I recently was lucky enough to interview male actor and stuntman Alain Chanoine who can be seen in the upcoming horror comedy flick Evil Feed. The movie will premiere October 23rd at the 2013 Toronto After Dark Film Festival, so if you’re in the area make sure to check it out! In this interview Alain talks about his character Tyrone, who sounds like a total badass, what it’s like to do stunt work and acting, what it was like to prepare for the roll, how he’s a martial arts geek, and how he’s totally psyched about the upcoming Ninja Turtles movie.

Alain has an optimistic attitude that is infectious and it was a lot of fun chatting with him. Make sure to check out Evil Feed and Alain’s other projects.

What inspired you to become an actor?

I always wanted to be. When I was a kid I always loved movies, I always wanted to be an artist, and I was in theater production in high school, but I never actually thought back then that it was how I was going to make a living. With some kind of weird story I just kind of ended up in the business, but it was kind of always meant to be.

What led you into stunt work?

I have been doing martial arts since I was eleven and my teacher, Jean Frenette, was a stunt coordinator and a stunt man and I always wanted to do it too. It’s funny because I wanted to be an actor first, so I got into the business and saw a lot of people doing stunts and thought, “I can do this, I want to do this.” I just ended up going for it too. My transition was from actor to stuntman, but I’m an actor first. I really love stunts and it’s a great profession.

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I recently had the pleasure of interviewing actor, director, producer, and personal trainer Adyana de la Torre to promote her current project Gymnos: A Geek’s Tragedy. Gymnos is a play currently showing at New York City’s HERE until October 6th, so if you’re on the East Coast make sure to check it out! In this interview Adyana talks about the play, what it’s like to combine her passions of fitness and performing, the process of being a director and an actor in the same project, and she lets her geek side out by talking about her favorite comic book movies.

It was so much fun chatting with Adyana. She has such a passion for what she does and listening to her talk about her work was a total delight. Check out the interview below for all the fun details!

What led you into your passion for fitness and for being a performer?

As far as fitness goes I was a dancer ever since I was a kid and right out of college, aside from teaching dance and drama, I started working at gyms. I was a sales rep then I worked at the juice bar and all of the facets at a gym. I loved working out and one of the nutritionists who worked at the gym said, “You’re really good with people and I know you love working out, so you might as well become a trainer.” So I did! I got my certification, I started teaching classes, and so I’ve been a trainer and a fitness instructor for about ten years now. As far as performing, I went to college for musical theater and I’ve always sort of known that it was in me and that it would be an intregal part of my life. I’ve been directing and producing shows with a theater company up here in New York for almost two years now. I’ve been around it all of my life.

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Recently I was lucky enough to conduct an interview with actor and filmmaker Denis Theriault who can be seen in the upcoming film All the Wrong Reasons playing an overzealous assistant manager named Radley Weil. The film All the Wrong Reasons will be premiering at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. Denis, along with being an actor, is also a writer and director and his short film Sibling Rivalry will be premiering at this year’s Atlantic Film Festival. It was a lot of fun listening to Denis talk about his love for movies because he clearly has a lot passion and respect for film and the filmmaking process. Chatting with him was an absolute delight and if we’re lucky we’ll be seeing more of his work in the future.

In this interview Denis talks about what inspired him to become an actor, his love for filmmaking, what it’s like to transition from acting to directing, and his dream role. Check it out, guys!

What inspired you to become an actor?

Oh, what inspired me? As a kid I wasn’t a huge sports person, but my dad was. He was a carpenter, he plays hockey, he used to play tennis, like he’s a big sports guy, and he’s not so much into the arts. The one thing my dad and I bonded over is that we would go to at least two movies at the theater together a week. It was the thing my dad and I did together, so I think that was kind of the seed of it, of how it started. As a kid I did a lot of theater, but when I got interested in film and TV it was from that, going to the movies. It sounds so cliché to say it, but movies are magic. Everything that’s involved in movies, the process from the beginning stages, and the fact that they wind up becoming fully formed films. They’re miracles. So I think that’s where it started, my dad taking me to see movies, and then I started to make my own short films. The first time I made them I think I was eight or nine. I just used the family 8mm camcorder and made my movies. I literally edited them by filming, putting it into a VCR, pressing pause, like editing the film onto a VHS. That’s how I would edit. I guess that’s how I started my love affair with movies and then I booked my first TV part when I was fourteen.

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Recently I had the pleasure of conducting an interview with male actor Chad Connell who can be seen in the upcoming movie The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones playing fan favorite character, the Blue Haired Demon. In this interview Chad talks about what inspired him to become an actor, the process of landing the role of the Blue Haired Demon, or “Bluey” as a fan has named him, what it was like to play him, and where the inspiration for Bluey’s look came from. He also lets his geek side out by talking about some of the things he likes to geek over, along with talking about his dream role and other projects. If you’re a member of “Bluey’s Army” then you’re in a for a real treat. For the record, Chad is very sweet and it was a lot of fun chatting with him. Make sure to check him out in City of Bones and his other projects!

What inspired you to become an actor?

I started on stage at a really young age. I remember doing a recital where I was Hercules and I was three years old. I was the only boy which was pretty big. I had a big ring because Hercules had a ring and it picked up the light, and there were fifteen or sixteen girls dancing around me and my chest was out to here. At three I think that sort of set the stage, so to speak, to make me crave that type of attention. It developed from there and when I was about eleven I got heavily into community theater and that sort of stuff. I played Oliver and that was another moment of, “Hey everyone, look at me!” I was like a minor celebrity in the middle school world that I was growing up in.

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Recently I was lucky enough to conduct an interview with charming female Canadian actor Kate Drummond. Kate plays Technical Operations Manager Anna ‘Grim’ Grímsdóttir in the video game Splinter Cell: Blacklist. We conducted most of the interview over Skype and before the interview officially began she showed me her Splinter Cell mug that displayed the image of Sam Fisher when hot coffee is poured into it. Pretty cool, right? In this interview Kate talks about Grim, what it was like to act for a video game, her online cooking show, the incredible story of what inspired her to pursue an acting career, and her passion for working with children. She also shows her geeky side by talking about why Iron Man is her favorite superhero.

It was such a pleasure chatting with her and it’s one of the few times I felt like I was having a conversation with an old friend. She also totally channeled Grim during our interview and handled a situation when we were starting to have technical difficulties. Frankly, Kate’s pretty awesome.

Tell me about your character Grim in Splinter Cell.

Well, she’s the Technical Operations Manager of Fourth Echelon. She does all the analyzing, all the data, getting all the information to Sam while he’s on the field. She’s a really skilled hacker and super smart and super by the book. She’s a woman in a man’s world and so she’s one of the guys in a way which I love about her. I grew up with an older brother and all his friends and I was five years younger. I was always so excited to be a part of their group and hang out with them and play road hockey. I grew up as a tomboy, so I feel that Grim has that sort of strength and a sort of presence that she’s able to command in the Fourth Echelon because she has those skills and a strong opinion on those sorts of things.

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Defiance is takes place in the not so distant future where aliens and humans coexist on a war ravaged Earth. The city that was once known as St. Louis is now known as Defiance. There we meet a slew of people including the snarky alien town doctor, Doc Yewll played by Canadian actor Trenna Keating. Doc Yewll is considered one of the breakout characters of this show, and I had the absolute pleasure of chatting with Trenna Keating about her. The interview took place over Skype and after talking about our addiction to coffee for about five minutes we proceeded to the interview which, by the way, was a lot of fun.

In this interview she talks about her character on Defiance, the challenges of playing an alien, the appeal of snarky characters, and her love for TV and especially Arrested Development.

First of all, congratulations on Defiance getting renewed for a second season.

Thank you! Yeah, that was really exciting for us. I’ve been on shows before and you always hope and things sound good, but you don’t want to get your hopes up because things can happen, so I was thrilled to find that out.

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Steven Shaw, Helen McElwain, Curtis Fortier, Christopher Gehrman, Stephanie Sheh, Alison Reeves

Stephanie Sheh is most well known and well-loved for her voice acting work in anime, video games and animation. This time, she is calling to all of her own fans to support a new project she is producing, Hollow Ship, and you can find out how to contribute on the Kickstarter page. The show is a comedy that will take place in a science fiction setting — with a ship (hollow deck included) and a crew (who may or may not be getting along too well with each other). Stephanie is very passionate about this project and I agree with her that this show is something all of you geeks should be interested in too.

Read our interview with her below to find out more and how you can contribute and support!

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If you would like to just listen to the audio of this interview, CLICK HERE to download!