The Final Cut
The Final Cut is a bold and insightful podcast exploring the latest in film and television. Hosted by Professor John Cook and filmmaker Charlotte Bjuren, each episode dives into new releases, classic gems, and the stories shaping screen culture today.
CONNECT WITH US:
The Final Cut website: https://the-final-cut-podcast.b12sites.com/index#services
NEW ** Read our Film Blog Beyond the Screen
https://beyondthescreen72.blogspot.com/?m=1
Connect with Charlotte Bjuren
https://charlottebjuren.my.canva.site/
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/charlottebjuren
Connect with Professor John Cook
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/cook-john-a5830342
If you enjoy what I do, consider supporting me on Ko-fi! Every little bit means the world! https://ko-fi.com/finalcut72
The Final Cut
Cinema's Talent Hunters
Behind the curtain of Hollywood glamour lies a world where relationships and human creativity remain paramount, even as technological disruptions reshape the industry. Talent agent Jason Norris pulls back that curtain, giving us a rare glimpse into the fascinating dynamics of actor representation and what makes careers in entertainment truly flourish.
When Jason founded his Toronto-based talent agency YCAA in February 2020—just weeks before the pandemic changed everything—he brought a revolutionary approach to talent management. Rather than adopting the volume-based, transactional model common in the industry, he built his agency on deep relationships with a carefully curated roster of actors. "It became really apparent to me that there was a lot of ownership on the parents to understand what the expectation was, and a lot less management," Jason explains about his experience seeking representation for his daughter, which ultimately inspired him to create the agency he couldn't find.
The conversation navigates through several compelling territories—from the unlikely blessing of launching during lockdown (which allowed YCAA to pioneer virtual "Meet the Pros" sessions connecting actors with industry leaders) to the delicate financial ecosystem that makes international film production possible. Jason breaks down how tax incentives and exchange rates drive decisions about where films are made, creating a symbiotic relationship between Hollywood and production hubs like Canada and Scotland.
Most reassuring for creative professionals is Jason's perspective on AI. Drawing from recent conversations at the Canadian Screen Awards, he shares industry consensus that while artificial intelligence will find its place in production processes, it cannot replicate "the heart that we have inside of each other, the stories, the actual real-life stories that we've lived, and the emotion that came with that." This human element—the perfectly imperfect quality of authentic storytelling—remains irreplaceable.
Whether you're an aspiring actor wondering what agents really look for, a filmmaker curious about production economics in a global market, or simply a lover of film and television wanting to understand the industry better, this episode offers valuable insights from someone who's built a thriving agency by seeing the humanity behind the business. Subscribe now and join our conversation about the past, present, and future of storytelling on screen.
SUPPORT The Final Cut Podcast
Visit the Show on YouTube
🔔 Subscribe and turn on notifications so you never miss a video!
https://youtube.com/@thefinalcut722?si=ykKM2b25QandoxVk
☕ Buy me a coffee (support the show)
https://www.buzzsprout.com/2470452/support
Or
Visit the Final Cut Website
https://the-final-cut-podcast.b12sites.com/index#services
Hot lights fade the curtains rise, new stories waiting behind our eyes. Charlotte and John with the final say.
Speaker 1:Breaking down the screens in their own way. This is the final cut, where the real reviews ignite.
Speaker 2:Hello there, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Final Cut. Before we start today, I want you to have a look or, if you're listening to us, have a listen to this this the hottest thing tonight the Final Cut podcast.
Speaker 2:So it looks just like a typical scene from Hollywood Actors doing what they do best Award ceremonies, chat shows, glitz and glamour. But here's the thing none of these are real. None of these people that you've seen are real. They were generated this week by Charlotte as part of our adverts for this upcoming podcast, generated on the new Google VO3 system that allows photorealistic simulations of on-screen talent. So today we're going to explore that and a number of other issues relating to the future and the current state of on-screen talent in the film and television industries, and with us.
Speaker 2:I'm delighted to be joined by Jason Norris, who is based in Toronto in Canada, and is the managing partner and senior talent agent at YCAA in Toronto, which he co-founded. Now, jason began his career studying communications at the University of Ottawa. I have sympathy. I used to teach media and communications in Glasgow and then Jason went on and went into advertising, first at Montreal and then, preferring a warmer climate, in Toronto. But since 2018, jason's been working in talent representation in Toronto and, with a band of loyal actors and a couple of interns to help him, he decided to launch YCAA, his talent agency, in February 2020. An interesting time to do so, just as COVID was hitting and we'll maybe touch on that a bit later. Now, ycaa has become one of the fastest growing agencies in Canada for talent in television and film, and it's established itself as a really sought-after agency, and some of its talent has been seen on major TV series that have aired on Netflix, hbo and CBC, which is Canada's national broadcaster. So, jason Norris, welcome to the final podcast. Delighted to have you here.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you. Thank you very much, john. I feel like we have nothing left to talk about. You said it all right there in that introduction. It was quite amazing, thank you, and hi, charlotte, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, so you know, great, great video.
Speaker 1:The AAI thing that you started the video with is quite interesting. Right, there's a lot of, and it's funny that you bring up, like you know, the award ceremony, because we just had the Canadianadian screen awards here. So the csa's um, so the lovely pictures. Yes, thank you. Uh, we, so I was. I was obviously at that to support, uh, our talent and also I am a voting member of the academy, so I'm part of the academy, um and um. You know, obviously it doesn't get on to the broadcast as much.
Speaker 1:There were a couple speeches about the AI threat, but a lot of you know the pre-gala, the post-gala ceremonies. There was a lot of chatter about. Ai keep coming up amongst major industry people, people like network executives, studio executives, directors, producers, all of these people was that, yes, there will be a place for AI in movie, in terms of maybe helping to get color correction done quicker or that sort of thing. But the one thing that AI still can't really replicate and I'm not sure it will ever be able to is the heart, the heart that we have inside of each other, the stories, the actual real-life stories that we've lived, and the emotion that came with that, and the heart that we have to describe that. And I think that that's the art of cinema and I think that I honestly don't see that being replaced anytime soon.
Speaker 1:And that was the major narrative at the post and pre-ceremony at the KDX Green Awards, amongst all these executives, where, you know there's no sense in fighting AI. It is here to stay, but it will never replace filmmakers, it will never replace storytelling, it will never replace, you know, proper narrative that was thought out and, you know, perfectly imperfect. You know, sometimes that's just what we love as humans, right? So so it's interesting that you start the show with that, because it certainly I was in the real life version of that. The award ceremonies this this past week, fortunate enough to you know, have the opportunity to celebrate a couple of awards with some of my, you know, my closest colleagues and friends, and, yeah, I think that it's a hot topic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and it will be maybe more topical and, as you say, I believe that there's always a role for the heart and you can never maybe take away some of the creative elements, because I can't replicate that and that's not. You're absolutely right there. I just want to take you back a bit and you describe yourselves a lifelong student story. Where is your passion? Where did you start wanting to tell stories?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I, you know, funny enough, I was really into my whole life, like very early on, I think from the age of 12. So I've always loved cinema, right, I think I was probably 13 or 14 when Wayne's World came out. Wayne's World, and I probably watched that movie over 100 times between the ages of you know, in my teens I just, I, just obsessed with it. I was a big fan. You know, mike Myers, canadian, snl, canadian, you know, founded by a Canadian, so it was. It was kind of it was that thing right, where you know, I'm, I'm, I'm on the smaller, smaller side. So I wasn't very good at sports in school, uh, and you know, to be completely honest, I just gravitated towards the, the arts and the visual arts. More precisely, I wasn't much of a drawer, although I fancied I could do it. Um, and communication for me always came somewhat easily. And, uh, you know, I was a big reader, like an avid reader. However, I never and this is shocking, but I've never read like Harry Potter or I don't read much fiction. Most of the books that I've read are all nonfiction and in fact, most of the time when I was 13, 14, 15, I was reading, like you know the art of advertising or I was reading you know the biography of David Ogilvie, right, I was obsessed with advertising and I always thought I'd be an ad man. And, john, thanks for the introduction.
Speaker 1:You mentioned that I did start in advertising. That's where I come from. I was an ad person on the production side at first and the art of storytelling really came to me through the art of copy the words on the page and I thought that they're really important, they're extremely important in short form advertising, and I really fell in love with communication, all forms of communication, storytelling and short form advertising at a very early age. So I've always loved that. And to blend, you know, communication with storytelling is is really the art of advertising. So that's where I started. Uh, I really did think that that's where my career would have been and you know, for 10 years I was, I was doing that and very happily and very successfully and uh and yeah, so I I have to accredit, um, my, my love for storytelling to, uh, to the art of the word, just copy.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So what occasioned the shift over into on-screen talent and acting, and particularly launching February 2020, which was, I think, a month before COVID hit all of us around the world, so that must have been quite a ride yeah, so there's two questions there, john and uh.
Speaker 1:The first question I'll answer uh, the shift became so. Again, working in advertisement on, uh, on the production side, many times I would I would deal with actors and they would come in and they were always amazing people, just the salt of the earth kind of people, right, very creative, very optimistic, sometimes to a fault, right, too optimistic. And a lot of times they would come and there would be, you know, I was very fascinated with the dynamics, the behind the scenes, like, oh, you're an agent, how's that work? And the agency. And and to my surprise, a lot of times they came back and said, well, we, we don't really talk to our agent that much right here in canada and I think it's similar in the uk.
Speaker 1:Um, the relationship-based, um agent actor, um narrative that you see in Hollywood does not really exist. Right, it doesn't really exist. The Jerry Maguires of the world don't really exist. What really does exist is you have many, many, many actors on your roster, some of whom you don't talk to for months, and then you just admit them and you know, if you have 10 people that look like you, john, you're praying that one of them will book the role right. And that was kind of very shocking to me because I was like well, here's an opportunity to build a relationship with someone, an actor, an asset that would bring you money. Why wouldn't they want to keep communication higher? Why wouldn't they want to build that relationship, get to know their actor? So the first aha moment I had about how there might be an opportunity to improve things in this industry, in this landscape, talent representation came to me early on, when, when I was in advertising and just speaking candidly with actors, uh, you know, during, during production and set, not on those set days so that's when the first time, um, the transition started motioning.
Speaker 1:But the big pivot, the big moment was when I need, I needed to uh, you know, we needed to shoot a public service announcement. It was a low budget thing, it was for the city, they didn't have that much money. So, of course, what do you do in those scenarios? You look within your network and we needed a young lady who had a cheery, chippy voice that could deliver, speak properly. So I said I have a daughter, she speaks very well, she's articulate. Let's see if she could do it.
Speaker 1:So I went home, gave her the script and I said, hey, could you record this on your iPhone or like an iPhone on mom's iPhone? And she did it and her voice was so cute and cartoony and perfect. And then I just brought it to the team and they're like, wow, she's amazing. So we hired my daughter for this public service announcement. It was to do with backyard composting. If you want to know the details about it, her first acting job was backyard composting and how it's very good for you know. So it was amazing, it's quite lovely. And she did it, she liked it, she got paid. That was her first time she got paid. I think she's eight years old at this point and you know, getting money was like wow, I get paid to do this.
Speaker 3:This is amazing.
Speaker 1:So and then, a few weeks after that, another production contacted me and said, hey, we are doing a music video. Do you think your daughter would do it? Because you know, let's be honest, she was. She was cheap labor. Right, I could deal with my daughter and say, yeah, she'll do it for for this amount of money, right, it was cheap labor. So she did it again, knocked it out of the park. You know the music video has four actors. She plays the younger version of the park. You know the music video has four actors. She plays the younger version of the artist. She plays the younger version of the artist lost in the woods. And it's amazing, she did a great job.
Speaker 1:And then she did another music video and here things were starting to get serious. So I said, you know, okay, like what are we going to do? And I asked her is this something you'd really like to do? Acting right, like what are we going to do? And I asked her is this something you'd really like to do? Acting right, is this something you're passionate about? And she's like oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:So I did what most people do and I set up some meetings, uh, with as many agents that I could. Uh, I started with my network of people I knew in the advertising world, advertising world and I said I'm looking for, you know, an agent for my daughter. She's this age and this is what she's done. And I got a list of, uh of agents who I contacted and most of them were, you know, gracious enough to email me back and show interest. So I did what we're doing right now, you know, just a little bit of a chat, a little zoom, and, uh, it became really apparent to me that it was.
Speaker 1:There was a lot of um ownership on the parents, uh, to understand what the expectation was, and a lot less management, managerial um, like a lot less um, how do you say? Like a lot of it was left to the talent and their parents to unravel and to figure out. And I felt like that was really interesting. And the line that kept coming back was always like, well, we only get 15% commission, so you're expected to do 85% of the work. And I was like, wow, that's such an interesting thing to look at. So, and what I did is very Jerry Maguire I went home, I had a bad slice of pizza and I wrote down a list of my ideal agency or agent for my daughter.
Speaker 1:What I was looking for a little more communication, a little less of a transactional, volume-based agency. I wanted something that was a little smaller, maybe more boutique, someone that could maybe help us understand the expectation, maybe have some resources to guide us and help us understand how to do you know better or how to improve our skills, and that kind of thing, and not necessarily like an acting class, but someone who could refer acting classes and who could help my daughter and myself, you know, through this, through this really bizarre and not talked about industry, right, try and figure it out a little, make it less daunting. Talked about industry, right, try and figure it out a little, make it less daunting. And, um, and I sent that to the same people that, uh, that that I knew in my contact and they all came back sort of laughing at me and saying you're looking for a unicorn, jason you know that doesn't exist.
Speaker 1:You're, you're so, and that's really when I decided to start. I said, well, what if I did this, if I did this exact agency where we focused on, you know, quality over quantity of actor, instead of having hundreds of actors, maybe we have less and maybe we focus on building relationships and getting to know them so we could, you know, pitch them better. Maybe we could give them resources, like share communications with them and let them know what's going on in the industry, give them a little update sometimes so they're not wondering why they're not getting auditions. They understand that there's a strike or they understand that, like, you know, the current climate, like the tariffs are affecting uh, you know uh, projects being greenlit because of the uncertainty. They understand all this like. So I did that.
Speaker 1:I decided in 2015, 2017, really to start putting the you know the plan in place and to educate myself as much as I can. Um, you know, there took, you know, ucla management, entertainment management classes, like, did, did the work to prepare myself and, as you said, john, I was ready to launch. Everything was good to go and, in an advertising marketing aspect, we were ready to launch. We were ready to go and we did, and literally a month later, the whole world shut down. It was the pandemic, and talk about putting the wind out of your sails, right, charlotte. But, um, but that turned out to be a blessing, uh, the, because it allowed us to think like we were just starting out as an agency. So, um, you know, one of the things that we decided to do is we were very concerned. Emma Ryan, she's Irish, she was born in Ireland, moved to Canada and joined the agency. Emma Ryan and I were, you know, we were very aware that there'd be a lot less productions because everything was shut down, things were getting canceled, things were getting paused, and we also understood that there's going to be a lot more actors available for any job, because people were losing their retail jobs, people were losing their bartending jobs, because stores were shutting down, you know, bars were closing up, so in the pubs. So a lot of people went back to what they knew from before and a lot of them had tried acting, you know, earlier on in their career. So they, they, they said, oh why, why not try now? So they, there was an influx of actors, you know, and and a downgrade of production. So one of the things that we did and this is because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1:We reached out to our contacts again. You know casting directors, working actors that we knew and respected, instructors, teachers that we knew, directors, and we just said, hey look, we all have a lot of time on our hands, we're all at home. I'd love to jump on, you know, a Zoom with you guys, very much like a little bit of a podcast, like a YCAA private members only podcast or what you, what we called it meet the pros. Right, we called it meet the pros, and every month we we had someone of value, someone that could move the needle forward, come and speak to our actors exclusively for free and just out of the kindness of their heart, which we're extremely grateful for and we had basically everyone you could potentially think of in the Canadian industry and some in the US as well. So it was a blessing actually to start our agency then, because you know, the thing that kept coming up in these meetings and the meet the pro meetings were, like you're the first agency to do this.
Speaker 1:I was like oh, weird, like oh, okay, that's just what we thought we should do is to. I thought our job was to connect our actors to people that could help them build, get opportunities. That was literally the job description of an agent is to. You know, ari Manuel, one of the most famous agents in the world. Ari Manuel is famously quoted to saying that his job is to make serendipity happen, and I think that that's a very good description of how an agent works or should work, and I've always had that model as an agent, where I, all of my actors, have the skill. What they don't have is they don't know the right people. So it's my job to make them meet the right people so they can showcase their skill set. So that's one of the things that came from the pandemic is these meet the pro things and, uh, you know, it's been amazing with the feedback that we've received, both from the guests that come on and also our actors that have gotten amazing value from it.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, that was one of the things sounds fascinating if I take you back then to your. What is the role of the, of your talent? And also, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have when they come into that? Maybe that they will get money straight, like they will get the role straight away on Broadway or in Toronto. You know what kind of misconception do they have and how do you deal with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you know, this industry is not for the faint of heart, that's for sure, and I think it takes a special kind of person. And I've gotten to know my actors very well and they all have this, this unique infant-like quality. And I say it's infant-like and I think we should more people should have it, because I'm highly pragmatic and when you're pragmatic you constantly sort of reverse engineer the opportunity, but you're also assessing risk and you're assessing the plausibility of the opportunity. That's just how I am and I think a lot of people are like that. So when I see that there is one role available, you know for, let's say, the Handmaid's.
Speaker 1:Tale, there's one role available and there's about 800 actors that are being submitted for that role from agents. So 800 actors, one role available and most of the time out of those 800, you'll probably get 20 who get an audition. So out of that 20, there's going to be five or four that are presented to the producers, directors and executives right. So now you have one in four chance maybe of getting it, but the reality is you have one in 800 chance of getting it and that's what I see. Right away, as the pragmatic person, I am Like there's no chance, like why are we even trying? But with actors, they only see the one in a million chance. They have this unique ability of saying why not me?
Speaker 1:And I think that you need that quality to be an actor. So to be an actor, you need that quality to be an actor. So to be an actor, you need that quality. To be an agent is to run with that quality, run with that actor, try and manage it, try and manage expectations, because it is very, very difficult. It is incredibly competitive. The reality is, if you're an actor, you will probably get um, if you're very, very, very successful, you'll probably get 20 to 25. In the current climate that we're in right now 20 to 25 auditions per year. 20 to 25 auditions per year. These could be anywhere from um a leading role, a supporting role, or it could be a day role where you're just playing a day player um a lot of times. Funny, funny story. A lot of times. When people ask me what I do for a living, I say I represent actors and they're like, oh, anyone I know.
Speaker 1:And I'll say do you know brad? And they're like, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I know Brad.
Speaker 1:Pitt. I'm, like I represent the person who speaks to Brad Pitt in that scene, so that's basically how it is so many many people who are listening right now or are watching on YouTube.
Speaker 1:They've seen my actors and actresses many times. They're usually the ones that are part of the scene talking to the lead actor or the supporting actor. Many of the actors that we have, um, you know, yeah, of course we do have, like some, some you know, reoccurring stars, uh, like chrissa moran, she, you know, she was on all seasons of, uh, the handsmaid's tale, uh, for all the Handmaid's Tales out there fans, and we have, you know, dante, who was on the Umbrella Academy, as you know, a regular, and we do have those people that are sort of recognizable, but for the most part, the actors that we have are there for a couple of days. They're in two or three scenes and and that's it. So we have they're called working actors and that's what we have.
Speaker 1:We have the ones that that are, are, are working the scene with the rest of the, with the main cast, right, so, yeah, so to be an agent is to try and really manage the expectation of the actor, because every actor thinks that they can book every single role and it is part of your job as an agent to not totally squash that idea but to manage it properly to say you know well, yes, you did a great audition, but the truth is is they've changed directions. You're a white 15 year old boy and they've hired a black family for the main characters, so you're not gonna fit the family right so they're like oh right, so so lot of times, you know, when they do a great audition, they think why didn't I get it?
Speaker 1:And a lot of times they did do a great audition, they just didn't get it because they didn't match the family or they didn't match the exact character description that they were looking for. So so there's a lot of a lot of managing, not egos, because I don't. I haven't met many actors that have huge egos. I have met many actors that have the confidence that they could do this very well. That's different, it's not an ego, it's having confidence and I think you need that. So managing that properly is is part of my biggest responsibility with my actors and I would say, uh, a second closest, most important responsibility is making those meetings happen talking about my talent to casting, talking to my talent when I'm at the awards, um, you know, to producers and directors and network executives, and and trying to make those opportunities happen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and obviously you're based in Canada, which is a smallish country, maybe not by landmass but by population, that has a big neighbor down south, very similar to our situation in Scotland with England, the more dominant neighbor down south. So you work not just in Canada but also across into the United States, so can you maybe talk us through how that relationship is changing? You mentioned, for example, the threat of tariffs earlier.
Speaker 1:Sure, absolutely. That's a really intuitive view, john, I can speak on that really simply in a way that I think your audience, who are fans of movies and storytelling, could understand quite clearly. And when I'm I'll talk about the canadian side, because I know that a little more, but under understand that screen scotland and telefilm telefilm canada are are one in the same. They're very similar companies that are trying to actively promote uh film makers, uh local filmmakers to to make their their stories come to life right.
Speaker 1:So I I understand that properly, but the way that canada has operated um a lot with the US, since we're so close, is we have been a lot of a service industry to them. The thing with a movie let's talk about how a movie gets made and why they would go to a place like Scotland to shoot and why they would go to a place like, you know, toronto or Vancouver in Canada here to shoot it is not they're not doing that because of a charity, they're not doing that because they a charity. They're not doing that because they are like, oh, we're going to help this country out and this film industry out. They're doing it for, you know, multiple reasons, the landscape being one of them. Imagine Braveheart not being in the Highlands, right, you just can't. You can't shape that narrative that the landscape brings to that story. However, beside the storytelling aspect, there is a real life business behind that, the entertainment business. You know it's show business, right? So how does that work practically? Well, movie makers.
Speaker 1:Filmmakers just want to make their movie and a lot of times they don't want to compromise the quality of the movie and the idea that they have in their head oftentimes costs more than they really think it will. So a filmmaker from the US, for example, from California. Let's take a movie like, example, happy Gilmore. For example, happy Gilmore, movies of that budget, right when they're like between the $15 million to $20 million budget Permits to close down streets, super expensive. Permits for everything to make a movie, super expensive that bill alone is incredible. And the equipment, the crews, the cast, the catering, you know, the craft services all of these things costs a lot of money.
Speaker 1:So when you're budgeting your money you try and get someone who can finance the movie properly. And part of financing is figuring out how you can leverage the tax incentives provided by your country and other countries. So, for example, there is a tax incentive that you get in the US. I want to say it's the 168. It's something like that. It gives you a huge tax break on your movie If you produce the movie, if your movie is made 70% 70% in the US, and that is easily done because the script is written by an American in the US. You know the special effects are done in Santa Monica, the post-production is done in Los Angeles, some of it's done in Atlanta. So it's very easy to do 70% of your movie. Now you get a tax break from the US government and they give you a tax break to help you reduce the cost of your overall movie.
Speaker 1:Then you look at a place like Canada where your dollar, as an American, goes very far right For every dollar. Your dollar is worth $1.30 in Canada. It's right next door, it's a short drive or a short flight away. We speak the very same language, so there's no foreign policies or you know foreign language that you'd have to deal with. So it's very, very easy for them to say, hey, we still have 30% of the movie that we can shoot elsewhere. And that's what happens, is they come to places like Vancouver, toronto, winnipeg or Montreal, even Calgary, and they come and they shoot for a month, you know, a couple weeks here. And what happens then is if they come here and they shoot for, let's say, a month, now if they employ 70 percent of tax paying residents. So that means actors, local actors that come from ycaa, uh, cast and crew, uh, that are are local paying, and our cast and crew both in Scotland and in Canada are world-class. We both have the trust of the film industry.
Speaker 1:So, it's not a big deal coming here and using our casts and our crew. So if they employ 70% of local taxpaying actors and cast, they get another tax benefit here in Canada it's up to $250,000 deducted for their movie and now their dollar is worth more.
Speaker 1:So their $20 million budget now they have like $24, $25 million to play with. That makes a lot of things happen and that's exactly how a lot of movies have happened. A lot of movies came to life because of that exact financial structure, those incentives and what now? The tariffs that were proposed, but will never happen because they've had time to think about it and said, oh, oh, but, like when they had mentioned that it would have to be a hundred percent made in america and no longer 70. Well, that takes a lot like that. That just kills industries like scotland. Uh, like you know, europe and, and honestly, like canada, would be wiped out because we we, we up until now have have thrived and survived on being a service industry to california. Um, and I think that what, after careful, carefully looking at it, it wouldn't necessarily deteriorate filmmakers from leaving america. They would just go further to places where labor is extremely cheap, like Korea, right, like places like that, so where it's a foreign language, but the labor is so cheap that it justifies the tariff that they would be hit with If they went to Scotland or if they came to Canada, they could no longer justify that tariff. It would increase the budget substantially. So the way that things are working now is great, and filmmakers both in the US and the rest of the world Scotland and Canada being at the forefront of that are benefiting from this model.
Speaker 1:It's worked for years, and why would you want to change it just to make it America, 100% American? Sometimes it's nice to blend things together, right, especially when we have similar cultures and we speak the language and our crews and cast can do it. Why not? Why not have a communion like the film industry? Why not have a communion like the film industry? I think it's a super well-intertwined oil to machine and it shouldn't change. So the threat of 100% would absolutely devastate the Canadian and the UK industry. So I'm glad that they've put a pause on that. But you never know, with this administration in the States, tomorrow they could bring it back up and then there we go again.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I agree with that. A film has always been very collaborative and even with Sweden, where I come from, it certainly has been a lot of collaboration with bits of the world. But I want to take you back a bit and ask you about when you talk about you you can save. Is there any particular moment you're particularly proud of where your agency went in and say said we was almost able to save the film, or say that you were able to provide the actors that rescued the project?
Speaker 1:well, I mean the saving. The saving is in the negotiations, right, like when you negotiate contracts and stuff like that. You can certainly try and negotiate fairly for your actors. But I'll take you back to what I'm really proud of. One moment that I'm very, very proud of is one of the things that I do, and I don't think this is unique to me, but it might be. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Again, I'm not sure how every agent operates in Canada, but I know how I operate and what I do is, as soon as someone signs with me, we have what we call a kickoff call, again another one of these zoom calls, and we jump on and it's. It's really funny because I always ask them a question that makes them blush, right, and I say now forget anything, forget limitations, and let's say we could get any role you want in any movie with any director and any project you want. Please tell me what would that be? I ask that question strategically for two reasons. I ask it because I want to know what my client because they are my clients what they want me to look out for them and I also look. I also ask it because, um, it gives me an opportunity, when the moment is right to pick up the phone. So, and that's the, that's the part that I'm very happy with here we go.
Speaker 1:So I'm sitting here with one of my actors. You guys can look him up. His name is James Raynard. James Raynard is an amazing actor. He's been in a lot of Hallmark movies. James is going to kill me to say this, but he's always the one that gets dumped or left in the Hallmark movies. So unfortunately, he's always the love interest, the triangle.
Speaker 1:But so one of my first meetings with him and this was a really great moment for me because he came from a much bigger agency, james came from an agency and he was just intrigued by the way I did things and we had this meeting I I asked him you know we spoke for you know, usually these kickoff calls go for about 20 minutes, half an hour, and this one went on and on and on. We were getting along famously. And I asked him. I said, james, I'm gonna ask you like, what do you want to like? What's the dream role? What can I get you as your agent, where you'd be like, wow, that's amazing. Now picture a pretty buff, you know, pretty good looking, white 26. I think he was 26 year old at the time. Picture that guy. You probably have three ideas of what movie he's going to pick and he's like, so he starts blushing and I'm like what's up?
Speaker 3:He's like no, I don't want to tell you he's going to pick and he's like so he starts.
Speaker 1:He starts blushing and I'm like what's up? He's like no, I don't want to tell you it's going to be embarrassing, I don't? It's so, so silly I was like no, james I.
Speaker 1:I need to know what this movie is. What? What can I get you? I want to be an Avenger. And I was like, of course you want to be an Avenger. I was like that would have been my first guess. He's like I told you you'd be like. I was like no, james, I'm so happy you told me that. Thank you, I appreciate. I need to know what you want. So you like superheroes, you like action, you like that stuff.
Speaker 3:And he's like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, like that but that's.
Speaker 1:You asked me for the very, very top. That's the very, very top. I said perfect, no problem. Three months later I called james up. I'm like are you sitting down? And he's like yeah, I am. I was like, remember that silly question that I asked you about what movie and you said you wanted to be an avenger. He's like yeah. I was like, well, are you sitting down james? And he's like yeah. I was like, well, are you sitting down James? And he's like yes, stop it. And I was like look, it's not the Avengers, but I just got a contract for you to be in the mayor of Kingstown and you're going to be opposite Jeremy Renner who is an?
Speaker 1:Avenger and if I could have recorded that call where he just he just exploded and and and was so happy and that was a great moment, right, and the reason I was able to do that because a lot of times casting directors are very crafty in making it vague you know, they don't give you much you know for that role.
Speaker 1:I remember it was like young police officer, white, 20s, early 20s every every agent in town has 10 of them, for example. Right, I had, I had two, but every age, like every agency has, has a couple of them.
Speaker 1:So you can't call casting and say hey, I've got like a white, 26 year old, good looking buff guy they're gonna be like yeah, you and everyone else but because I had that conversation about, about the avengers, because I knew jeremy renner was attached to the mayor of kingston, I was able to call casting and tell them the story, and, and, and, and they became they, they, they fell in love with it. They're like, oh well, oh, we gotta, we gotta try and get this for him.
Speaker 1:We gotta, we gotta make this happen and and it became sort of uh, maybe potentially, I'm not sure I think it was skill and I think it was, you know, he just fit the character, but he booked it and talked about serendipity, right. So so that was. That was probably one of my, my favorite moments as an agent, charlotte, and I have many and many of those, because that's you know what we do.
Speaker 2:That's. That's a wonderful, wonderful story. Making for once, movies making dreams really do come true, really do come true. Yeah, really do come true. Really do come true. Yeah, really do come true. Brilliant um to take you um. We talked a little bit at the beginning about ai and threat of ai and how to manage it, but in general, as you look at the current landscape, where do you think the future lies? So, what you know? What do you think things are going to be like in Canada, say, in 10 years time?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think that 10 years time from now is a great point of reference because a lot will change my hope and I'm going to come. I'm going to come at this from a perspective of the conversations I've been having in our industry with people you know who are making decisions about movies network executives, studio executives, producers. I think there's going to be a major push for sustainability in our industry. I think we're going to start crafting a lot more Canadian made stories. I think we're going to start crafting a lot more Canadian-made stories. I think we're going to be a lot more pro-Canadian and less of a service industry to the US. I still think there's going to be a lot of room for that and there will be. Movies from California will always be made in Canada, but at the moment, it is quite slow in the industry in Canada because we rely so much on them. So I think there's going to be a shift to rely less on them and to still be there for them. However, have our own stuff going on right, Having our own stories, like the Schitt's Creeps and those kinds of you know homegrown, you know amazing stories. So I think that that that's going to be a major shift in 10 years is we're going to be a lot more self-sufficient and independent In terms of AI. To answer your question specifically, I think that AI is going to be an amazing tool for research. I think it's going to really have the ability to, instead of right now, because we're still using technology as we speak.
Speaker 1:Let's take a costume designer, for example. Right, A costume designer will have to do a piece, let's say, from you know, early Scotland in the 1800s. Well, what is the costume designer going to do? They're going to go on Google and they're going to Google search Scotland 1800, costumes or attire or that thing. And then a bunch of things will come up and you'll have to filter through that and look through that and filter what you like, what you don't like. However, I think that AI what's changed? It's really made it incredibly quicker to come to what you're looking for faster. So, instead of searching Google, it's going to go in AI and it's going to say hey, chat, GPT, act as a leading costume designer for a feature film, Please tell me what these characters, characters would look like. And they put the character description right uh. They put uh, and it's going to be played, um, you know, by, by by brian cox. It's not right. So it's going to be like it's going to be. This is going to be the character he's going to. He's going to be playing this and that and, um, his character is a lawyer and blah, blah, blah. And show me what. Give me three examples of what costumes he would wear and then, boom, they would show up right away.
Speaker 1:So I think that it actually will increase efficiency overall. It will never replace it to a full extent. Will it erase some jobs? Probably, but email erased a lot of postal jobs, but we're still surviving. So I think that it will potentially make things a lot more efficient. Instead of searching on the web, you're just going to be able to search with AI and get a much more accurate answer, and especially like the better the prompt, the better the question, the better the answer. So I think that's where it's going to be. It's going to be used every day and it's going to be it's going to be used every day and it's going to replace.
Speaker 3:Google Search. Can I ask you a funny but interesting question? My favorite director is Ed Wood. What he had is he had this craziness, but he was driven by something that made him great, for maybe still also a great director. What do you think it takes to be a good actor? What would you have wanted to see in the actors you're pushing forward?
Speaker 1:So it depends the age group, right. So with my young actors you know age three to really 18, I encourage them to read as much as they can, especially this generation.
Speaker 1:I want them to read and I want them to read books without any images in them. I want them to read and I want them to read books without any images in them, because what that does is it creates your muscle. That's most important for an actor. You are no longer looking at the picture of what the character looks like. You're no longer looking at what you know the Highlands look like. If you've never been to the Highlands and you read about the Highlands, you can only imagine what the Highlands look like. And that imagination is the strongest tool, it's the strongest muscle that an actor has.
Speaker 1:So I really do encourage, first and foremost, that you have to be an avid reader and you have to read a lot and you have to use your reading time as work. Don't just read for the pleasure of it, absolutely do, but read for to train that muscle, to imagine the scenery, to imagine what that person talking, the dialogue, what they look like, how they would act, what would be their particularities, right, their idiosyncrasies. So I think that reading is very important for actors to be a good reader. The other thing is is I think that actors just have to be a good actor, just really has to be well-trained. It is a tool.
Speaker 1:It is just like anything else that you you know, like operating a camera and acting, both have technical aspects to it, right? Um, the cameraman can, could, not act the way anthony hopkins can and, uh, you know, anthony hopkins cannot operate a camera, um, like rachel morrison could, right, like the beautiful cinematographer Rachel Morrison, um, so I think that I think that you know, you need to have, um, you need to treat it as a business, you need to read so you develop your muscle, and you need to train so you develop your, your training muscles. If that's, uh, if that's it, and yeah, of course, then there's natural ability and all that stuff. You know that that you can't control, um, which, you know, all the great actors have the Danny Day-Lewis's and the, you know, anthony Hopkins and James.
Speaker 1:Raynard.
Speaker 2:And James Raynard. Well, I'm sure you've inspired a lot of people listening, and maybe some out there who are actors or aspiring young actors, so where can they get in touch with you? You've obviously got a web presence online.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, so I mean, the best way to go about learning about our agency is to go to our website, ycaaca, that's for Canada so ycaaca, I believe on social it's at young ycaa, so you can find us on instagram if they want to keep up with my journey. I'm at jason underscore ycaa and you'll see me post a lot about my actors. It's primarily all I do is post about my actors.
Speaker 3:So, um, if you want to follow the the journey, you're more than welcome to and, uh, thank you, thank you well so we have a question I always ask people is if you, what would you say to your 21 year old self, or what, and would you do it again like what advice would you, or like if you were speaking to your 21 year old self?
Speaker 1:yeah, I mean great question. Um, if I don't really know, I'm very, I'm very content and happy with the way things have turned out. Um, you know, so, uh, I'd probably tell, I'd probably tell myself to, to save more money, because you'll eventually want to make a movie and it costs a lot of money.
Speaker 1:So I'd probably tell myself to save a little more money, but, aside from that, quite happy with the way everything has turned out. And, uh, you know I'm only 40 so I could. Uh, yeah, I'm only at, uh, you know the halfway mark of, uh, hopefully halfway mark, so let's see what's to come that's great.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for being here and, yes, and thanks very much for listening to this podcast, and you can always follow us here or online, so thanks.
