HOLLYWOODKIM COATES: TOUGH GU Y draws strength from Mom, two brothers, childhood pals, and the old green and white

BY KARIN MELBERG SCHWIER

hen he comes back to Saskatoon, the only “I love coming home to see Mom,” Coates says. “I thing deadly about Hollywood kickass lost my dad a few years ago, seeing her is top bad guy Kim Coates is his mom’s killer priority. She’s an Energizer bunny.” He happily rattles cinnamon buns and his take-a-bullet love off childhood buddies like Jim Lindsay, Larry Harley, Wfor his hometown, his alma mater, and his old school and Murray Totland, Saskatoon’s city manager. buddies. The prolific movie and television actor, on a Coates talks about them with the same warmth short hiatus while wrapping the fifth season of the and admiration as he does industry pals like William critically acclaimed FX cable hit , Fichtner, , Matt Craven, Eric Bana, even came home in September to see Mom and lend Christopher Plummer. You get the idea that if you support to the institution that inspired his calling. gave them all hockey sticks in front of Coates’ old house, there would be one wicked game of shinny. Kim Coates is a really nice guy. Unless you haven’t watched TV or movies in past two decades, that may “Murray Totland was my first buddy,” recalls Coates. be a bit hard to grasp. The actor has a propensity “I was four, he was five. We used to walk to Thornton to play scary dudes — gun-toting killers, vampires, Elementary on Lorne Avenue every day. We’re bikers, sleaze balls, myriad unsavoury characters, still attached at the hip. To think he’s gone from us Macbeth, for goodness sake — so ‘nice’ isn’t the first blowing up dinky toys in his back yard to running adjective that comes to mind. That’s because Coates the whole city, well, it’s frightening.” Coates laughs. is a consummate actor who makes any character “But he does it so well, and no one could blow up a believable. All from an accidental start with a drama dinky toy like Totland. Seriously, I’m not kidding. The elective on a whim at the University of Saskatchewan. engineer was in his brain when he was six.” Talking to Fine Lifestyles on his cell phone after a morning run in Eaton Canyon near his home in Pasadena, Coates Coates had a quick wit and a pretty good knack is in a talkative mood. It’s quickly evident he loves to for public speaking but a future in theatre wasn’t talk about Saskatoon, family, his personal and industry hardwired by any means. At Nutana Collegiate, friends, and his mission to help create a world-renowned pretending to be in Hawaii Five-O with Gord Pepper centrepiece for arts at the U of S. was the extent of Coates’ theatrical aspirations. He worked at Safeway on 20th Street part time to Coates’ 82-year-old mom still lives in his childhood finance other passions — his first motorcycle and a home and tends a rumpus room shrine to her son’s ’67 Galaxy 500. acting career. Joyce Coates was a career Safeway gal; his father Fred an Eaton’s man. A childhood with He enrolled at U of S in 1977, vaguely planning to brothers Dale and Dean meant of having the run of be a history teacher. There he stumbled upon two his Exhibition neighbourhood, loving parents, enough life changers. One, he met education student Diana to eat, and always a pair of skates so he could play Chappell, whom he married in 1984, and two, he put hockey with pals. a check mark next to a drama elective. Photo: Frank Ockenfels / FX “Honestly, back in ’79 when I decided to become an Baruchel.).” Three feature films open this year: The Truth actor, I’m not even really sure any of us knew what (he co-produced and stars with Forest Whitaker and that meant. I remember watching classmate Dwayne Andy Garcia); those two Saskatchewan-made movies, Brenna on stage, thinking, ‘Holy crap, he’s good!’ I think Rufus and Ferocious, now in post, were shot in Dundurn we were probably a bit mystified by it all. Mom and Dad and Saskatoon. In winter. just knew I absolutely loved it.” “I about froze my knackers off,” he howls. “Soft? After convocation for both Coates and Chappell in Totally soft, baby! They say you can take the boy of 1981, she taught in Kindersley before the couple moved Saskatchewan, but you can’t take Saskatchewan out of to Toronto the next year. Coates went to auditions, the boy. I’m not so sure that’s true.” Some tough guy. waited tables at the Nag’s Head Tavern, complete with cummerbund, and lived off tips while Diana pulled Coates admits being recognized as a ‘movie star’ these their financial weight, teaching with the York Board of days gets “a bit out of control.” Recently in Amsterdam, Education. It was a lean but exciting time of wide-eyed the couple dealt with swarms of SOA fans. discovery as auditions and small parts came his way. “But you’ll never hear me complain about a family from Opportunities picked up steam and a short 18 months Vancouver running up to have their picture taken with later, Coates landed roles in West Side Story and Romeo me,” he says. “I’m fortunate to be in a hit show. It’s a bit and Juliet at the Neptune Theatre with Tom Kerr in of a pain when you’re having dinner with your wife, but Photo: Kiel Harvey Halifax. Soon he was trodding the boards at Stratford I’m never going to bitch about it because I’m not that with roles like the lead in Macbeth and as Roma in kind of guy. I’m from Saskatoon. Airports are crazy Bertold Brect’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. now,” he adds. “I don the ball cap once in a while.”

“My favourite writer, Joseph Campbell, says to follow Coates gets intense about tragedies like the shooting your bliss and I believe that, but sometimes it’s tough,” he at the Batman Colorado premiere. He’s angry about says. “You need someone to help you over those bumpy easy gun access in the U.S., an odd juxtaposition roads. If you love each other, if they can support you until between Coates the pacifist and his gun wielding there’s either nothing left to support or you’re a star, SOA character Tig Trager. that’s what it takes. I was lucky Diana did that for me.” “Guns in America,” he fumes. “I try not to get During this period, Coates caught the eye of New York too political down here but I flat out hate it. I’m agents for his Stratford work. While Diana taught in not talking about taking my 12-gauge out with Toronto, Coates headed to Broadway where his career my Uncle Mort to get some geese on his farm blossomed with plum roles. One of the most significant in the fall. I’m talking about the availability and was taking over from Aiden Quinn the role of Stanley the bullshit interpretation of a Constitution Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. “I always that was made for militia back in 1776 and wanted to be where the best work was, but I was almost has nothing to do whatsoever with having a an innocent about the whole time. I had no fear.” right to carry guns today. Guns kill people. It’s disgusting. Don’t get me started.” Two daughters were born in Toronto, Kyla in 1989 and Brenna in 1993. In 1995, the entire family made How does he survive in the acting industry their way to Los Angeles, following Coates’ bliss. By where early breakthroughs and career that time, he’d gotten a green card with his work on momentum can be difficult? Coates says as with any Waterworld and other Warner Brothers projects, and career, a good foundation in the craft is paramount and Photo: Peter Christiensen had joined the Screen Actors Guild. When Coates solid support gets the job done. realized he wouldn’t have to give up his Canadian citizenship — something he’d never do — the family “It’s a tough industry to stay sane in,” he says. “But I love became dual citizens in 1998. to explore, I love the dark side, the bright side. If it’s great writing, I want to play the guy. I like going to Eric Bana’s Now the veteran of over 50 movies and television and ’s premieres, and my own, walking shows, Coates says he’ll go wherever he needs to go to the red carpet, talking to cockroach media like TMZ. I work on the best projects. love it all. But I know what Hollywood is, and I came into it with my eyes open.” “The two movies I worked on in Saskatchewan last year will forever be in my heart. I will go wherever I need to go Mom was top priority on this Saskatoon visit, and there to work on the best projects, I don’t care if it’s Hollywood was a quick detour to the Calgary Film Festival for or Winnipeg (where he recently filmed hockey comedy the world premieres of both Rufus and Ferocious. But Goon, with Seann William Scott, Liev Schreiber and Jay Coates also booked time with people involved in the

TOP As “Van Dusen” in Rufus. FRAME U of S Greystone TOP Fishing at Chitek Lake FRAME U of S Greystone Theatre production of Creeps MIDDLE Still from Theare production of Creeps and Broadway’s Streetcar Ferocious BOTTOM Kim Coates and Daughters at the Named Desire MIDDLE With parents, high school gradu- Toyota Grand Prix Pro Celeb Race at Toyota Grand Prix ation BOTTOM Sons of Anarchy cast at premiere Track on April 16, 2011 in Long Beach

Photo by Frank Micelotta/PictureGroup Photo: Joe Seer / Shutterstock.com U of S Clarion Project, something dear to his thespian heart. The Project’s artful vision promotes innovative arts, multi-disciplinary programs, and ultimately a new fine and performing arts facility On Kim Coates: on campus. “We’re all so proud of him and never In September, Coates dropped in on U of S drama students doubted he’d be successful. We go way in a new film class and had some one-on-one in a fourth year acting class. He attended the Broadway Theatre showing of his back. My dad was a police officer, so we Regina-shot 45RPM. He lunched with Arts and Sciences Dean had to be a little careful but we had no end Peter Stoicheff, and dined with Jami Young, Bill Waiser, Kirby of things to get into. Lots of golf, hockey. Wirchenko, and a few Clarion Project people. There are two Kims: the Hollywood Kim, Coates counts former U of S President Peter MacKinnon as a and there’s Coatsie from childhood, the friend and confidante. The pair has spent time on walks and over really genuine down–to-earth guy I know dinners talking about how crucial it is to expose students to a and love. It would have been easy to forget rich liberal arts foundation, to offer a chance for them to discover about all of us back here and get caught up their own creativity, and to do more to grow a vibrant cultural community. Coates views his own involvement in the Clarion with his phenomenal success. But he still Project as a priority on his front burner. cares deeply about Saskatoon, what’s going on in the community and the university. “You can never be the greatest university unless you have Honest and open, it’s hard not to like the a centerpiece for art, for music, for drama. There’s been a phenomenal growth spurt with medicine, sciences, the guy. I even let him beat me at golf once in synchrotron, but we’re not done,” he says. “Saskatchewan is awhile because he’s so likable.” really kicking ass in a lot of areas, so a prosperous time is not the time to dismantle the arts. I can’t wait until the next election Murray Totland, Saskatoon City Manager because I’m going to be front and centre of anything that helps us get back the film tax credit so we can continue art and film and television and singing and dancing in this great province of ours.”

Coates realizes his good fortune in the business, but is aware of his own talent and contribution. “I just want to continue to be around people who create, whether it’s film or television or theatre, guys like Damian Lee in Toronto. A great night for me is to have dinner with Di, a nice bottle of Napa, and friends who wants to talk film, theatre, the Riders, and my Red Wings. And I love coming home.”

Back in LA, Sons of Anarchy creator “definitely has seven seasons up his sleeve.” The fifth season of SOA premiered September 11. It’s based on Hamlet and “we all know that doesn’t end well,” Coates grins. “We spent four seasons going up the hill and it’s only getting more revved up as we come down the other side. It’s really getting ferocious, just crazy.” When the series finally wraps Coates knows he will have been part of a phenomenal classic. The fact it was a huge hit was “icing on the cake.”

A consummate chameleon, he can’t wait to move on to try on the skin of the next character. “I keep finding things in Tig, but a whole new character will be a great new challenge.” Another tough guy? Perhaps, he muses. You imagine him slouched on a boulder in Eaton Canyon, black hair wild, a smile on his lips, those ice blues gazing steadily across the San Fernando Valley toward the LA smog.

“I am really excited about what comes next. I’ve done good guy, bad guy, comedy. I’m going to direct, and produce more. You know what?” he says. “I think my best stuff is yet to come.” FLS

LEFT Still from Sons of Anarchy. Photo: Prashant Gupta / FX