Sabsah.Libsyn.com — One things for sure – we at SEA AND BE SCENE have certainly enjoyed watching today’s guest over the years – from guest starring on shows like HAVEN, Reign and Frankie Drake Mysteries to starring roles in shows like the SyFy smash BITTEN and all kinds of truly romantic leading roles for the Hallmark Channel – Nova Scotia born actor STEVE LUND has given us plenty to celebrate over the years. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to hear he’ll be starring in the forthcoming CBC series STREET LEGAL – indeed the mega award winning long running drama is returning to prime time TV Starting Monday, March 4 and once again starring Cynthia Dale as the always fierce Olivia Novack but this time she’s got a a brand new team of lawyers to practice with and face off against – Steve Lund will star as the brash young lawyer Adam Darling – So we’ll talk about that new project and so much more – including what hockey brought to his life, his stance on social media and his great respect for the fans. We’ll also play an enlightening round of Insights IN 10 and get to first things first. BUT FIRST i gotta tell ya this whole interview was a first for SEA AND BE SCENE… AND HEARD now given the nature of this show and the crazy busy career of my guests so often in lieu of the ideal sit down we catch up over the phone – that’s not new – the fact that the guest was calling me – all the way from the tip of the southern most tip of the African Continent… that my friends is a first! Here’s my super-far, transatlantic phone call with the one and only Steve Lund.
Category: Interviews
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TheCoast.ca — Steve Lund is a cliche. At first glance Lund seems about as rare as a three-leaf clover, or a piece of hay in a haystack. A Steve, after all, is just a variation on a Chris, a Ryan or, heaven help us, a Tom. A Steve is exactly who you’d expect to fall in love with a Sandra or an Emma. A Steve drives fast cars, flies to the moon, works for the CIA or gives Hitler a sock on the jaw. A Steve is unquestionably the lead actor in a CBC legal drama. But here, in his own words, is the thing that sets Steve Lund apart: “I still to this day never feel more myself, never feel more comfortable or more able to access more of my entire being than when I am on set.”
Ha! Just kidding. What a fucking cliche!
If you just look at Lund, it would be as easy to make him the new Batman as it would be to shrug him off as “that guy from Bitten” while paying him $40 for a photo at a fan convention. He’s tall, he’s white, he’s handsome. He has all the ingredients to fall up a ladder and into a Cinematic Universe or up a totally different ladder into 20 years of Supernatural.
But when you actually watch Lund, there is a spark of something else: A reminder that we are the ones who shouldn’t be so obvious, that we are the ones who need to ask for some nuance from our Chrises, our Ryans and our Toms. And when you really watch, there he is—a Steve!—offering it to us.
Lund grew up in Manor Park and Halifax’s south end. His first acting role was the role of Banzai, a hyena in a production of The Lion King at Shannon Park Elementary School. He was in grade four. “I think I stole the show,” he says. His voice warms with humour whenever he talks about his family and childhood. He has two sisters, one older and one younger. “I’m the jelly in that doughnut.” He liked to dress up as Indiana Jones. “I had the hat; I had the whip; I had the cap gun; I had the leather jacket. Oh yeah. I even had the satchel. I believe it is still in a birch tree in Dartmouth.”
In grade five, Lund was cast in Jafar in what sounds like a Guy Ritchie production of Aladdin, but the play was cancelled. “It was going to be my big break, for sure,” he claims, obviously serious. That play’s cancellation dovetailed with his first year of rep hockey. (Competitive minor league hockey that is more competitive than community-based house league.) “It all kind of fell into place before I really realized or had made a conscious decision and eventually hockey was everything. It was my entire life for a very long time.”
Lund, who says he is “not a natural athlete” with the same breeziness of Tyra Banks saying she was an awkward tween, was picked fifth overall in the 2005 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League draft. He played defense for the PEI Rocket (now Islanders) and Halifax Mooseheads until 2008. A series of concussions (“I was living in a fog for most of the year. It was really awful”) and a sucker-punch at a pick-up game (“It was really bad, I was lying unconscious in a pool of my own blood at centre ice while someone called the ambulance”) made him realize maybe a 19-year-old shouldn’t be facing the end of a career, but instead begin one. So he left the sport. Continue reading Photos/Interview: Steve Covers ‘The Coast’ Magazine
TheChronicleHerald.ca — What’s the difference between a lawyer and a werewolf?
If anybody can come up with a punchline to that setup, it’s Halifax-born actor Steve Lund, who previously bared his canine teeth on the Syfy/Space horror series Bitten, and now trades his full moon fever in for a law degree on CBC-TV’s upcoming revival of its late-’80s/early ‘90s hit Street Legal, premiering on March 4.
“I think I have the answer,” he says after a few seconds’ thought. “The difference is a much better wardrobe.”
The Vancouver Film School-trained actor and former Halifax Mooseheads defenceman definitely looks sharp on the streets of Toronto in the new Street Legal, but his character Adam Darling is anything but a $1,000 suit shyster.
Instead, he’s part of a team of hungry young lawyers whose boutique advocacy law firm is working on a class action suit against big pharma over a highly addictive painkiller launched without the proper testing. As it turns out, they’re taking on the same pharmaceutical company that original series star Cynthia Dale’s Olivia Novak is after, when her Bay Street law firm implodes in a bloodbath of corporate headhunting.
Looking for a new challenge, and admiring her new partners’ energy and uncorrupted idealism, she agrees to bring her skill and guile to the table, joining Adam, Lilly Rue (played by Cara Ricketts) and Mina Lee (played by Yvonne Chapman). And so launches six episodes of the kinds of courtroom machinations and personal intrigue that were Street Legal’s stock-in-trade three decades ago.
Born in 1989, Lund was still a toddler when Street Legal was at its peak during its 1987-’94 run. When he got the chance to appear on the reboot, it wasn’t a name that registered with him immediately.
“When it was first mentioned to me, I thought maybe it was about a group of freewheeling auto mechanics,” he chuckles. “But when I looked into it, I realized there was a lot of history here, and it was one of the most successful Canadian TV shows of its time.
“There’s a lot of added responsibility when it comes to rebooting a series with such notoriety like that. But I also got the sense that there would be a lot of attention paid in the proper areas to do the original justice.
“I knew there would be a lot of integrity when it came to the scripts, with the tone of the show and putting a contemporary spin on a cherished classic. It seemed everybody would undoubtedly want to do a good job with it, and that was an alluring prospect, knowing they were trying to craft something great.”
In the first two episodes available to preview, Lund’s character Adam has a lot to cope with. The young lawyers realize they might be getting in over their head with a major case against a company that has further reach and more legal clout than they can shake a brief at, but Adam has a personal reason to go after the pharmaceutical corporation.
His parents — played by veteran actors Rosemary Dunsmore and Tom McCamus, both recently seen on Orphan Black — struggle with his mother’s addiction to the new painkiller that wasn’t supposed to be harmful. His father is a man of the cloth, but even this seems to be beyond his powers of understanding. It’s up to Adam to breach the gap, and when he got the script, Lund couldn’t wait to take on the challenge.
“Everything about this project and this character jumped out at me and attracted me to it very early on, and continued to do so every single day that we worked,” he says. “I was so happy to be given all this rich material and opportunities to do all these things I hadn’t really had the chance to do before.
“I’d been bursting at the seams to do more of this sort of thing, and then to be given these incredible castmates to work opposite, the work is already done in some respects. I just gotta keep the pace up.”
The new Street Legal hits the ground running with its very first episode, as Cynthia has to switch strategies while her former partners betray her at every turn. But the show’s emotional charge comes during heartrending scenes of watching Adam cope with his mother’s painful withdrawal symptoms.
Lund says those scenes required every bit of skill that he has, but he also felt empowered by the strength of the performances by Dunsmore and McCamus, which took him places he’d never been before.
“Part of the thrill of it all is trying to engage in a good rally between those two,” he says. “The heavy emotional side of it, the family aspect, is something I really relished in. I found tremendous joy in being able to access the love and the gravity that comes along with family.
“I’m very close with my family and we’ve been through a lot together and have come out the other side a very fortified bunch. I think it really lends itself to being able to access the emotions that are needed for this type of subject matter. My character goes through the wringer throughout the series, you haven’t seen the half of it yet. And yet it was so fun to do, I had such a ball, I wish I could do that every day.”
Some of the most powerful scenes have barely any dialogue at all, and Lund credits director Sturla Gunnarsson, with whom he’d worked previously on Schitt’s Creek, with bringing years of experience to bear on getting them just right.
“I remember one of the first really emotional scenes that I had, it was in the first week of shooting, and I was pinching myself and stepping back between takes. I was thinking of the genre stuff I’d been doing and thinking, ‘Wow, this beats the hell out of sci-fi, doesn’t it,’ and wiping the tears from my eyes, getting ready for the next take.
“I was right where I wanted to be, doing exactly what I wanted to do, and precisely what I set out to do and be a part of when I made the choice to become an actor.”
Lund’s on-camera career has built slowly but steadily since it began a decade ago, with enjoyable recurring characters on Haven and Schitt’s Creek alternating with major series roles on Bitten, Reign (CW’s series about Mary, Queen of Scots) and now Street Legal.
With this first round of the latter show wrapped, and his next adventure about to begin in Cape Town, South Africa on a horror film for the Syfy network, Lund appears to have no regrets about trading in his hockey stick for movie and TV scripts.
“Absolutely not,” he says with a laugh. “I was just reminiscing about being on the bus and all the travel we had to do. And the fact that you don’t really have a say in the matter. You have to play a certain schedule, even when you’re not feeling good, and the whole world of it all was something I was ready to let go of.
“And I have absolutely no regrets, I haven’t looked back and wondered about what could have been. I feel much more like myself, and like I’m doing what I was meant to do. More than I ever did playing hockey. I was fortunate to realize that early on, when I made the change, and it’s been a blast ever since.”
When he began appearing on The CW period drama Reign, Steve Lund felt relief that his 15 auditions weren’t for naught.
“I’d like to think I get to choose my roles and have an array of opportunities, but in this case I auditioned numerous times,” he said.
“I got an offer for a role in the fourth season, and at first it was only three episodes, but it became recurring. I was just happy they recognized my abilities as an actor.”
As it turns out, news of Reign’s cancellation meant this would be Lund’s last chance to be on the popular series.
“My character Luc was a good guy, but there was potential for danger given his family history. I could sway viewers one way or another, and there was always a thought I may go against the order,” he said.
“There was a little smirk behind every line. And any time you get to be part of a period piece, it’s a ton of fun. I had a costume, an accent, dance routines and you got to hang out in a castle every day. It’s not a bad way to earn a paycheque.”
The Halifax-born actor — now living in Toronto — said the cancellation hit other cast members hard.
“We went out with a bang, and we sort of realized it couldn’t get better and ended appropriately. I wasn’t terribly miffed (about the cancellation), but when you develop these relationships, you want to wrap up and do it all justice.”
Lund has been met with success on Netflix, where his appearances in Hemlock Grove and Blue Mountain State are readily available.
“There’s sort of a legitimacy to being on streaming, because if I meet someone and they ask where they can see me, I can point to Netflix,” he said.
He speaks about Hemlock Grove — in which he appeared in two episodes as a bartender — and though he didn’t meet star Bill Skarsgard, he sure is amped for the young actor’s next project.
The actor, from a famous family including Marvel universe actor Stellan and brother, True Blood alum Alexander, is set to hit the big screen as Pennywise, the terrifying clown in a remake of Stephen King’s novel IT.
“My friend from the show knows him very well, and all I’ve ever heard is that he has so much potential. I’m really excited for the movie. I think he’ll do a fine job,” said Lund, speaking on the role immortalized by Tim Curry in 1990.
Lund was also a regular in television shows Haven and Bitten, and says the latter was his most significant role to date.
“Being a series regular far surpassed any undertaking I’d had previously, and it challenged me in so many ways.
“It was amazing carrying a storyline for three seasons,” he said.
“I was the youngest in the cast, and there was a family dynamic born on day one. I couldn’t imagine a better legit first gig.”
Lund has also tried his hand at comedy, with a three-episode arc in the CBC hit Schitt’s Creek. He had nothing but praise for his co-stars.
“It was one of the most peculiar, unique and entertaining experiences of my life. Continue reading The Chronicle Herald: Local actor reigns supreme in showbiz
Many of you will remember Steve Lund as The Colorado Kid in “Haven”. In his recent show “Bitten” he plays the playboy who wraps all the ladies around his little finger. In real life he’s also a total charmer, who loves his work and his fans. In our interview he kindly made time to talk about the events in “Bitten” season 2 and the upcoming third season and he also talks about the experiences he and Greyston Holt made at fan conventions.
In Germany “Bitten” season 1 is airing Fridays on sixx. On August 21st sixx starts airing season 2 as German TV premiere.
Unlike other supernatural shows “Bitten” focuses more on the human side of the werewolfs. Does it make it easier to play a werewolf?
We don’t often find ourselves concerned with the wolf aspect of the show while we’re on set, only because that human side of it is so abundantly present in the material. For each situation we find ourselves in as wolves, we relate as actors to themes of identity, legacy, love and family. When you think of it in those terms, it becomes very playable.
Your character Nick was born as a werewolf and grew up knowing what would eventually happen to him. Do you think because he knew about his families legacy, that what happened to him in season 2, falling in love with Paige, kind of scared him, because it’s something, he doesn’t really know?
Nick has always been warned of getting too close to somebody and was weary, often exhibiting opposite behavior, but he never fully understood his fathers lessons until he met Paige. There has always been a yearning to understand himself on a deeper level but he never truly knew how to explore that. When Paige came into his life, it was clear that this was the piece he was missing and needed to explore. He knew it could come at a cost, but it was about measuring the worth of his experience and what Paige gave him was invaluable.
In season 1 Nick was the fun-loving, living the life to its fullest kind of guy. In season 2 it seemed like he was ready to give a relationship with Paige a try. Do you think the fact, that he sees what Elena and Clay have can work, helps him to try to look for that same kind of connection with someone?
I think Nick was very affected by the lengths that each Clay and Elena were willing to go for their love, and the resulting casualties of it changed something in him. He was so shielded from affection as a child for protective purposes, but now that he is his own man he is ready to live for someone other than himself.
The episode in which Paige and Nick are off meeting Nick’s mum was beautiful. When she comes over and we see the little kid in Nick, with his emotions all over the place, was amazing. How was it working on that scene?
It was truly a highlight of my life, let alone my career. That episode was directed by Executive Producer J.B. Sugar, whom with I feel very comfortable and confident, so that set the stage to play. Coupled with the most wonderful and most talented Tommie-Amber Pirie who is always there to receive the fullest of every emotion known to mankind. Compound that once again with this lovely angel of a person who coincidentally, although I think serendipitously hails from my home province of Nova Scotia Shauna Macdonald, and you’ve got the makings of some heartfelt art.
The pack lost one of its members in season two – a total shocker by the way – is there a chance that we could be introduced to a new member in season 3?
It was a very devastating loss for the show indeed. We’re still not entirely over that one in fact. We were very upset to see him go, but it’s required to mention what a tremendous performance he gave on his way out. Boy sure knows how to make an exit! I’ve certainly heard tell of some new characters being introduced and also visiting some familiar ones in different places and stages of their lives.
Nick was the first one Logan told the news about Rachel being pregnant with a boy. After losing his pack member and best friend do you think your character could try to become a kind of guardian for the baby?
I better be the godfather! I think that child will have a few fathers that would put their heart and soul into raising him right. Logan’s death will not be in vain. He will live on.
We’re so happy there is going to be a third season of Bitten. Congratulations by the way! Can you reveal anything about what can we expect?
Yes: Elena is gifted 3 mysterious eggs and nurses them for a long journey across many lands until the eggs eventually hatch and dragons are spawned that are under her control and she becomes the most powerful wolf in the land. Wait, that sounds like its been done before…
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