Vancouver attracts many talented performers. Each one has an amazing story to tell. Hans Potter is no exception.
We spoke with Hans about his career, working on set in Vancouver, dia lects, acting instruction, and coaching.
HNMAG: Did you grow up in Alberta?
Hans Potter: Yes, sir.
HNMAG: What part?
Hans Potter: I grew up in Calgary, and I was there till eleven. Then, I moved to Saint Albert, which is what you could see by standing on the border of Edmonton. They’re that close to each other.
HNMAG: That’s like a suburb of Edmonton?
Hans Potter: If you say that to somebody in Saint Albert, they’ll get very upset with you. We are very proudly not Edmonton.
HNMAG: In terms of Vancouver? Would you say it’s kind of like Burnaby?
Hans Potter: Exactly.
HNMAG: You were growing up in Calgary and Saint Albert. When did you become interested in film, TV, and acting, and how did that all happen?
Hans Potter: I was five or six, and I told my mom I really wanted to be a Power Ranger. She told me that the Power Rangers are actors, and my six-year-old brain didn’t understand that concept. I thought I’d become an actor so I could be a Power Ranger. My parents said ok, well you can do acting classes, no problem. They put me in acting classes, which I’m sure they thought I’d grow out of at some point, but I never did. I really have been acting for as long as I can remember.
HNMAG: You’re waiting for that button, a ring, or whatever that contraption will be that will turn you into a superhero.
Hans Potter: 100%, and the fact that I was living here when they filmed the Power Rangers and I wasn’t in that movie to this day, still makes me upset.
HNMAG: Did you look into doing background work?
Hans Potter: At the time, my agent was like “Please don’t do more background work!”
HNMAG: Ha ha ha ha ha ha, ok, well that makes sense. You moved to Vancouver in what year?
Hans Potter: 2013.
HNMAG: You moved here so you can act right?
Hans Potter: Yeah.
HNMAG: What did you do when you first got here?
Hans Potter: I knew I was going to Vancouver, which was a new expense. It was a year before I moved and worked as much as possible, so I didn’t have to work for a year in Vancouver. I did every film project I could get my hands on. Student films, Indie films… In my first year, 2013, I did thirty-six projects.
I was doing everything I could find through friends, film schools, or any kind of independent production.
HNMAG: How did you first get paying acting work?
Hans Potter: I struggled with getting an agent for years. I got my first agent, and my first production studio booking wasn’t till 2015. Two years in, and then my next one wasn’t till 2018. I had those big gaps, so a lot of my early paid acting work was commercials. I booked many commercials for years, probably two a year.
HNMAG: Did you spend a long time weighing the pros and cons on the financial stability of commercials before joining the union?
Hans Potter: Oh no, I was part of that sweep where the union changed the workability rule. If you want to book union productions, and you have enough credits, you are forced to join or give up the booking. When I booked Alaska Daily, they said, “You have enough credits. We’re pushing you into the union, and I said ok.
HNMAG: Was there anything significant about Alaska Daily?
Hans Potter: Well, well, you know it wasn’t my first union gig.
It’s so strange for me because in the Indie world, I play a lot of lead roles.
HNMAG: Right.
Hans Potter: For Alaska Daily, I had to know two lines. It was such an easy day. It was only five hours. I got to set and they gave me a costume. They threw me on set. They shot the whole thing in less than five hours. I was like ok, that’s my union day.
HNMAG: Yeah.
Hans Potter: I’m so used to working on movies like Camp Death III. I’m used to twelve to sixteen-hour days. Grinding the entire time. Now this was a breeze for me.
HNMAG: On low-budget movies, you worked in other capacities such as stunts, crew, writing…Was that something that just sort happened, or did you have an idea that you wanted to do that?
Hans Potter: I would never call myself a stunt performer because I respect stunt performers too much to call myself one. I was the actor willing to do fun things for the sake of my work. As I’ve gotten older and much to the request of my wife, I have stopped throwing myself through windows and getting kicked through walls and things like that because I have three kids and, I want to be able to pick them up the next day and even year.
HNMAG: Wow, three!
Hans Potter: Most of the work I do now in the world is armory. I’ve done quite a bit of gun training. Most of the time, when I’m on set in a non-actor capacity, it’s either doing dialect coaching or as a producer.
HNMAG: Are you producing short films?
Hans Potter: A lot of times, I’m brought on at the last minute to help with production organization. That is my forte. I’m not very good at preproduction. I’m good if you bring me to set in the producer capacity. I’ll make sure people go where they’re supposed to go and that equipment is being dropped off where it’s supposed to be. I have an organizational brain.
HNMAG: Are you going out for quite a few self-tapes now?
Hans Potter: Yes, it’s been busy for me. I just did a self-tape for a pilot. I’ve been seen for a lot more guest stars roles, which has been nice.
HNMAG: Great. What are the pros and cons of being in the room vs self-tape?
Hans Potter: The pros of self-tapes are that you can knock out take after take. I’ll be honest, as a guy who grew up doing a lot of theater auditions, and of course, I started my career with being in the room, I find, even with self-tape, I still do two takes. I just sent the second one. The thing that I miss is
that personal touch with being in the room and also the conversation with casting. Casting will even tell you that they wish they could give actors directions for their auditions. I miss the ability in the room, where casting says, ok, that was good, but this is what they want. Let’s take it again. It’s the notes.
HNMAG: There are a few more shows that are now set in Canada, so the world is seeing our stories. Is that something you would like to see more of, and if so, how do we get there?
Hans Potter: Hopefully, we get a little more juice out of the CBC. That would be nice.
HNMAG: The CBC does have a few CanCon shows now. Allegiance is set in Surrey. Wildcards is set in Vancouver. Skymed is set in Northern Manitoba. What film or TV production did you find the most challenging and why?
Hans Potter: That’s a fantastic question. I did a movie once where I called to do one scene. I ended up being on set for seventeen hours because they just said, “Since you’re here, do you mind doing background in these other six scenes”? I also thought about every one of these challenges; I’m gonna learn how to get stronger as an actor. Quite frankly, when I think about challenges, even whether it’s about where you and I met on Camp Death III.
HNMAG: Yes…
Hans Potter: Beautiful challenges. We’re shooting hard. We’re shooting fast. We’re shooting in this mess but every time I work a little more, this is going to make me stronger an actor and frankly, when I book a union gig and someone’s handing me a coffee and I have a trailer and they’re paying me well, and there’s crafty… Those gigs are so easy now because I’m not freezing my ass off on some Indy where there’s not even a bathroom.
I talk about Camp Death III as one of the most positive experiences in my acting career. I loved that movie. It was a lot of work.
HNMAG: It’s great that you took some positive experiences from that shoot.
Hans Potter: I have viewing parties of that movie with my students. It’s beautiful, and it’s chaos, and the fact that it was able to pull through and get finished in spite of all those obstacles is the real takeaway.
HNMAG: What about the most rewarding experience? What was that?
Hans Potter: In October, I produced a movie. I finally wrote something, and I produced it.
HNMAG: Oh great.
Hans Potter: I believe in myself as an actor. I didn’t believe in myself as a writer. I finally wrote a script and put my own money behind it. It’s a two-hander. I took the next step of my acting career. Now, I feel like I can do more than simply be someone else’s puppet. I can do my old work.
HNMAG: What is the film called?
Hans Potter: It’s called Poenitet. It’s about a man and his dominatrix. The dominatrix has fallen in love with him.
HNMAG: Ok.
Hans Potter: The characters’ pasts are revealed. Their secrets come out. We find out what happens when we let both our literal and figurative masks fall away from relationships
HNMAG: It’s a short?
Hans Potter: It’ll probably come out to be around thirty minutes.
HNMAG: Are you going to submit it to festivals?
Hans Potter: That’s the plan. It’s currently in post. The festival run will be in 2026.
HNMAG: Good. You’re also teaching acting?
Hans Potter: I’m currently at the studio for actors. The school is on Granville Street near Pender.
HNMAG: Is that a new school?
Hans Potter: The school has been around. They just moved to that building.
HNMAG: Do you teach full-time?
Hans Potter: I’m teaching part-time right now, and I do private coaching because I’m a dialect coach. A lot of my work is helping actors with a standard American accent.
HNMAG: How did you master your standard American accent?
Hans Potter: When I moved to Vancouver, the first note I ever got from a casting director was, “You sound Canadian”.
HNMAG: Was that in 2014?
Hans Potter: 2013. It was my first audition workshop. That was a big note I got. I started doing research for standard American accents. Over the next couple of years, I built my own technique. It’s all about muscles and muscle memory. Developing accents through building accent muscles. Certain accents are related to certain muscles. I’ve been teaching that as a full-time job since 2015.
HNMAG: Are there any other creative projects you have been working on?
Hans Potter: I wrote a book.
HNMAG: Nice.
Hans Potter: I wrote a fantasy novel, and I’ve been working on that. It’s nice doing something else artistic that wasn’t acting. I finally got confident enough to publish a book last year.
HNMAG: What’s it called?
Hans Potter: It’s called Chronicles of the Watchers. You have to be careful because there are two, which I didn’t realize at the time. It’s called Chronicles of the Watchers: Book 1: Memories of War.
HNMAG: To self-publish, do you just save it as a PDF?
Hans Potter: They have a whole program to help you format it and all that good stuff.
It was great to speak with a very talented performer who found his calling in a variety of creative ways in Vancouver. Hans Potter wanted to act ever since he was a little boy. He followed his passion to a new home. Through his journey, he discovered other talents for teaching, coaching, writing, and producing. We wish Hans continued success on his magical journey. We also can’t wait to see his movie Poenitet.