Getting an independent Canadian feature film to the theatres is not a quick process. We had a conversation with actor, writer, and director, Markian Tarasiuk about his feature film Hunting Matthew Nichols in December, 2024. On April 10th, 2026, it had its theatrical release.
The character of Pam Hamilton was played by the experienced and talented actor, Christine Willes.
This week, we spoke with Christine Willes.
HNMAG: Where are you from originally?
Christine Willes: Oh, I’m not from anywhere originally. I lived all over Canada. I can tell you that I was born in Saskatoon, but I only lived there till I was two. That gives you an idea.
HNMAG: You got to see the whole country. That’s nice.
Christine Willes: Most of it, and it actually ties into why I was interested in this character in Hunting Matthew Nichols. We travelled around because my father was in the RCMP, and in the film I play a Detective.
HNMAG: Wow. Your father was an investigator in that sense.
Christine Willes: Yes and no, he was in the RCMP. He ended up really mostly an administrator, although earlier on in his career, sure, he was an investigator.
HNMAG: Well, that’s great. And when did you come to Vancouver?
Christine Willes: Oh, that’s a good question. Many, many, many years ago, I trained as an actor at the University of Alberta. It was shortly after that. So, it was in the late seventies.
HNMAG: Did you initially start in theater in Vancouver before film and TV?
Christine Willes: I did. I spent twenty-five years on the stage.
HNMAG: Amazing!
Christine Willes: Yeah.
HNMAG: You had a whole theater career and then transitioned to a very successful and long film and TV career.
Christine Willes: Yes thank you. I also had kids.
HNMAG: You did a lot of things.
Christine Willes: Starting a family was really the driver of transitioning into film and television and I was just very fortunate that I needed to make a change at the time that the Vancouver film industry was really starting to take off.
HNMAG: You were here when it started to really change at the beginning with Twenty-One Jump Street?
Christine Willes: Yes.
HNMAG: In the late 80s is when Vancouver became Hollywood North.
Christine Willes: Yes.
HNMAG: You played a lot of parts. You’ve been in a lot of great shows and movies. Was Hunting Matthew Nichols the first time that you played a former police investigator?
Christine Willes: Yes.
HNMAG: That was really special because, as you said, you had that connection to your dad in the RCMP.
Christine Willes: That’s exactly right.
HNMAG: This film is a different approach because it’s found footage. It’s documentary style. Did that change your approaches as a performer?
Christine Willes: That’s a good question. I’ve been a fan of fictional detective procedurals on TV for a long time. I also read them ever since I was a very young woman, starting with Agatha Christie. I was familiar with the puzzle, if you will. You’ve got all these clues and you have to figure out what’s really going on. The style of Hunting Matthew Nichols is documentary, which is the mission. The director, Markian suggested I watch a ton of real, true crime documentaries, which were great. I watched a lot of them, and they were very helpful, and they reinforced what I came to it with, which is my memory of the many, many policemen that I saw with my father and at various functions growing up.
HNMAG: As a viewer, for at least the first half of the film, if you aren’t paying very close attention and you don’t know the geography of Vancouver Island, you believe it’s a true documentary. Was the entire movie scripted or was any of it improvised?
Christine Willes: Another great question. The answer is yes, there was improvisation. I heard Markian speak about how when he and the writer, Sean Harris Oliver, teamed up initially, their script was like a twenty-page treatment. They know the benefits of improvisation, and they’ve also got such an interest in the pseudo-documentary style and true crime, right. Putting those things together. They initially started with an outline, but it was very difficult to finance that. That’s when they moved into a script.
HNMAG: What would you like to share about your experiences with Hunting Matthew Nichols?
Christine Willes: I’m a huge fan of the film. I’m a fan of the number of styles that the creators have effectively used. I also really want to give a shout-out to the team and to the leadership style that Markian brought to the project. This is his baby. He developed it for three years. In these kinds of situations, I’m much more familiar with running into somebody who either has nothing to say to the actors, they’re only focused on the camera lens, the angles, all the technical stuff. Or they’ve got such a tight hand on the reins that everybody is extremely tense around them and nobody’s really enjoying the process. So what Markian brought to this project was a level of confidence and trust in everyone that he had picked to work on this project with him. Everybody was all in when you hit the set and everybody was on task. Everything was focused, and at the same time there was a lightness to the mood. There just wasn’t a kind of tension that is, unfortunately, in my experience, way too common on a film set.
I really wanted to shout out to Markian, and Sean, and all the team, the co-composers brought that same ethic, the costumer, the makeup people, everybody who contributed to how effective the film is.
There are many approaches to directing a feature film. Most of the time, there is a large crew with many departments. Before a movie even starts shooting a lot has to go right and that could take years. This is even more true if you don’t have a Hollywood studio behind you. For most big-budget projects, the directors often are focused on the technical aspects of the shoot. There are many camera set ups with a ton of moving pieces. It’s the director’s vision and all the departments want to get into their head to make sure they’re doing the best job they can.
As an experienced actor, Christine Willes has seen it all. She is way too familiar with the directors who don’t have time or the ability to work with the performers on set. Sure they call action and cut but most directors are not on the actor’s journey to make the performance the best it can be. Even though we spoke with Markian about Hunting Matthew Nichols in December 2024, he was not going to pat himself on the back. It’s great to have another conversation with someone who spent a lot of time on set and attended multiple screenings to see how the team came together to make an exceptional movie. We have great writers, directors, performers and crew here in Vancouver. Probably, the greatest in the world. Now is the time to bring our own stories to the world stage.