.
They understand all this like.
So I did that.
I decided in 2015, 2017, reallyto start putting the you know
the plan in place and to educatemyself as much as I can.
Um, you know, there took, youknow, ucla management,
(17:21):
entertainment management classes, like, did, did the work to
prepare myself and, as you said,john, I was ready to launch.
Everything was good to go and,in an advertising marketing
aspect, we were ready to launch.
We were ready to go and we did,and literally a month later,
the whole world shut down.
It was the pandemic, and talkabout putting the wind out of
(17:46):
your sails, right, charlotte.
But, um, but that turned out tobe a blessing, uh, the, because
it allowed us to think like wewere just starting out as an
agency.
So, um, you know, one of thethings that we decided to do is
we were very concerned.
Emma Ryan, she's Irish, she wasborn in Ireland, moved to
(18:12):
Canada and joined the agency.
Emma Ryan and I were, you know,we were very aware that there'd
be a lot less productionsbecause everything was shut down
, things were getting canceled,things were getting paused, and
we also understood that there'sgoing to be a lot more actors
available for any job, becausepeople were losing their retail
jobs, people were losing theirbartending jobs, because stores
were shutting down, you know,bars were closing up, so in the
(18:35):
pubs.
So a lot of people went back towhat they knew from before and
a lot of them had tried acting,you know, earlier on in their
career.
So they, they, they said, ohwhy, why not try now?
So they, there was an influx ofactors, you know, and and a
downgrade of production.
So one of the things that wedid and this is because of the
(18:57):
pandemic.
We reached out to our contactsagain.
You know casting directors,working actors that we knew and
respected, instructors, teachersthat we knew, directors, and we
just said, hey look, we allhave a lot of time on our hands,
we're all at home.
I'd love to jump on, you know,a Zoom with you guys, very much
(19:21):
like a little bit of a podcast,like a YCAA private members only
podcast or what you, what wecalled it meet the pros.
Right, we called it meet thepros, and every month we we had
someone of value, someone thatcould move the needle forward,
come and speak to our actorsexclusively for free and just
(19:44):
out of the kindness of theirheart, which we're extremely
grateful for and we hadbasically everyone you could
potentially think of in theCanadian industry and some in
the US as well.
So it was a blessing actuallyto start our agency then,
because you know, the thing thatkept coming up in these
(20:05):
meetings and the meet the promeetings were, like you're the
first agency to do this.
I was like oh, weird, like oh,okay, that's just what we
thought we should do is to.
I thought our job was toconnect our actors to people
that could help them build, getopportunities.
That was literally the jobdescription of an agent is to.
(20:25):
You know, ari Manuel, one ofthe most famous agents in the
world.
Ari Manuel is famously quotedto saying that his job is to
make serendipity happen, and Ithink that that's a very good
description of how an agentworks or should work, and I've
always had that model as anagent, where I, all of my actors
(20:47):
, have the skill.
What they don't have is theydon't know the right people.
So it's my job to make themmeet the right people so they
can showcase their skill set.
So that's one of the thingsthat came from the pandemic is
these meet the pro things and,uh, you know, it's been amazing
with the feedback that we'vereceived, both from the guests
(21:08):
that come on and also our actorsthat have gotten amazing value
from it.
Speaker 3 (21:14):
So, yeah, that was one of the things sounds
fascinating if I take you backthen to your.
What is the role of the, ofyour talent?
And also, what do you think isthe biggest misconception people
have when they come into that?
Maybe that they will get moneystraight, like they will get the
role straight away on Broadwayor in Toronto.
(21:37):
You know what kind ofmisconception do they have and
how do you deal with that?
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Yeah.
So you know, this industry isnot for the faint of heart,
that's for sure, and I think ittakes a special kind of person.
And I've gotten to know myactors very well and they all
have this, this uniqueinfant-like quality.
(22:03):
And I say it's infant-like andI think we should more people
should have it, because I'mhighly pragmatic and when you're
pragmatic you constantly sortof reverse engineer the
opportunity, but you're alsoassessing risk and you're
assessing the plausibility ofthe opportunity.
(22:26):
That's just how I am and Ithink a lot of people are like
that.
So when I see that there is onerole available, you know for,
let's say, the Handmaid's.
Tale, there's one role availableand there's about 800 actors
that are being submitted forthat role from agents.
(22:48):
So 800 actors, one roleavailable and most of the time
out of those 800, you'llprobably get 20 who get an
audition.
So out of that 20, there'sgoing to be five or four that
are presented to the producers,directors and executives right.
(23:09):
So now you have one in fourchance maybe of getting it, but
the reality is you have one in800 chance of getting it and
that's what I see.
Right away, as the pragmaticperson, I am Like there's no
chance, like why are we eventrying?
But with actors, they only seethe one in a million chance.
(23:32):
They have this unique abilityof saying why not me?
And I think that you need thatquality to be an actor.
So to be an actor, you needthat quality to be an actor.
So to be an actor, you needthat quality.
To be an agent is to run withthat quality, run with that
actor, try and manage it, tryand manage expectations, because
(23:54):
it is very, very difficult.
It is incredibly competitive.
The reality is, if you're anactor, you will probably get um,
if you're very, very, verysuccessful, you'll probably get
20 to 25.
In the current climate thatwe're in right now 20 to 25
(24:15):
auditions per year.
20 to 25 auditions per year.
These could be anywhere from uma leading role, a supporting
role, or it could be a day rolewhere you're just playing a day
player um a lot of times.
Funny, funny story.
A lot of times.
When people ask me what I dofor a living, I say I represent
(24:38):
actors and they're like, oh,anyone I know.
And I'll say do you know brad?
And they're like, oh yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
I know Brad.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Pitt.
I'm, like I represent theperson who speaks to Brad Pitt
in that scene, so that'sbasically how it is so many many
people who are listening rightnow or are watching on YouTube.
They've seen my actors andactresses many times.
They're usually the ones thatare part of the scene talking to
(25:05):
the lead actor or thesupporting actor.
Many of the actors that we have, um, you know, yeah, of course
we do have, like some, some youknow, reoccurring stars, uh,
like chrissa moran, she, youknow, she was on all seasons of,
uh, the handsmaid's tale, uh,for all the Handmaid's Tales out
there fans, and we have, youknow, dante, who was on the
(25:27):
Umbrella Academy, as you know, aregular, and we do have those
people that are sort ofrecognizable, but for the most
part, the actors that we haveare there for a couple of days.
They're in two or three scenesand and that's it.
So we have they're calledworking actors and that's what
(25:48):
we have.
We have the ones that that are,are, are working the scene with
the rest of the, with the maincast, right, so, yeah, so to be
an agent is to try and reallymanage the expectation of the
actor, because every actorthinks that they can book every
single role and it is part ofyour job as an agent to not
(26:13):
totally squash that idea but tomanage it properly to say you
know well, yes, you did a greataudition, but the truth is is
they've changed directions.
You're a white 15 year old boyand they've hired a black family
(26:35):
for the main characters, soyou're not gonna fit the family
right so they're like oh right,so so lot of times, you know,
when they do a great audition,they think why didn't I get it?
And a lot of times they did do agreat audition, they just
didn't get it because theydidn't match the family or they
didn't match the exact characterdescription that they were
(26:55):
looking for.
So so there's a lot of a lot ofmanaging, not egos, because I
don't.
I haven't met many actors thathave huge egos.
I have met many actors thathave the confidence that they
could do this very well.
That's different, it's not anego, it's having confidence and
I think you need that.
So managing that properly is ispart of my biggest
(27:20):
responsibility with my actorsand I would say, uh, a second
closest, most importantresponsibility is making those
meetings happen talking about mytalent to casting, talking to
my talent when I'm at the awards, um, you know, to producers and
directors and networkexecutives, and and trying to
(27:41):
make those opportunities happen.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, and obviously you're based in Canada, which is
a smallish country, maybe notby landmass but by population,
that has a big neighbor downsouth, very similar to our
situation in Scotland withEngland, the more dominant
neighbor down south.
So you work not just in Canadabut also across into the United
(28:08):
States, so can you maybe talk usthrough how that relationship
is changing?
You mentioned, for example, thethreat of tariffs earlier.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
Sure, absolutely.
That's a really intuitive view,john, I can speak on that
really simply in a way that Ithink your audience, who are
fans of movies and storytelling,could understand quite clearly.
And when I'm I'll talk aboutthe canadian side, because I
know that a little more, butunder understand that screen
(28:36):
scotland and telefilm telefilmcanada are are one in the same.
They're very similar companiesthat are trying to actively
promote uh film makers, uh localfilmmakers to to make their
their stories come to life right.
So I I understand that properly,but the way that canada has
(28:57):
operated um a lot with the US,since we're so close, is we have
been a lot of a serviceindustry to them.
The thing with a movie let'stalk about how a movie gets made
and why they would go to aplace like Scotland to shoot and
why they would go to a placelike, you know, toronto or
(29:18):
Vancouver in Canada here toshoot it is not they're not
doing that because of a charity,they're not doing that because
they a charity.
They're not doing that becausethey are like, oh, we're going
to help this country out andthis film industry out.
They're doing it for, you know,multiple reasons, the landscape
being one of them.
Imagine Braveheart not being inthe Highlands, right, you just
can't.
You can't shape that narrativethat the landscape brings to
(29:42):
that story.
However, beside thestorytelling aspect, there is a
real life business behind that,the entertainment business.
You know it's show business,right?
So how does that workpractically?
Well, movie makers.
Filmmakers just want to maketheir movie and a lot of times
(30:04):
they don't want to compromisethe quality of the movie and the
idea that they have in theirhead oftentimes costs more than
they really think it will.
So a filmmaker from the US, forexample, from California.
Let's take a movie like,example, happy Gilmore.
For example, happy Gilmore,movies of that budget, right
(30:27):
when they're like between the$15 million to $20 million
budget Permits to close downstreets, super expensive.
Permits for everything to makea movie, super expensive that
bill alone is incredible.
And the equipment, the crews,the cast, the catering, you know
, the craft services all ofthese things costs a lot of
(30:47):
money.
So when you're budgeting yourmoney you try and get someone
who can finance the movieproperly.
And part of financing isfiguring out how you can
leverage the tax incentivesprovided by your country and
other countries.
So, for example, there is a taxincentive that you get in the
(31:10):
US.
I want to say it's the 168.
It's something like that.
It gives you a huge tax breakon your movie If you produce the
movie, if your movie is made70% 70% in the US, and that is
(31:30):
easily done because the scriptis written by an American in the
US.
You know the special effectsare done in Santa Monica, the
post-production is done in LosAngeles, some of it's done in
Atlanta.
So it's very easy to do 70% ofyour movie.
Now you get a tax break fromthe US government and they give
(31:51):
you a tax break to help youreduce the cost of your overall
movie.
Then you look at a place likeCanada where your dollar, as an
American, goes very far rightFor every dollar.
Your dollar is worth $1.30 inCanada.
It's right next door, it's ashort drive or a short flight
away.
We speak the very same language, so there's no foreign policies
(32:15):
or you know foreign languagethat you'd have to deal with.
So it's very, very easy forthem to say, hey, we still have
30% of the movie that we canshoot elsewhere.
And that's what happens, isthey come to places like
Vancouver, toronto, winnipeg orMontreal, even Calgary, and they
come and they shoot for a month, you know, a couple weeks here.
(32:39):
And what happens then is ifthey come here and they shoot
for, let's say, a month, now ifthey employ 70 percent of tax
paying residents.
So that means actors, localactors that come from ycaa, uh,
cast and crew, uh, that are arelocal paying, and our cast and
(33:01):
crew both in Scotland and inCanada are world-class.
We both have the trust of thefilm industry.
So, it's not a big deal cominghere and using our casts and our
crew.
So if they employ 70% of localtaxpaying actors and cast, they
(33:22):
get another tax benefit here inCanada it's up to $250,000
deducted for their movie and nowtheir dollar is worth more.
So their $20 million budget nowthey have like $24, $25 million
to play with.
That makes a lot of thingshappen and that's exactly how a
(33:43):
lot of movies have happened.
A lot of movies came to lifebecause of that exact financial
structure, those incentives andwhat now?
The tariffs that were proposed,but will never happen because
they've had time to think aboutit and said, oh, oh, but, like
when they had mentioned that itwould have to be a hundred
(34:05):
percent made in america and nolonger 70.
Well, that takes a lot likethat.
That just kills industries likescotland.
Uh, like you know, europe and,and honestly, like canada, would
be wiped out because we we, weup until now have have thrived
(34:25):
and survived on being a serviceindustry to california.
Um, and I think that what,after careful, carefully looking
at it, it wouldn't necessarilydeteriorate filmmakers from
leaving america.
They would just go further toplaces where labor is extremely
(34:45):
cheap, like Korea, right, likeplaces like that, so where it's
a foreign language, but thelabor is so cheap that it
justifies the tariff that theywould be hit with If they went
to Scotland or if they came toCanada, they could no longer
justify that tariff.
It would increase the budgetsubstantially.
(35:07):
So the way that things areworking now is great, and
filmmakers both in the US andthe rest of the world Scotland
and Canada being at theforefront of that are benefiting
from this model.
It's worked for years, and whywould you want to change it just
to make it America, 100%American?
Sometimes it's nice to blendthings together, right,
(35:30):
especially when we have similarcultures and we speak the
language and our crews and castcan do it.
Why not?
Why not have a communion likethe film industry?
Why not have a communion likethe film industry?
I think it's a superwell-intertwined oil to machine
and it shouldn't change.
So the threat of 100% wouldabsolutely devastate the
(35:54):
Canadian and the UK industry.
So I'm glad that they've put apause on that.
But you never know, with thisadministration in the States,
tomorrow they could bring itback up and then there we go
again.
Speaker 3 (36:06):
Absolutely.
I agree with that.
A film has always been verycollaborative and even with
Sweden, where I come from, itcertainly has been a lot of
collaboration with bits of theworld.
But I want to take you back abit and ask you about when you
talk about you you can save.
Is there any particular momentyou're particularly proud of
(36:29):
where your agency went in andsay said we was almost able to
save the film, or say that youwere able to provide the actors
that rescued the project?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
well, I mean the saving.
The saving is in thenegotiations, right, like when
you negotiate contracts andstuff like that.
You can certainly try andnegotiate fairly for your actors
.
But I'll take you back to whatI'm really proud of.
One moment that I'm very, veryproud of is one of the things
that I do, and I don't thinkthis is unique to me, but it
(37:00):
might be.
I don't know.
Again, I'm not sure how everyagent operates in Canada, but I
know how I operate and what I dois, as soon as someone signs
with me, we have what we call akickoff call, again another one
of these zoom calls, and we jumpon and it's.
It's really funny because Ialways ask them a question that
(37:24):
makes them blush, right, and Isay now forget anything, forget
limitations, and let's say wecould get any role you want in
any movie with any director andany project you want.
Please tell me what would thatbe?
I ask that questionstrategically for two reasons.
(37:45):
I ask it because I want to knowwhat my client because they are
my clients what they want me tolook out for them and I also
look.
I also ask it because, um, itgives me an opportunity, when
the moment is right to pick upthe phone.
So, and that's the, that's thepart that I'm very happy with
here we go.
So I'm sitting here with one ofmy actors.
(38:07):
You guys can look him up.
His name is James Raynard.
James Raynard is an amazingactor.
He's been in a lot of Hallmarkmovies.
James is going to kill me tosay this, but he's always the
one that gets dumped or left inthe Hallmark movies.
So unfortunately, he's alwaysthe love interest, the triangle.
(38:28):
But so one of my first meetingswith him and this was a really
great moment for me because hecame from a much bigger agency,
james came from an agency and hewas just intrigued by the way I
did things and we had thismeeting I I asked him you know
we spoke for you know, usuallythese kickoff calls go for about
(38:48):
20 minutes, half an hour, andthis one went on and on and on.
We were getting along famously.
And I asked him.
I said, james, I'm gonna askyou like, what do you want to
like?
What's the dream role?
What can I get you as youragent, where you'd be like, wow,
that's amazing.
Now picture a pretty buff, youknow, pretty good looking, white
(39:12):
26.
I think he was 26 year old atthe time.
Picture that guy.
You probably have three ideasof what movie he's going to pick
and he's like, so he startsblushing and I'm like what's up?
Speaker 3 (39:24):
He's like no, I don't want to tell you he's going to
pick and he's like so he starts.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
He starts blushing and I'm like what's up?
He's like no, I don't want totell you it's going to be
embarrassing, I don't?
It's so, so silly I was like no, james I.
I need to know what this movieis.
What?
What can I get you?
I want to be an Avenger.
And I was like, of course youwant to be an Avenger.
I was like that would have beenmy first guess.
He's like I told you you'd belike.
(39:47):
I was like no, james, I'm sohappy you told me that.
Thank you, I appreciate.
I need to know what you want.
So you like superheroes, youlike action, you like that stuff
.
Speaker 3 (39:56):
And he's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like
that but that's.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
You asked me for the very, very top.
That's the very, very top.
I said perfect, no problem.
Three months later I calledjames up.
I'm like are you sitting down?
And he's like yeah, I am.
I was like, remember that sillyquestion that I asked you about
what movie and you said youwanted to be an avenger.
He's like yeah.
I was like, well, are yousitting down james?
(40:20):
And he's like yeah.
I was like, well, are yousitting down James?
And he's like yes, stop it.
And I was like look, it's notthe Avengers, but I just got a
contract for you to be in themayor of Kingstown and you're
going to be opposite JeremyRenner who is an?
Avenger and if I could haverecorded that call where he just
(40:43):
he just exploded and and andwas so happy and that was a
great moment, right, and thereason I was able to do that
because a lot of times castingdirectors are very crafty in
making it vague you know, theydon't give you much you know for
that role.
I remember it was like youngpolice officer, white, 20s,
(41:07):
early 20s every every agent intown has 10 of them, for example
.
Right, I had, I had two, butevery age, like every agency has
, has a couple of them.
So you can't call casting andsay hey, I've got like a white,
26 year old, good looking buffguy they're gonna be like yeah,
(41:28):
you and everyone else butbecause I had that conversation
about, about the avengers,because I knew jeremy renner was
attached to the mayor ofkingston, I was able to call
casting and tell them the story,and, and, and, and they became
they, they, they fell in lovewith it.
(41:48):
They're like, oh well, oh, wegotta, we gotta try and get this
for him.
We gotta, we gotta make thishappen and and it became sort of
uh, maybe potentially, I'm notsure I think it was skill and I
think it was, you know, he justfit the character, but he booked
it and talked about serendipity, right.
So so that was.
That was probably one of my, myfavorite moments as an agent,
(42:11):
charlotte, and I have many andmany of those, because that's
you know what we do.
Speaker 2 (42:16):
That's.
That's a wonderful, wonderfulstory.
Making for once, movies makingdreams really do come true,
really do come true.
Yeah, really do come true.
Really do come true.
Yeah, really do come true.
Brilliant um to take you um.
We talked a little bit at thebeginning about ai and threat of
ai and how to manage it, but ingeneral, as you look at the
(42:39):
current landscape, where do youthink the future lies?
So, what you know?
What do you think things aregoing to be like in Canada, say,
in 10 years time?
Speaker 1 (42:48):
So, yeah, I think that 10 years time from now is a
great point of referencebecause a lot will change my
hope and I'm going to come.
I'm going to come at this froma perspective of the
conversations I've been havingin our industry with people you
know who are making decisionsabout movies network executives,
(43:10):
studio executives, producers.
I think there's going to be amajor push for sustainability in
our industry.
I think we're going to startcrafting a lot more Canadian
made stories.
I think we're going to startcrafting a lot more
Canadian-made stories.
I think we're going to be a lotmore pro-Canadian and less of a
service industry to the US.
I still think there's going tobe a lot of room for that and
(43:31):
there will be.
Movies from California willalways be made in Canada, but at
the moment, it is quite slow inthe industry in Canada because
we rely so much on them.
So I think there's going to bea shift to rely less on them and
to still be there for them.
However, have our own stuffgoing on right, Having our own
(43:53):
stories, like the Schitt'sCreeps and those kinds of you
know homegrown, you know amazingstories.
So I think that that that'sgoing to be a major shift in 10
years is we're going to be a lotmore self-sufficient and
independent In terms of AI.
To answer your questionspecifically, I think that AI is
going to be an amazing tool forresearch.
(44:14):
I think it's going to reallyhave the ability to, instead of
right now, because we're stillusing technology as we speak.
Let's take a costume designer,for example.
Right, A costume designer willhave to do a piece, let's say,
from you know, early Scotland inthe 1800s.
(44:36):
Well, what is the costumedesigner going to do?
They're going to go on Googleand they're going to Google
search Scotland 1800, costumesor attire or that thing.
And then a bunch of things willcome up and you'll have to
filter through that and lookthrough that and filter what you
(44:57):
like, what you don't like.
However, I think that AI what'schanged?
It's really made it incrediblyquicker to come to what you're
looking for faster.
So, instead of searching Google, it's going to go in AI and
it's going to say hey, chat, GPT, act as a leading costume
(45:18):
designer for a feature film,Please tell me what these
characters, characters wouldlook like.
And they put the characterdescription right uh.
They put uh, and it's going tobe played, um, you know, by, by
by brian cox.
It's not right.
So it's going to be like it'sgoing to be.
This is going to be thecharacter he's going to.
He's going to be playing thisand that and, um, his character
(45:41):
is a lawyer and blah, blah, blah.
And show me what.
Give me three examples of whatcostumes he would wear and then,
boom, they would show up rightaway.
So I think that it actually willincrease efficiency overall.
It will never replace it to afull extent.
(46:04):
Will it erase some jobs?
Probably, but email erased alot of postal jobs, but we're
still surviving.
So I think that it willpotentially make things a lot
more efficient.
Instead of searching on the web, you're just going to be able
(46:26):
to search with AI and get a muchmore accurate answer, and
especially like the better theprompt, the better the question,
the better the answer.
So I think that's where it'sgoing to be.
It's going to be used every dayand it's going to be it's going
to be used every day and it'sgoing to replace.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
Google Search.
Can I ask you a funny butinteresting question?
My favorite director is Ed Wood.
What he had is he had thiscraziness, but he was driven by
something that made him great,for maybe still also a great
director.
What do you think it takes tobe a good actor?
What would you have wanted tosee in the actors you're pushing
forward?
Speaker 1 (47:08):
So it depends the age group, right.
So with my young actors youknow age three to really 18, I
encourage them to read as muchas they can, especially this
generation.
I want them to read and I wantthem to read books without any
images in them.
I want them to read and I wantthem to read books without any
images in them, because whatthat does is it creates your
muscle.
That's most important for anactor.
(47:29):
You are no longer looking atthe picture of what the
character looks like.
You're no longer looking atwhat you know the Highlands look
like.
If you've never been to theHighlands and you read about the
Highlands, you can only imaginewhat the Highlands look like.
And that imagination is thestrongest tool, it's the
(47:49):
strongest muscle that an actorhas.
So I really do encourage, firstand foremost, that you have to
be an avid reader and you haveto read a lot and you have to
use your reading time as work.
Don't just read for thepleasure of it, absolutely do,
but read for to train thatmuscle, to imagine the scenery,
to imagine what that persontalking, the dialogue, what they
(48:11):
look like, how they would act,what would be their
particularities, right, theiridiosyncrasies.
So I think that reading is veryimportant for actors to be a
good reader.
The other thing is is I thinkthat actors just have to be a
good actor, just really has tobe well-trained.
(48:34):
It is a tool.
It is just like anything elsethat you you know, like
operating a camera and acting,both have technical aspects to
it, right?
Um, the cameraman can, could,not act the way anthony hopkins
can and, uh, you know, anthonyhopkins cannot operate a camera,
(48:55):
um, like rachel morrison could,right, like the beautiful
cinematographer Rachel Morrison,um, so I think that I think
that you know, you need to have,um, you need to treat it as a
business, you need to read soyou develop your muscle, and you
need to train so you developyour, your training muscles.
(49:15):
If that's, uh, if that's it,and yeah, of course, then
there's natural ability and allthat stuff.
You know that that you can'tcontrol, um, which, you know,
all the great actors have theDanny Day-Lewis's and the, you
know, anthony Hopkins and James.
Raynard.
Speaker 2 (49:33):
And James Raynard.
Well, I'm sure you've inspireda lot of people listening, and
maybe some out there who areactors or aspiring young actors,
so where can they get in touchwith you?
You've obviously got a webpresence online.
Speaker 1 (49:49):
Yes, yeah, so I mean, the best way to go about
learning about our agency is togo to our website, ycaaca,
that's for Canada so ycaaca, Ibelieve on social it's at young
ycaa, so you can find us oninstagram if they want to keep
(50:11):
up with my journey.
I'm at jason underscore ycaaand you'll see me post a lot
about my actors.
It's primarily all I do is postabout my actors.
Speaker 3 (50:24):
So, um, if you want to follow the the journey,
you're more than welcome to and,uh, thank you, thank you well
so we have a question I alwaysask people is if you, what would
you say to your 21 year oldself, or what, and would you do
(50:48):
it again like what advice wouldyou, or like if you were
speaking to your 21 year oldself?
Speaker 1 (51:01):
yeah, I mean great question.
Um, if I don't really know, I'mvery, I'm very content and
happy with the way things haveturned out.
Um, you know, so, uh, I'dprobably tell, I'd probably tell
myself to, to save more money,because you'll eventually want
(51:22):
to make a movie and it costs alot of money.
So I'd probably tell myself tosave a little more money, but,
aside from that, quite happywith the way everything has
turned out.
And, uh, you know I'm only 40so I could.
Uh, yeah, I'm only at, uh, youknow the halfway mark of, uh,
hopefully halfway mark, so let'ssee what's to come that's great
(51:43):
.
Speaker 3 (51:43):
Thank you very much for being here and, yes, and
thanks very much for listeningto this podcast, and you can
always follow us here or online,so thanks.
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