Getting an independent Canadian feature film to the theatres is not a quick process. Harrison Houde is a successful professional actor. He is also an independent filmmaker who has invested years into getting his first feature film Tight Lettuce made. The movie screened at the Fantasia Film Festival in Montreal and won the Gold Audience Choice award, Best Quebec Film, and was jury nominated for Best New Flesh, and Northern Excellence awards.
We had a conversation with Harrison Houde about his career, Canadian independent filmmaking, and Tight Lettuce.
HNMAG: How are things in Montreal?
Harrison Houde: Montreal is awesome, man. I’ve spent a lot of time here. We filmed the movie nearby in Quebec. It’s a really cool spot. I love Montreal in the summer, especially, and obviously being here at the festival is an incredible energy. You know, people come out and really support Fantasia, the crowds are awesome. It’s really cool. It’s definitely a really fun time.
HNMAG: Fantasia is famous as a genre: thriller, horror, sci-fi horror, festival.
Harrison Houde: Yeah, it mostly is; there’s mostly genre stuff, like thriller and horror and sci-fi stuff, but they also have a spotlight on international programs such as Asian-Diaspora Cinema. They have a Quebec focus in the Canadian section where there seems to be a bit more leeway as far as genre goes.
HNMAG: That makes sense.
Harrison Houde: Our movie, Tight Lettuce, isn’t technically a horror or a thriller. It’s a quirky dark comedy. Yet, the crowds here ate it up, it was so fucking cool. I’ve never seen like a festival where people really show up. Almost every screening has been sold out. And the crowds are delightful. There are lines around the block for rush tickets.
HNMAG: Well, congratulations. You grew up in BC though, right?
Harrison Houde: Yeah, I grew up on Vancouver Island, in Qualicum Beach. I lived in Vancouver for many years before moving down to LA. The story for this movie is from Vancouver Island. My middle school friend, Rayden Wickop’s true story. It’s his story. We developed it for two years with my writing/producing partner Dakota Daulby (who stars as Joel, Rayden’s character in the film), and we would just talk every week and write down stories. He also had archive footage of his dad and journal entries from years ago. He had so much material. It was kind of insane.
HNMAG: Was his father French?
Harrison Houde: No. They’re from Vancouver Island, so they’re not French-Canadian, but my Dad’s side of the family is Quebecois / French-Canadian. When the Quebec-based company Vital saw the project, they reached out and said, do you want to just make this a feature? I was super on board to do it in Quebec with their team. I’ve worked here before in Montreal, and I love it out here. Rayden, the real guy, came out as well when we were shooting.
HNMAG: Was it set, in Quebec?
Harrison Houde: Yeah, on the Ontario-Quebec border because it’s bilingual with characters being Anglophone and Francophone. Then, we made it make sense with the mix. We had really famous Quebec actors on the film such as Emmanuel Bilodeau, Maxim Roy, France Castel, and Guy Jodoin, as well as some really great Vancouver talent. We had Dakota Daulby, who plays the son Joel, and we had Christie Burke, who played Taylor. In addition, Jennifer Khoe as Mimi, Jan Sikora as the receptionist, and Peter Shinkoda. I even have a very quick cameo.
HNMAG: Did you move to Vancouver for acting?
Harrison Houde: Yeah, when I was seventeen, I was on a show in Vancouver, Some Assembly Required, so I moved to Vancouver and was doing acting full time, and stayed there for several years.
HNMAG: When you were seventeen in a show, were you cast out of Vancouver Island or did you just move here on your own?
Harrison Houde: I would come over on the ferry to audition all the time with my dad or my mom. I would literally ferry over 6 hours round trip to audition for stuff. That’s when they were still doing in-person auditions. I would sometimes travel half the day just to do a two-minute audition.
HNMAG: You found some success fairly quickly.
Harrison Houde: Before the Vancouver show, I did a show in Quebec, in Montreal called Finding Stuff Out. It was on TVO Kids, and I am very proud of that show. I won a CSA for that role when I was like 16.
HNMAG: Congrats.
Harrison Houde: Thank you, and then around the third season of that show, I started filming another show in Vancouver called Some Assembly Required, which was on YTV. That was shot in studio in Burnaby.
HNMAG: That must have been a good experience.
Harrison Houde: It was awesome. I’m still friends with the cast, and it’s been a decade now, which is crazy. Sydney Scotia came out to Quebec during filming of Tight Lettuce. We had an awesome scene for her in the film, but it unfortunately got cut in the edit. Not due to her lack of ability by any means. It truly was a great scene. The team felt the story needed to move faster in certain parts. I even had several scenes that we cut.
HNMAG: We had multiple conversations with Sydney, the last one being in the Fall of 2024. When did you become interested in acting?
Harrison Houde: Well, I was really young. I was twelve and just making videos. That was 2008. I was posting them to YouTube from the island. I didn’t really know what to do when I moved from Ladysmith to Qualicum, but I found a walmart camera. YouTube was very new. People weren’t making YouTube videos like they are now, and it was just a fun hobby. I fell in love with acting, because I put myself in front of the camera, but making videos I discovered that I like filmmaking in general, especially editing. I had the opportunity to co-edit Tight Lettuce which was a fantastic experience with the editor Etienne Plasse.
HNMAG: Cool.
Harrison Houde: After booking professional acting work, I used that to make more professional-level short films and started doing festivals. Dakota and I started our company, Vesperia Films, ten years ago. We have been making stuff since. Tight Lettuce is our first feature film, and we have another one ready to be shot in Vancouver.
HNMAG: Awesome. Did you meet Dakota in LA?
Harrison Houde: Vancouver, when I was nineteen. He was up for a UBCP award, and I was adjudicating. That’s how I met him, because I told him that I voted for him. I joked that if he wins, it’s because of me.
HNMAG: Is Fantasia your first public screening?
Harrison Houde: Yeah. The world premiere was on July 18th. From here, we’re doing a theatrical release in Quebec on August seventh, so we’re staying through for that. Then they’re going to set up a Vancouver screening. I’m trying to confirm the date right now. We are hoping for a wide theatrical release in Canada at least, and then, obviously, we want to expand from there. We want people to see the film!
HNMAG: There were a couple of popular Quebec songs from Mitsou and Corey Hart. Was it Expensive or difficult to get that licensed for your movie?
Harrison Houde: For Corey Hart, we wanted to find a Quebec Anglo song that everybody knew. Sunglasses At Night popped up. Everyone was super on board for that song. I just wrote a letter to Corey Hart. It cost some money. But, it didn’t break the bank for two reasons. Our producer Serge had went to highschool with Corey and reached out. We then got a re-record that sounds very similar to the original.
For the opening song, we went through a couple different ideas of what that could be. We had a bunch of different options, and there’s one song we thought for sure was going to be the song, and then we kind of got into the edit, but it didn’t work. So, we went through a bunch of stuff, and I remember being pitched so many different Quebec songs, but nothing was really hitting, and then all of a sudden, I was with our distribution, production manager and team at the office during picture lock, and they asked if I heard Bye Bye Mon Cowboy? I was like, no, what is it? When I heard it, it instantly was exciting. We need this song! I thought. Turns out, it was owned by the biggest label in Quebec, of course. So I was told it might be difficult to get. Serge, the producer, really found a way to get that song with his magic. It’s so fun! We all love that song being in the film.
HNMAG: When it came out, it had a really controversial music video. It played on MuchMusic at the time.
Harrison Houde: Uh, yes, everyone involved asked if I had seen the music video. Have you seen the music video in the office? I wasn’t even born yet when the song came out. When they showed it to me, I was like, okay, I get it, haha.
HNMAG: Bodo is addicted to heroin, but we usually see that drug being injected. He prefers to smoke it.
Harrison Houde: That’s the reality of what Rayden has seen and what his dad has been doing. His dad used to do heroin by injection, but he hasn’t been doing that for a while, especially since it has been cut with fentanyl; he’s been smoking it. Perhaps it’s easier on the body as well. He’s older, so I’m guessing that’s part of the reason he smokes it now. There could be anything in that stuff. It’s really scary, and we watched him smoke it. We went and hung out with Bodo for a full day and saw the trailer. There’s one clip we filmed when we were there with him at the end of the film amongst the real-footage. It’s not fun to watch. That’s not a fun environment to be in. It’s even more sad because he’s such a fantastic guy and very charismatic and funny. He’s a really nice person. He’s not mean-spirited. It’s really hard to watch that. I was also very uncomfortable when he started smoking up.
HNMAG: The character’s name is Bodo. Is that his real-life name?
Harrison Houde: Yeah. His nickname.
HNMAG: Rayden’s character’s name was Joel.
Harrison Houde: Yeah, we decided to change it just so Rayden could have one level of separation. While writing the script, it’s odd if we’re with Rayden and we’re saying, “Rayden does that or this.” It makes more sense to talk about the character separate from himself sometimes. It also helped us on set as well, since Rayden was there during the entire process.
HNMAG: Okay. You’re working on another film, another feature that you’re going to shoot in BC?
Harrison Houde: We’re ninety percent sure we’re going to shoot it in Vancouver. It will be set in a mall.
HNMAG: How did the financing of Tight Lettuce come together?
Harrison Houde: We were very lucky that Vital Productions liked this film idea and it spoke to them. They also have a distribution arm. They loved the idea and pushed it forward. We got money privately for it. That’s so rare. It’s a lottery ticket win for us. We were very lucky.
HNMAG: Is Vital Productions in Quebec?
Harrison Houde: Yes, they’re a Quebec company, and I met them ten years ago when Telefilm picked up a short film I made, and it went to Cannes. Serge Desrosiers was there with a short film as well. Flip to years later, Serge read the script for Tight Lettuce and funded the film. You never know how your movie’s going to get made, who becomes a financier; you just don’t know. There’s no real path. Dakota and I, we’ve tried everything and everywhere, and we just kept moving forward. Inching forward. We just kept making short films and developing our scripts. To get this opportunity was awesome, and we are very thankful for it. Now we’re just looking to do our next one. It’s not the end. It feels like the beginning in a lot of ways for us.
HNMAG: Before you had any financing in place, the movie was probably set on the island, and then you adjusted.
Harrison Houde: Yeah. Exactly.
HNMAG: To meet the demands of your financiers.
Harrison Houde: Totally. We adjusted things to make it make sense in Quebec and turn the script partially French, which we’re happy to do. It was seamless to make the changes work for the story. Personally, I love bilingual movies, I have a short proof of concept film Cafe Racer that’s half English/half Japanese. I was pushing for Tight Lettuce to have a really nice, natural balance of French and English. The location, the environment, was perfect. It almost looked like Vancouver Island. It truly is a pan-Canadian film that we as a team were able to create. I am very proud of that, and I think the entire team is too. It was a very special experience on set, knowing it’s a true story, I think brought people together in a really nice way.
A big takeaway from this conversation and watching Tight Lettuce is that you need to keep going as a filmmaker. We don’t make films because that is a smart vocational choice. Making movies is a passion. It’s something we are driven to do. Most of us struggle to pay the bills and need other work just to keep doing what we love. The point is, it’s something we love! We get bitten by the film bug; we can see the movies in our sleep. We have to share this audio/visual experience. It’s a long and tough road. Nobody is going to hand you anything. You have to keep making short films and doing the things you can afford, like writing those feature scripts. You keep sharing your passion and network at festivals, conferences, and markets. One day, that cool filmmaker from a quaint mountain town, just North of Montreal, who you met ten years ago in the South of France, is producing feature films. You send him this script that you worked on over for years, and guess what…he loves it! Now it’s green-lit. When you watch Tight Lettuce, you can feel that passion. You know that people poured their heart and soul into bringing you this movie, and that’s what it’s all about. That’s Canadian independent filmmaking!