If you think you recognize Dillon Casey, here’s why.
The 27-year-old Canadian actor (and yes, hunk) has appeared in a hostof television series, including a starring turn on the CBC hockey soap MVP anda five-episode stint on Being Erica.
Audiences stateside will also recognize him from appearances on TheVampire Diaries and Torchwood: Miracle Day, among others.
More recently based in L.A., Casey returned to Toronto this summer totake on a recurring role on The CW’s Nikita. And this Friday, you can catch himin the new horror film Creature, an “old-school throwback monster movie,”according to the actor.
As his star continues to rise, I recently caught up with Casey to get the scoop on his new projects, howhe likes living in L.A., and being back in Toronto for summer.
What can you tell me about your new film Creature and your characterOscar?
Creature is an old-school throwback monster movie that is just not thetype of movie you get to see these days in theatres. It is a fun, trashy,entertaining film. No CGI. The wholething is shot on location. We went toBaton Rouge, drove 20 miles into the swamps. Literally people had to be pulled outof the swamps because there were alligators swimming around them.
And basically it’s just about a bunch of kids who are going to New Orleans fora big final celebration because one of them is getting shipped off toIraq. My character Oscar is the leaderof the pack, who takes them on this trip, organizes the whole thing. And it turns out they have obviously stoppedin the wrong place. And they end up gettingstalked by a creature that the locals revere. He’s kind of a half-man half-alligator beast.
Do you think audiences are missing these kind of simpler horrormovies that aren’t all about the flash and big special effects?
I love horror movies. I grew upwatching horror movies. Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, those are my favouritemovies. And nowadays nothing scares me. Idon’t know if it’s just because I’m used to it or if it’s the way they’remade. But what I’ve noticed is all thesemovies come down to this CGI monster and ‘Oh look how cool this CGI graphic is thatwe made. Isn’t that scary?’ And there’s something not scary about that becauseyou know it’s just a computer animation.
Whereas with these gritty texturized rubber monsters that used to showup in these movies, there’s something a lot creepier about them. You actuallyget the actors in there moving like a monster and just creeping people out, andthere’s just something a lot scarier about that. Like if you watch a movie like Labyrinth,which isn’t even meant to be a horror movie, those puppets are creepy. They give you nightmares, y’know? And I think Creature, one of the great thingsthey did, was they decided not to go CGI and they decided to buildsomething. It really works. It really just gives you sort of that creepyfeeling that is missing in today’s movies I think.
A lot of horror movies these days are very self-aware. Does Creature have any sort of comedicelement to it as well?
I wouldn’t say it’s outright camp. There’s no parody aspect to it. Butit doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it does consciously borrow from otherhorror movies. Definitely Friday the 13th,Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It definitely borrows from them. The director Fred Andrews is an encyclopaediaof horror film knowledge and... it consciouslyborrows, but it definitely doesn’t parody.
Switching gears a little bit, I know one thing we have in common isthat we spent some time growing up in Oakville. What kind of culturaldifferences did you notice moving from Canada to L.A.?
Y’know what, at first glance you don’t realize there is a huge culturaldifference... But when I first got down there, there were things that annoyedme – the fact that you have to drive everywhere, the fact that there’s not muchof a patio culture like there is in Toronto, which is something that I love in thesummer. The people are different, they’reall in different stages of their life. Alot of people move to L.A. because they don’t fit in where they grew up. And Ihated it. I really hated it my first little while there. Obviously I missed my friends and family as Istarted a new life. But then I started to realize, why am I fighting theculture here? And I really started to embraceit. And there’s great places in L.A., great people there, amazing weather, so Iwas really starting to love it and then all of a sudden I got a job back in Torontoso I’m here in Toronto now.
You also created a series of web videos called Living in L.A. with Dillon Casey. How did those come about?
L.A., although it is one of the biggest cities in the world, it canalso be one of the loneliest places in the world, especially when you’re anactor. You don’t have a 9 to 5 to go to,and you can go days without seeing people if you don’t do something aboutit. And I think when I made the firstone it was the middle of the summer, which is a really slow time in L.A., everyonekind of leaves and it’s ghost town. Ihad just finished an audition for CSI: Miami or New York or one of those. It was a horrible, shitty audition. It was a pre-read which means I wasn’t evenanywhere near getting the part. I couldn’t even see the next audition coming, Ididn’t know when it was going to happen.
And I remember catching up with one of my good friends in Toronto whowas telling me how great it must be living in L.A., and how they’re all proudof me and how it must be awesome doing all the Hollywood stuff, hanging outwith the stars, that kind of stuff. Andof course I’m bullshitting, going ‘Oh yeah, this is awesome.’ And it’s like, I’min this shitty apartment, no air conditioning... and I’m like really depressedthat I’m just so lonely .
And then I thought, this is actually pretty fucking funny. The waypeople think I’m living and the way I’m actually living is pretty funny. So Ihad this idea that there’s this whole big montage about this guy who’s like ‘I’min L.A. I’m having the greatest time everybody, come watch me!’ And my actualday is just downloading internet porn, hanging out. The funny thing is when Imade that and put it up I was kind of worried that people were going to think something’swrong with me. But then a bunch ofactors saw it and they were like holy shit, that’s exactly what it’s like. And it kind of hit a lot of marks.
You’re back in Toronto now, shooting Nikita’s second season. What can you tell me about your role on thatshow?
It’s a really cool part. I playa character named Sean Pierce, who’s a navy seal who gets assigned to the Divisionby Oversight. If you know the show, you know what all these terms are. And I’m basically put there to keep an eye onDivision, clean up their act because there’s a lot of bullshit that’s beengoing on there, and track down Nikita and get the black box from her. And the black box is the thing that has everymission and every secret that Division has done. And Nikita has it, which is not a good thingfor us, so I’m assigned to get that back.
And there’s also a potential love story between my character and Alex,played by Lyndsy Forseca.
Do you know how long you’ll be a part of the show?
You know, this is one of those shows like a 24 or a Lost where you don’tknow how long you’re going to last, so I could be, at any moment shot, in thehead, and then people move on and they cast somebody else. But so far, so good.Everything’s going great and I think I’ll be around for a while.
How did it feel to come back to Toronto to work after being in L.A.?
It’s nice to be working here in the summer, because there’s not many placesin the world that beat Toronto in the summer. I’m not necessarily lookingforward to the winter. But it’s sort ofa strange feeling because I was just sort of starting to get comfortable in L.A.and now I’m back in Toronto. So it’sthis feeling of having a bit of a nomadic existence – that sort of almostfitting in la, and embracing that culture, and then coming back to Toronto whereI just realized I don’t necessarily fit in as well as I did before. So it’s a strange feeling but it’s also begood to be back with my friends and family. And it’s not a bad feeling to have,because I’m on a great show.
How was it coming into an established cast, to join Nikita forseason two?
The cast is all really nice, they all embraced me right away, they’re goodpeople. It wasn’t the cast I was worriedabout, it’s the fans. Because apparentlyNikita has a very hardcore following and they all love Nikita, and they love Michaeland them as a couple. So as I’m broughton to bring that down, there might be a little backlash from that. But if there is that means I’m doing my job,so that’s a good thing.
You’ve done quite a bit of television, and have the new film comingout now. Do you have a specificdirection you’d like to see your career move?
I love the variety of it. I trynot to think too far ahead because in this business if you think too far in thefuture you’ll drive yourself mad. So it’s all about enjoying the moment andenjoying the work that you get. It would be nice to get to a point where I canpick and choose, but right now I love what I’m doing. I love the range. One minuteI’m doing a comedy, one minute I’m doing a horror movie, and now I’m doing anaction show. But I guess my ultimate goal – I work with my brothers also with aproduction company, and we’ve made a bunch of short films. And I guess if I hadan ultimate goal it would be to get a film off the ground with them. Butpersonally I’m just really enjoying what I’m doing right now.