Whether in ‘The Tudors,’ ‘Lost Girl,’ ‘Umbrella Academy’ or ‘Departure,’ Kris Holden-Ried is happy to be a ‘workin’ actor’
He’s played a werewolf, a Tudor courtier and a Swedish assassin, but Canadian actor Kris Holden-Ried considers Global TV series “Departure” one of his favourite jobs — not least because he got to work with legendary actor Christopher Plummer.
Holden-Ried joked that he would have done “Departure” for free.
“I mean, I love working with Christina Jennings and (production company) Shaftesbury … Christopher Plummer was already attached and Archie Panjabi; I’d be working with an Emmy Award winner and an Academy Award winner,” the Scarborough-born actor said in a video interview.
Plus, he plays a British character and he loves doing accents, “and we were filming in England and in Ontario (in Season 1). So I mean, what a gem of a gig.”
In “Departure,” Holden-Ried plays ex-cop Dom Hayes, a member of the fictional Transport Safety and Investigations Bureau based in London, England. The team, including lead investigator Kendra Malley (Panjabi) and boss Howard Lawson (Plummer), solved the crash of a British passenger jet in the first season.
In Season 2, which debuts Wednesday, the action shifts to the United States when an automated high-speed train derails on the way to Chicago from Toronto. Dom and Kendra are back on the case, although Howard — spoiler alert if you haven’t seen Season 1 — is under house arrest in England for conspiring to cover up the cause of last season’s crash and interacts with Kendra by phone.
In real life, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Plummer shot his scenes at his home in Connecticut, completing them before he died in February 2021 at the age of 91, which makes “Departure” his last onscreen role.
Holden-Ried recalled being on set with Plummer in Season 1. “It was very fond memories of sitting beside him in our chairs, waiting for set-ups, and listening to his stories or asking questions about certain parts of his career.”
None of those questions were about 1965’s “The Sound of Music” which Plummer was famously averse to talking about, but “I think sometimes I did hum ‘Edelweiss’ around him,” Holden-Ried said, laughing.
“But the thing that was most inspiring about working with Chris Plummer was that he turned 89 while we were filming Season 1 and I just really saw the longevity that you can have in this career … he became a true mentor and an inspiration.”
That wasn’t the only time Plummer inspired Holden-Ried, 48.
When he was “a very young actor,” he saw Plummer in “Barrymore” at the Elgin Theatre: “What an incredible endeavour and performance,” he said.
Holden-Ried is one of those actors whose face you’re bound to have seen if you’ve watched TV and movies in the last 27 years. And if you were a fan of sports in the 1990s, you might even recognize him as a former member of the Canadian national pentathlon team.
He was a broke athlete and business student when he got into acting. Although he’d been drawn to performing while watching James Bond and Indiana Jones movies, and doing school plays, his father convinced him business school was the better option.
But in his second year at Concordia University, “I was in enormous debt and there was an ad in a little local Montreal newspaper. They wanted people with special skills, horseback riding, sword-fighting, for onscreen” — perfect for an athlete used to fencing, swimming, riding, pistol shooting and running.
Holden-Ried booked his first audition — a 1995 TV movie called “Young Ivanhoe” — and never looked back.
But his career really escalated when he appeared in the 2007 series “The Tudors,” a dramatization of the life of King Henry VIII. “It was really one of the seminal big-budget period shows. It and ‘Rome’ set the precedent all the way up to ‘Game of Thrones’ and a lot of what we’re seeing today,” said Holden-Ried, who played courtier William Compton.
Another favourite role was in the cult hit supernatural drama “Lost Girl,” in which for five seasons he played Dyson, a homicide detective and shape-shifter who turned into a wolf.
“It was such a crazy little show; we got to do some really wacky stuff, like body swapping. What a fun acting experience that is, getting to swap characters with one of your cast mates.”
More favourites? “Vikings,” in which he played warrior Eyvind, and “The Umbrella Academy,” in which he was one of three Swedish assassin brothers in Season 2.
“And then, of course, ‘Departure,’ which is such a fun, tight blast of great energy with great people. So I’ve been very lucky,” Holden-Ried said.
Adding to the fun this season was the addition of new cast members, with Canadians Kelly McCormack and Wendy Crewson, Canadian-American Donal Logue and Irish actor Jason O’Mara among those joining series regulars Panjabi, Holden-Ried and Mark Rendall in the Canadian-Irish co-production.
Speaking of Panjabi, Holden-Ried confessed he was a little intimidated about meeting the British actor for the first time. “I’d seen her work on ‘The Good Wife’ (for which Panjabi won an Emmy). And I thought she was stellar, a powerhouse … but in person, she’s very soft-spoken and very calm and demure. She quickly put all my apprehension aside.”
Holden-Ried also praised the production team, including series creator Vincent Shiao, showrunner Malcolm MacRury and director T.J. Scott, whom he called a “force of nature, visually and creatively.”
Holden-Ried hopes to get into directing and developing TV productions of his own someday, having optioned Guy Gavriel Kay’s “Fionavar Tapestry” fantasy novel trilogy along with Boat Rocker Media.
But he’s also happy doing what he’s doing. “I don’t ever want to be a megastar. I like to just be a good workin’ actor, you know?”
That first point was impressed upon him years ago when he bore a strong physical resemblance to a certain British rock star.
He recalled walking the red carpet at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2012, the year Gwyneth Paltrow was there, and hearing people screaming, thinking he was Chris Martin, Paltrow’s then husband.
“I actually got a shirt made that said, ‘I’m not Chris Martin.’ People still didn’t believe me. (They would say) ‘I like how you’re faking your Canadian accent.’ Like really, you think I’d go that far?”
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