The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Brent Stait had it made. Like many young men before him, he had landed a stable, well-paying job at Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting not long after graduating from high school. Had he stayed at the company, continuing to work in the smelter or underground, a comfy retirement would now be within eyeshot. But he had other plans. ÒI had nothing against the mine,Ó says Stait, who was born in Snow Lake. ÒPeople make a good living there, but I went, ÔThis is not what I want to do for the rest of my life.ÕÓ What he did want to do Ð indeed what he needed to do Ð was act. The desire had been burning within him as long as he could remember, and by the time he joined HBMS at 18, he could no longer deny it. So Stait saved up his mining money and began looking at acting schools. His natural talent was obvious when he was accepted to the renowned Ryerson Theatre School in Toronto, where he studied the craft for three years. That was more than a quarter-century ago. Today, the 48-year-old former Flin Flon Bomber is a successful character actor in Los Angeles and one of the lucky few living his dream. ÒIÕm still acting because itÕs the only thing I really like doing,Ó he says. ÒBut you have to understand that when youÕre an actor, itÕs not all glamour and glitz; thereÕs very little of that for most actors. It can be a tough job.Ó Stait has brought a variety of characters to life in more than 40 films, mostly made-for-television, and over 30 TV series. HeÕs shared the screen with names such as Russell Crowe, Sydney Poitier, Martin Sheen, Catherine Zeta-Jones and the legendary Katherine Hepburn. His resume includes the Steven Spielberg miniseries Taken, the reunion movie I Still Dream of Jeannie, a biopic of troubled hockey player Sheldon Kennedy, and guest shots on TV shows such as The X Files, Highlander and Due South. More recently heÕs had roles in the TV series Fear Itself, Masters of Horror and Blade: The Series. Despite his body of work, Stait is not a recognizable actor. HeÕs more likely to elicit a ÒHavenÕt I seen you before?Ó than a ÒCan I have your autograph?Ó But for him, acting was never about the fame. ÒPeople outside of our business judge your career on how famous you are. ThatÕs not how I judge my career,Ó he says. ÒOf course IÕd rather be doing more films and having bigger parts, but IÕm enjoying what IÕm doing.Ó Enjoy it he does. Stait laughs frequently as he shares secrets from the set, including a rather unique method he and his co-workers found to soak up the heavy perspiration he produced while wearing alien makeup for the sci-fi series Andromeda. ÒI would sweat so much in this thing that we couldnÕt find anything to stop the sweat,Ó says Stait, who played a creature named Rev Bem. ÒSo we got womenÕs pads and put them on my head, under the latex. We always had this joke about whether it was going to be a two-pad day or a one-pad day.Ó Stait also recalls how he wasnÕt the only Flin Flon connection to Mystery, Alaska, one of his few big-screen features. One scene in the hockey comedy reveals that Mike MeyersÕ character, Donnie Shulzhoffer, hails from the oddly-named mining town. ÒMike just liked the name and he knew who Bobby Clarke was,Ó recalls Stait. ÒI was going to lend him my Flin Flon Bomber ring from when we won the junior ÔBÕ championship.Ó No doubt many of the people who saw Mystery, Alaska saw humour in the name ÒFlin Flon.Ó Stait has found the same thing whenever he mentions his former hometown. ÒMy buddy still canÕt get it right. He always says, ÔFlim Flam,ÕÓ says Stait. ÒBut youÕd be surprised how many people have heard of Flin Flon because of Bobby Clarke. When I went to have my green card interview, the guy I talked to wasnÕt that impressed that I had worked with Russell Crowe, but he was impressed that my parents knew Bobby Clarke.Ó In many ways, StaitÕs trek from beneath the surface of Flin Flon to Hollywood has been an unlikely journey. He says some people doubted his aspirations, but he was never one of them. ÒI had one girl in theatre school say, ÔWell, what if you donÕt make it?Õ and I said, ÔNot make it. What does that mean?ÕÓ he says. ÒOf course I was going to make it. Maybe it was cockiness that carried me through.Ó Well into his acting career, Stait may not be able to see his retirement from here, but heÕs having too much fun to notice.
