Canada has many talented actors, writers, producers, and other content creators. To help our industry grow, we would like to introduce you to some of those talented folks who have managed to capture that magic on screen.
This week we spoke with Vancouver writer, sketch-comedy performer, actor, voice-over artist, and producer Peter New.
Peter New has well over a hundred professional film and television credits. He is best known for the many roles he voiced for the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic series, the recurring role of Mr. South in School Spirits as well as Bobby on Riverdale.
Here is our conversation:
HNMAG: Did you grow up in the Lower Mainland?
Peter New: Yes, I grew up in Vancouver. I was born in Vancouver.
HNMAG: When did you become interested in Performing?
Peter New: I always had an innate interest in it. Even before I was aware that that’s what it was.
HNMAG: Were you a class clown?
Peter New: I wouldn’t say that but ever since I was a child, I would organize little performances for my family. I had a menagerie of little characters that I would play and I had a very specific idea of who those characters were. I would gather my family up and perform whole shows for them with routines. When I was seventeen, I decided performing was what I wanted to do as a career. But it was almost totally scuppered when I was nine years old. I was in an after-school acting program. I once forgot a stage line and ad-libbed a bit until the line came to me. I initially was proud of having saved the scene but the director immediately tore into me. It was mortifying. Of course, she was completely wrong. If you can’t remember a line, fill the space and stay in the moment, stay in the scene. That experience left a bad taste in my mouth and that turned me off from stage work for years.
HNMAG: How did you get over that bad experience?
Peter New: In grade nine, I was tired of taking band so I decided to try theatre as an elective. Someone from an upper grade asked me to perform in their piece for the one-act festival at the school. I enjoyed that and it felt great to get that support. After that, I ended up touring the world with the Vancouver Youth Theatre. Up to that point, I often stumbled into getting laughs. I then decided to put together a sketch comedy troupe and write and perform comedy on purpose.
HNMAG: Was that first sketch comedy troop The Legend of Bonefish?
Peter New: It was The Legend of Bonefish. Correct.
HNMAG: Was Sam Dulmage in that as well?
Peter New: He was, right from the get-go.
HNMAG: That evolved into Long Hard Comedy-Rocket.
Peter New: Yes. (singing) Back in the 90’s! I had this fantasy that Bonefish was going to make us all millionaires. When it became clear to me that wasn’t going to happen, I figured out how to use the skills I developed and make some money with that. Bonefish was in lieu of Theatre school. I pursued voice-acting and as soon as I got a voice-over agent, she asked me for my headshot. I didn’t see myself as someone who could get hired to be on-camera. If you are a young actor, reading this right now, please know, that you don’t have to look like a movie star.
HNMAG: There are a lot of character roles.
Peter New: There are tons of character roles. If Steve Buscemi can carry a film, so can you. My agent was able to get me on-camera work right away but it took me ten years before I felt I could comfortably rely on voice work.
HNMAG: What got you to that point?
Peter New: Perseverance. It was the work ethic that I developed from Bonefish that helped me. I would do a good job at an audition but not book. I would then ask what could I do differently that would make a difference. I am constantly re-evaluating. You are a product. Whether it’s writing or acting. How is your product going to remain relevant to what is out there and hirable?
HNMAG: Is your voice work more lucrative than your on-camera work?
Peter New: There are years where one is better than the other and vice-versa. It’s cyclical. It somehow always takes a turn. This year it’s been little voice but I’ve booked steady work in movies, TV, and commercials.
HNMAG: Is union commercial work coming back?
Peter New: The union is starting to make better choices that require non-union actors to join the union which is driving commercials to become signatories to the union, so yeah.
HNMAG: You play Mr. South in the series School Spirits.
Peter New: He’s a potentially murderous, creepy janitor. I feel they intentionally left it unresolved in season one. It was a delightful experience. They knew that they wanted me for at least four episodes.
HNMAG: Was your writing a continuation of your sketch comedy experience?
Peter New: I started writing that way. I made a short film called The Bar. It was a kind of silly Film Noir, Airplane! that came out of my sketch comedy roots. I wrote a lot of film scripts, both shorts, and features with Sam Dulmage. As I’ve matured, I’m a lot more willing to see where the story goes instead of focusing on the funny. That led to a more touching Crazy 8 short film called Woodman.
HNMAG: Time Helmet is in post-production right now.
Peter New: Mike Jackson, who was in The Legend of Bonefish, directed both The Bar and Woodman. He’s my friend and we often collaborate. He had this idea and approaced me to star. We shot half of it during the pandemic. It’s been a mammoth to edit. Once the sound mix is finished, it’ll be done and we’ll submit to festivals this Fall. It’s about a time traveler who commits patent fraud. It’s pretty funny.
HNMAG: If you could time travel, there are easier ways to make money.
Peter New: He’s a really smart guy who is also an idiot.
HNMAG: You also made a series called Triple Eight. What is that about?
Peter New: It’s about a convenience store clerk who is the nexus and space and time. The more stressed out he gets, the weirder things happen. Portals open up in the store and he has to find a way to sew everything back together.
HNMAG: How do we move forward to get more movies and TV shows set in Canada?
Peter New: That’s a very big question. The nugget of it is that we are part of the American domestic market but we are only a tenth of the population. We’re a service industry to ninety percent of what Canadians see. Even though we are part of the American market, the US is not the market for our own productions. It’s also political. We have to find a way to homogenize the entertainment industry such that we each protect our own national cultures. We don’t have access to the biggest parts that get cast out of Los Angeles. On the one hand, we should have that access. We need to find a way to have our own domestic productions on the same scale and then distribute them to the same domestic market, including Canada. As it is, we cannot turn a profit on anything with a large budget, because there are not enough screens in just Canada to break even on something like that. So our stuff – quality stuff, mind you – always feels a bit cheap. Somehow, Canadian films have to be allowed into the US distribution networks. The distributors don’t seem to think they can make a profit off of Canadian films. I believe that as people who are both separate but still part of the US market, we have a unique and compelling perspective that would be coveted by the US market if we really had a chance to tell our own stories. In the past, I’ve resisted setting a story in Canada because I know it’s less marketable. I’m now setting a story partially in Toronto. I am saying hell with it. That’s where the story should be set! With Pixar’s Seeing Red being set in Toronto, there is a growing openness in Hollywood to set stories in Canada. There is more of an awareness of Canada. Our country has gained some romanticism.
Peter New is very creative, funny, and prolific. He has a long career of acting in US film and TV productions that are shot in Vancouver. Peter is also very articulate and intelligent. He has a wonderful perspective that is based on professional writing and performing experience.
We need more people like Peter New who are obsessively dedicated to creating the best content.