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.
Back in high school, not everyone took Tracey Poirier seriously when she said she was going to one day work in the movie business. To them, it just didn't sound like a very likely journey, going from a small Northern Manitoba mining town to the star-studded sets of Hollywood productions. But probable or not, the Flin Flon woman has made her dream come true. She has spent the past decade working behind the scenes in the film industry, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Will Smith, Jack Nicholson, Sylvester Stallone and Carol Burnett. "It's what I've always wanted to do," says Tracey, who now lives in Vancouver. "I always knew I would work in this business." Tracey has lent a hand to more than 20 movies and TV series, mostly as third or second assistant director. In those roles, she's overseen paperwork, planned filming schedules, called the actors to let them know when they would be brought to the set, and other unseen tasks. "I usually have a cell phone surgically attached to the side of my head when I'm working," she says. Chances are, you've seen a production in which Tracey played a role. She worked on the Will Smith blockbuster I, Robot, the popular TV series The X-Files and the hit Jeff Goldblum comedy Cats & Dogs. Her name also appears in the credits of My Baby's Daddy, It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie, Mission to Mars, The Pledge starring Jack Nicholson and the Sylvester Stallone feature Eye See You. She recently wrapped up production on the musical Once Upon a Mattress, which gave her the chance to work (and enjoy dinner) with her childhood idol, comedian Carol Burnett. Tracey was so admiring of Burnett that in high school, she helped write a letter (though it was never mailed) asking, tongue-in-cheek, if the veteran actress would speak at her graduation. She planned to rationalize the invitation by pointing out that Burnett's middle name ? Creighton ? is the same as the town across the Flin Flon border. "She got a good laugh out of hearing that one," recalls the Hapnot Collegiate graduate. Tracey had another interesting Flin Flon story to tell earlier this year when she worked on Reefer Madness, a remake of the cult anti-marijuana film from the 1930s. She told the director, Andy Fickman, about the famous medicinal marijuana mine back in her hometown. "I told him I could hook him up (with plants for the movie), and he had a good laugh," she says. See 'Get' P.# Con't from P.# Tracey doesn't mind offering observations on what the stars are like in person. She said Will Smith is "a very cool guy who remembers everybody's name" while Sylvester Stallone "is all right; he's Sylvester Stallone." What she will not do, at least in public, is share any unflattering secrets about them that she may have learned during her career. Does Stallone have any odd habits? She won't say. "It's kind of like a hockey player ? what happens on the road stays on the road," she says. So how this happen? How did a woman born and raised in Flin Flon, Manitoba ? seemingly as far removed from Hollywood as possible ? end up on the set of a $164-million production like I, Robot. It all started in 1985. Not long after graduating from a photography course at Winnipeg's Red River College, Tracey moved to Los Angeles, the hotbed of the movie industry. After working at a toy store for a few years, she began snapping photos at awards ceremonies, movie premieres and any other places famous people congregated. She sold her work to celebrity-obsessed publications like People, The National Enquirer and Globe. While she had fun watching the actors and actresses pass by, Tracey was constantly reminded of her ultimate dream ? to one day walk down the red carpet with them. "I always wanted to work in the movie business, so I thought, 'You know what? I'm going to go to Vancouver and see if I can get my foot in the door," she recalls. In 1994, she did just that. Within a few months of moving to the B.C. capital ? often called "Hollywood North" ? she landed a job as a production assistant on the TV western series Hawkeye. Though the multi-faceted job was at "the bottom of the totem pole" and demanded grueling hours, Tracey was thrilled to finally be in show business. "When you start out in this business, you don't work nine to five, you work five to nine at least, if not more," she says. "I wouldn't say it was hard, but it was a lot of work. I was always the first one there in the morning and the last one to leave at night." With dedication and a bit of luck, Tracey moved up the film ladder at an uncommonly quick pace, going from production assistant to trainee assistant director to third assistant director within a year. "The trick is to get that first job and do good work and then you get another job, and then you do good work with that, and so on," she says. "It's a learning process, and with each new job comes 1,000 more responsibilities. You basically just watch and learn from what everybody else is doing." Slowly but surely, Tracey met more people in the business and her name became increasingly well known. That's vital in a business that is all about contacts. "It's kind of who you know and who you met before," she says. "Sometimes you send in a resume and sometimes they call you. Sometimes you get the job and sometimes you don't." Tracey's schedule today is more organized than it was when she began her career. She'll spend a few months working 12-hour days and then take a couple of months off to recoup before landing a job on a different project. Up next is a project she laughingly says reminds her of growing up in Flin Flon. Antarctica is a sled dog movie for Buena Vista Pictures that starts filming in Smithers, B.C. in three weeks. Tracey has come a long way, both from Flin Flon and from snapping celebrity photos in Los Angeles all those years ago. "Now instead of standing behind the red carpet taking pictures at a movie premiere, I get to walk down it because I worked on the movie," she smiles.
