Will Jeffs is an experienced and successful British stage and screen performer. He moved to Toronto a while ago and has expanded his talents to include writing and producing, as Co-Founder of Red Imp Films, which launched at the Cannes Film Festival this year. We met with Will Jeffs at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
Here is our conversation with Will Jeffs.
HNMAG: Were you born in the UK?
Will Jeffs: Yes.
HNMAG: When did you come to Canada?
Will Jeffs: It’s coming up to nine years now.
HNMAG: Long enough.
Will Jeffs: Yeah. Long enough to feel like home. New enough to see things from an outside lens.
HNMAG: Do you have Permanent Residence?
Will Jeffs: Citizen.
HNMAG: You’re now a citizen? Congratulations!
Will Jeffs: Thank you. I became Canadian two years ago.
HNMAG: Feeling proud of Lake Ontario?
Will Jeffs: Lake Ontario indeed. Absolutely!
HNMAG: As all Canadians should feel. When were you first interested in entertainment?
Will Jeffs: I began crazy-young. Kind of younger than I can remember. My grandmother was an amateur performer in musicals in Lincolnshire, where I’m from. She had such passion for it. She instilled that in me. She was teaching me tap dance time steps in the hallway as a kid. I got obsessed with theatre, musicals and films at four or five years old. It’s never left me.
HNMAG: That’s fabulous. Why did you decide to move to Canada?
Will Jeffs: I was aware that some really interesting and varied work was happening here. I was in the London theatre scene for a long time. It was wonderful, and I still love it. Particularly as a performer, you can really get pigeonholed in the UK. If you are doing an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, it’s often very difficult to be considered for a one-line part on a Soap or something. I could see being able to balance that somewhat more easily over here. Also, when you’re in your early twenties, a new chapter is very exciting.
HNMAG: Did you consider Vancouver before moving to Toronto?
Will Jeffs: A little bit. I have auditioned for stuff over there. I love Vancouver. The West Coast in general, it’s just lovely.
HNMAG: It’s pretty. You established yourself as a professional actor, but now you’re writing and producing. How did that transition happen?
Will Jeffs: It’s something that I’ve been working at for the last ten years or so. It started with a World War II screenplay that I wrote. It was good practice. The screenwriter, Allan Scott, had a look at it, and that turned into a ten-year education and he’s been kind enough to read various scripts and give feedback. He has been so helpful. He would tell me things like, “This didn’t work, and here’s why”.
HNMAG: Are you producing any features?
Will Jeffs: Yes, we are. I met my business partner, John Hauber, on the Toronto stage version of the musical Rock of Ages and together we launched Red Imp Films, based here in Toronto and London, UK. First up, we are working on a 1970s psychological thriller. It’s set during the 1976 British heatwave.
HNMAG: Not everywhere in the UK has air conditioning.
Will Jeffs: Yes, very few places. It’s also getting hotter and hotter every year. Thirty-five, thirty-six degrees is not that uncommon anymore. My parents finally got A/C installed.
HNMAG: This movie takes place during the 1976 drought.
Will Jeffs: The logline is: A traumatized World War II veteran tries to outrun a dark secret during the infamous 1976 British summer drought. The plot is loosely based on my own family members. It’s fiction, but it’s inspired by my grandfather and his brother. They were called up to fight at the end of World War II. My grandfather’s brother was a ship’s photographer, and he saw some pretty tough action.
HNMAG: Have you seen any of your great-uncle’s photographs?
Will Jeffs: Yeah, in fact, he’s taken so many that if you have ever watched a Naval Pacific Theatre of War WWII documentary on the History Channel, it’s almost guaranteed that you would have seen some of them. If you go into a bookstore, you’ll likely see his photos in many of those historic books. He took pictures of harrowing stuff: he saw the Kamikaze pilots. He was up in a plane during an attack documenting everything with his camera.
HNMAG: Amazing, he survived.
Will Jeffs: It is. He lived well into his nineties. He moved to Australia after the war.
HNMAG: Are you producing anything else?
Will Jeffs: We have a second feature in development. It’s inspired by a true story from the Falklands War in 1982. John is Argentine, born and raised, and it is a very personal project for him. We touch on the military dictatorship, and it’s about a guy who, like John, has British family in Argentina. The subject of our story is conscripted to fight against the Brits at nineteen. We also have a couple of TV shows. One of them, we just shot a teaser for.
HNMAG: Right now you’re in pre-production?
Will Jeffs: We’re still packaging. It’s a busy TIFF because we are figuring things out with potential partners. We have also partnered with WME which is exciting.
HNMAG: What is WME?
Will Jeffs: The William Morris Endeavor agency.
HNMAG: Was Endeavor started by Ari Emmanuel?
Will Jeffs: It was. He’s on a book tour right now. He wrote a tell-all book I’ll be picking up.
HNMAG: What do you think he thought of the television show Entourage?
Will Jeffs: I’ve read that he said it was tough to take at the time, but quite accurate.
HNMAG: When did you sign on with WME?
Will Jeffs: We met with them in Cannes, so we signed up shortly after that.
HNMAG: Do you want to write more scripts that are set in Canada?
Will Jeffs: Absolutely! We have built a really good relationship with the Canadian Film Centre (CFC). We are talking with a number of their graduates and hope to tell Canadian stories in Canada.
Of course, there are many big movies that premiere at TIFF, and there are panels with important people in the industry. Another aspect that comes with the territory is the networking opportunities and meetings that happen that week. Will Jeffs has a busy festival that is important for his career and for building relationships. He is very talented and on the rise. We look forward to catching up with him in the future to let you know where you can see his productions and news about what is coming next.